CATCHING FISH. 
261 
seeking shelter in the mud and weeds, only to be- 
come an easier prey. I have even seen natives dive 
down in the river, without net or implement of any 
kind, and bring up good-sized fish, which they had 
caught with their hands at the bottom. 
Another method of diving with the net is con- 
ducted on a larger scale. The net itself is made of 
strong twine, from six to eight feet long, oval at the 
top, about two feet across, and two deep. It is 
looped to a wooden hoop or bow, with a strong 
string drawn tightly across the two ends of 
the bow, and passed through the loops of the 
straight side of the net. With this two natives dive 
together under the cliffs which confine the waters of 
the Murray, each holding one end of the bow. 
They then place it before any hole or cavity there 
may be in the rocks beneath the surface, with the 
size, shape, and position of which they have by pre- 
vious experience become well acquainted ; the 
terrified fish is then driven into the net and secured. 
Fishes varying from twenty to seventy pounds are 
caught in this way. It is only, however, at parti- 
cular seasons of the year, when the female fish are 
seeking for a place to deposit their spawn that this 
mode of fishing can be adopted. 
Other kinds of hoop-nets are used for catching 
fish in shallow waters, or for taking the shrimp, and 
a small fish like the white-bait, but they need not be 
particularly described. 
The next principal mode of procuring fish is by 
