FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 171 
to prosecute fishing in Southern Australian waters by means of the drift net, which 
is so extensively used in the fishery for Mackerel and other surface species in the 
British seas. 
The most approved method of capturing the Barracouta on the Tasmanian 
Coast is by means of the “ Maorie jig,” so-called since it is supposed to have been 
first employed by the natives of New Zealand. This fishing apparatus consists simply 
of a strong pointed but unbarbed hook, fastened to a small block of wood, preferably 
cedar. This again is attached by a strong line, a yard or two long only, to a 
stout staff. A bait, consisting of a piece of coloured cloth or of shark’s-skin, is 
sometimes added, but is not necessary. With this very simple equipment, and the 
boat at full sail, the fish, when abundant, are hauled in as fast as the fishermen 
can throw over and recover their baited or unbaited hooks. The deck at such 
times speedily becomes one struggling mass of snapping, slippery monsters, and the 
fun and excitement, as the writer can testify, is most exhilarating for those partial 
to this class of sport. Off the Victorian Coast-lme, and more especially in the 
neighbourhood of Warnambool, the Barracouta is more commonly captured from 
sailing boats with a long hand line and a glittering metal lure and hook trailed astern, 
much after the method practised in England for the capture of Mackerel, known as 
“ whiffling” or “railing.” 
From a utilitarian point of view, the Barracouta is undoubtedly one of the, 
if not the, most important of the Tasmanian food fishes. While the Real or Hobart 
Trumpeter may be said to typify the species fitted, like the Turbot, to grace the table 
of the wealthy, the Barracouta may be as essentially styled the “poor man’s fish.” It 
takes in Tasmania the place that is occupied by the modest Herring or the Haddock 
in the English market. The fact, indeed, that a six or eight pound Barracouta of the 
best quality can at most times be bought for sixpence, or at less than half that price 
if any number are taken, places this fish at the command of the very poorest. 
Notwithstanding its cheapness, the Barracouta as a food fish is by no means to be 
despised. Carefully smoked, after the manner of the familiar Findon Haddock, it 
constitutes a no less toothsome adjunct to the breakfast table. Barracouta pie, again, 
the invention of a Tasmanian culinary genius, is a savoury dish that would tickle the 
palate of the most fastidious. 
There is a second species of fish closely resembling the Barracouta, and 
belonging to the same genus, which, while somewhat uncertain in its appearance, 
occasionally visits the Tasmanian coast in vast shoals. This is the so-called Tasmanian 
