158 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
it may now be easily distributed to other of the more important rivers comprised 
in the southern water-shed of that island-colony. 
The Percide, or Perch family proper, which is among the largest and most 
widely distributed groups of the spined-finned or Acanthoid fishes, is very extensively 
represented in Australian waters, both salt and fresh. The Murray Cod, Oligorus 
macquariensis, Plate XXXL, fig. C, which represents the largest fresh-water member of 
the group, has already been briefly referred to. The facts that the fish commonly 
attains to a weight of 60 or 70 pounds, and has been taken over one hundred-weight, 
and also that as large an average quantity as ten tons are supplied weekly to 
Adelaide for several months in the year, and about half that proportion during the 
residue, corresponding quantities going to Melbourne, Ballarat, and other Australian 
cities, will give some idea of the abundance and commercial importance of the species. 
The Murray river, traced from the source of its largest affluent, the Darling, 
originating in Queensland, and flowing through the Colonies of New South Wales, 
Victoria, and South Australia, describes a course of but little less than two 
thousand miles. Added to this are the main river and numerous primary and 
secondary tributaries, seven or eight of which have independent courses ranging in 
length from 350 to 800 miles. All these streams and their affluents teem more or 
less throughout their courses with the Murray Cod and _ several other allied 
commercially valuable members of the Perch family, which, as will be readily 
understood, provide among themselves the materials for a highly important fishing 
industry. 
The Golden Perch, Ctenolates ambiguus; the Silver Perch, Therapon 
Richardsoni; Macquarie’s Perch, Macquaria australasica; and various species of 
Murrayia, the majority of which attain, in their adult state, to weights ranging from 
three to five or six pounds, contribute substantially towards swelling the supply, 
consisting chiefly of Murray Cod, that is perennially transported from the 
Murray river to the larger Australian cities. While the Murray Cod is commonly 
regarded as being limited in its distribution to the Murray river system, it occurs 
also in several of the rivers of Queensland and New South Wales that debouch 
upon the eastern coast-line. 
Western Australia possessing many rivers in its southern district which have 
hitherto been devoid of any fish of economic value, one of the writer’s latest 
professional undertakings in that colony was the transportation thither from the 
Murray river of a stock of young Murray Cod and Golden Perch, which should, a few 
