d the
diminution of the water generally throughout the creek and its
tributaries driving the fish to congregate in the deeper and larger
pools.

By noon I had caught as many fish as the boys could carry. None, it is
true, were very large, 2 1/2 lbs. being the heaviest; but I was pleased
to learn that there were places farther down the creek where the blacks
frequently caught some very large cat-fish; when the water was
muddy from heavy rain. These cat-fish, or, as some people call them,
"jew-fish," are the heaviest and best of all the Queensland river fish
I have ever tasted, except those which, for want of their true name, I
called grayling, and Hansen asserted were trout.

Sending the black boys off with the fish, I cut a rod from a she-oak and
quickly rigged a line; for a float I used a small piece of dead wood,
and baited with the largest minnow I could find. Then, clambering up
the bank, I found a suitable open place to stand at the butt of a
Leichhardt, from where I had a good view. I could not, however, see any
of the gars, one at least of which I was so anxious to get, but made a
cast into the centre--and almost instantly one darted out from under the
lily leaves and hooked himself beautifully, but in swinging him out my
line fouled a thorny bush, and for a minute I was in despair; there was
the shining beauty suspended over the water, and almost making a circle
of his body in his struggle to escape. At last, however, I cleared my
line, and swung my prize high up on the bank. Determined to get a better
rod, and return after dinner, I picked up gun and fish and followed the
boys.

By sunset I had a catch of fish that fairly astonished Hansen when he
returned at dusk with but half a dozen black duck, two or three teal,
and two turkeys. All that evening we were employed in cleaning and
salting the fish and birds, except some for immediate use.

We had many such days. Fish were to be had all throughout the course of
the creek, and had we possessed a net like those the blacks sometimes
used, we could have taken a hogsheadful in half an hour.

Then, as the rainy season began, I ceased fishing and took to the gun,
for now three or four kinds of duck made their appearance, and one
moonlight night an immense number alighted in the creek just below the
hut, and kept up an incessant gabble and quacking till sunrise.

In less than ten days we had enough salted game and dried and smoked
fish to last us three months, e