124 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



appellation said to have been conferred upon it 

 because in the early days of the colony it was 

 first caught by a soldier of that name. It really 

 belongs to the ScopelidcB, a group which includes 

 the well-known " Bombay Duck," and is scientifi- 

 cally known as Aulopes. 



Both in Victoria and New South Wales the jew- 

 fish (called king-fish in Victoria) are plentiful. 

 Large and ferocious-looking they are, sometimes 

 seventy or eighty pounds in weight, gracefully 

 outlined, and with formidable teeth. They are 

 gregarious, and like the ceratodus of Queensland, 

 have a habit of grunting under water. 



The blue groper,' belonging to the wrasse family, 

 is a fierce-looking fish, and attains a weight of 

 fifty pounds, sometimes even as much as eighty 

 pounds. It has thick, projecting lips and solid 

 white teeth. Essentially marine, it dwells in rocky, 

 weedy pools along the iron-bound coast. Like 

 the British wrasse, it has beautiful rainbow colours, 

 but they fade away after death. Fishing for them 

 and for jew-fish off Port Jackson is e.xciting work. 



At the North Head an almost precipitous wall 

 of rock, two hundred and fifty feet high, faces and 

 defies the Pacific Ocean waves as they roll in over 



' Garoupa, groper, groupa. Confusing terms for possibly 

 the same fish. 



