fty feet to seventy
feet in length, cut far up the Hastings and the Maria and Wilson Rivers,
and destined for the saw-mill at Port Macquarie.

In another hour we are at our landing-place, a selector's abandoned
homestead, built of rough slabs, and standing about fifty yards back
from the river and the narrow line of brown, winding beach. The roof had
long since fallen in, and the fences and outbuildings lay low, covered
with vines and creepers. The intense solitude of the place, the
motionless forest of lofty, grey-boled swamp gums that encompassed it
on all sides but one, and the wide stretch of river before it were
calculated to inspire melancholy in anyone but an ardent fisherman.
Scarcely have we hauled our boat up on the sand, and deposited our
provisions and water in the roofless house, when we hear a commotion
in the river--a swarm of fish called 'tailer' are making havoc among a
'school' of small mullet, many of which fling themselves out upon the
sand. Presently all is quiet again, and we get our lines ready.

For whiting and silvery bream, rather fine lines are used; but we each
have a heavy line for flathead, for these fish are caught in the tidal
rivers on a sandy bottom up to three feet and four feet in length. They
are in colour, both on back and belly, much like a sole, of great width
across the shoulders, and then taper away to a very fine tail. The head
is perfectly flat, very thin, and armed on each side with very sharp
bones pointing tailward. A stab from one of these causes intense
inflammation. The fins are small--so small as to appear almost
rudimentary--yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with
amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the
shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize
their prey in their enormous 'gripsack'mouths. The approach of a boat,
or a person walking along the sand, will cause them to at once speed
like lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and
mud, which is washed off their backs in their flight. Still, although
not a pleasing fish to look at, the flathead is of a delicious and
delicate flavour. There are some variations in their shades of colour,
from a pale, delicate grey to a very dark brown, according to their
habitat, and, although most frequent in very shallow water, they are
often caught in great quantities off the coast in from ten to fifteen
fathoms of water. Gut or wire sno