COASTAL WINDS AND THEIR INFLUENCE UPON FISH. 43 



normal aspect; it would continue southwards along the 

 New South Wales coast and have maximum speed at a 

 certain distance from the shore. But the coastal winds 

 interfere in this arrangement and temporarily push the 

 current on to the coast or away from it. In the latter 

 case, during stormy blows from west etc., the main current 

 is not only itself carried seaward, but temporarily the sur- 

 face waters from the coast follow in the same direction. 

 The direct influence of the winds upon the fate of floating 

 fish eggs is very apparent. 



(1) When normal conditions prevail, the eggs follow the 

 coast line and drift towards inlets situated to the south 

 from the place of spawning. 



(2) When pressed harder on to the coast through excess- 

 ive easterly winds, the eggs will at any rate remain very 

 close inshore and benefit these waters. 



(3) When the winds blow excessively away from the 

 coast, the eggs follow the waters, and whatever else may 

 happen to them, they are lost to the coast that should 

 have benefited by their numbers. 



These reasonable contentions are amply demonstrated 

 by comparison of the fish and wind curves already referred 

 to, and reference may be made to Diagram H (Plate VI). The 

 original curves are here represented in dotted lines A, 

 C, E, and in order to form a better idea as to their main 

 characteristics a " smoothed" curve (based upon three- 

 yearly averages) has been introduced (B and D). Also it 

 should be observed that the fish curve has been set back 

 four years, so that the actual catch at any particular period 

 may be directly compared with the wind conditions pre- 

 vailing at the time the bulk of the catch was hatched out. 

 It will be seen that the adverse winds (under the line or 

 easterly deviation) that prevailed in 1894 and 1895 were 

 followed by poor catches in 1898 and 1899; during 1897, 



