FISH AND FISHERIES. 71 
particles from the mud which they swallow and on which they live. When the 
period at length arrives for the mature fish to go to the sea preparatory to 
Spawning, the instinct which actuates them seems to be irresistible. In one 
instance some years ago, when Tuggerah beach lake was for a time shut up at its 
sea mouth, the mullet pressed in such masses in the direction in which the outlet 
should have been that thousands of them were forced up on the land and perished. 
An occurrence of the same kind is mentioned as having happened at Las, 
Illawarra under similar circumstances. It is doubtful how long it is between tr 
rush of the fish to the sea and their re-entrance into the same or other rivers ; the 
belief is that the time is very short, that the movement is only from one opening 
of the coast to another, and always from south to north. There can be little 
doubt that the fish after spawning find their way back to their old haunts, but 
they have very seldom been seen so returning. The spent fish are for a time 
unfit for food, but they improve in condition very rapidly. The only instrument 
of capture used for the mullet is the seine net. "The range of the species is from 
the Gippsland lakes on the south up to Brisbane on the north. 
The flat-tail mullet is also a very. good fish, but has neither the size nor the 
extreme excellence of the sea mullet. It appears also at the end of summer or 
beginning of winter and spawns in our bays and creeks, but the shoals are never 
of the same enormous size as are common with the other. 
The other species (M. dobula) is, except at the schooling season, almost a fresh- 
water fish, living as high up the streams as it can get, but it cannot, like the 
European salmon, pass up rapids or falls. It is a good fish, but inferior to both 
the others. The term ‘‘hard-gut mullet” is sometimes applied to this species, 
but more frequently the fishermen apply that name to immature specimens of the - 
‘sea mullet.” It is sometimes taken by the hook. 
The ‘‘sand mullet” (Myxus elongatus) seldom exceeds 7 or 8 inches in length, 
and, though no doubt excellent eating as are all the family, is looked upon as 
too small for the:market.—R.R.C. 
The Sea Mullet. 
(Plate XXX.) 
A figure of Mugil grandis, Castelnau, is given as it is a fish which 
may become of more commercial importance than any other. The 
observations of Mr. Edw. Hill are here inserted, with a little alteration. 
“There are several varieties in this Colony, but the one to which 
especial reference is made may be readily identified by its size and obesity, 
as also by the numbers which are brought into the market at atime, by 
boat-loads and cart-loads, and usually at this particular season, when 
they are so much needed. These fishes come from the south, and go as 
far north and east as Navigator Islands, and enter the bays and harbours 
of this coast from February to April.* In March, however, they visit 
Botany Bay, Sydney Harbour, and Broken Bay, sooner or later in this 
month, and as a rule may be looked for after every southerly gale or 
easterly bad weather. As these fishes are then full-roed, no doubt they 
are migrating for the purpose of spawning, and keep together in large 
shoals, at times covering acres, and when they do arrive great attention 
is bestowed on their movements by professional fishermen, both late and 
early, and if a chance is offered by their coming into water sufficiently 
shoal they are surrounded by a net, and sometimes double-banked by 
net after net, at which times thousands are captured. These fishes at 
* This is not quite correct. The Australian species have only been seen between 
Gippsland and Brisbane. The one referred to as seen off the Pacific Islands is 
another species. The fish cannot live long without the mud from which it derives 
its food. 
