WEST COAST FISH.
CHAPTER XX.
AVING written so much upon the mineral and vegetable wealth of the “Golden Coast,” my readers may not deem it irrelevant to speak of the tenants of the waters, both of the sea and inland lakes and rivers. The sea, bounding our strip of land for two hundred and twenty miles, together with our lakes and rivers, contain a wonderful supply of fish, both “materialistic” and “kalizoic.” The “materialistic” fish represent edible varieties of good qualities and quantities, from the extreme 120 lbs. weight of the habuka or groper—a giant perch—to the minute but delicate whitebait, which singly weighs but a fraction of an ounce, though collectively it exemplifies the old adage “Union is strength.” These little fish are caught and sold by the pint, peck, or bushel, and have become a food factor in their season (from August to November), as well as a means of livelihood to numbers of the almond-eyed sons of the Celestial Empire. Besides supplying the inhabitants of the towns with the delicacy, they dry and export them to China. There the dried commodity must obtain a high price, equal probably to the famed gelatinous “birds’ nests,” as the price paid by the Victorian Chinese middlemen is said to be 2s. 6d. per lb.
Flounders, of various varieties, inhabiting fresh, brackish, and salt waters, all of good quality, and nearly allied to the English turbot; a species of sole, larger than the English one; the trumpeter, a fish of excellent repute throughout the Australian Colonies; moki and parihiki, bream-shaped fish of good flavour; two or three varieties of cod fish; a species of ling; the well-known schnapper and barracouta; a species of sardine; a true herring, very like the Home herring, but not equal in flavour, and a score of others, abound in these waters.
The “materialistic” fish of the fresh waters are few; the greyling, a fish good for the table, affording sport akin to roach fishing, and reaching a maximum weight of 3 lbs., being the best. The lakes, rivers, creeks, and pools teem with eels, some of incredible size and weight.
The “kalizoic” fish embrace varieties rare, unique, and grotesque, and many of excessively beautiful colouring. Amongst the kalizoic division are two of the deep-sea light-giving fish, a kindred variety of which is being experimented on in Europe at the present time by a scientist, who expects to develop from them the light of the future. This light is given in phosphorescent sparkles from the little head-like processes along the lower sides of each. Another species of the renowned “frost fish,” but unlike the ordinary frost fish, it is of much greater length in proportion to depth. It well
