adder (Acanthophis antarctica), the black snake (Pseudechys porphyraicus), the tiger snake (Hoplocephalus curtus), and the large brown snake (Diemenia superciliosa.)[1]
Frogs were roasted and eaten in some parts of Victoria; and amongst these the natives probably often took the common green frog (Ranhyla aurea), the smaller dark one (Lymnodynastes Tasmaniensis), and the tree-frogs (Hyla phyllochroa and Hyla Verreauxi).
Fish.
There is not much to add, with respect to the native methods of catching fish, to the information given under the heads of Spears, and Fish-hooks, and Nets for Fishing. The natives appear to have practised at least five different methods of taking fish, namely:—
1. By hand.—In shallow pools, in lagoons, and in the ana-branches of rivers, in times of drought, they would catch a few fish by wading into the shallow water and taking them by hand. Black-fish are commonly caught by hand in the water-holes of the Western district.[2]
In the Port Lincoln district, the natives go into the water and push the fish before them with branches of trees until they are fairly driven ashore.
"Some fishes are, in the night, attracted to light, and then easily killed. The blacks, provided with torches made of long strips of bark, go into the water and catch them with the hand, striking them or spearing them."[3]
2. By nets.—The native nets are used very much in the same manner as in Europe. Mr. Francis F. Armstrong, the Government Interpreter in Western Australia, says that nets were not known when the Europeans first landed in that colony, but that they are used by the people of the north coast, who make the twine of a fibre obtained from spinifex or the bark of trees.
The method of fishing by the net is thus described by the Rev. J. G. Wood. He says:—"This requires at least two men to manage it. The net is many feet in length, and about four feet in width. It is kept extended by a number of sticks placed a yard or so apart, and can then be rolled up in a cylindrical package and be taken to the water. One man then takes an end of the net, unrols it, and, with the assistance of his comrade, drops it into the water. As soon as the lower edge of the net touches the bottom, the men wade towards
- ↑ Buckley says, in his narrative, that on one occasion, when the natives set fire to the grass and scrub of the forest for the purpose of enclosing and catching kangaroos, wombats, opossums, native cats, wild dogs, lizards, snakes, &c., they found "a monster snake, having two distinct heads, separating about two inches from the body, black on the back, with a brownish-yellow belly, and red spots all over. It had been about nine feet long, but the fire had burnt the body in two, and, being such an unnatural-looking monster, the natives were terribly frightened at its appearance."
Professor McCoy states that young snakes with two heads (monsters) occasionally occur of the different species. One was lately sent to Melbourne.
- ↑ Much interesting information is given by Eyre respecting the several methods employed by the natives in catching fish. He says he has seen them 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.—Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, 1845, Vol. II., p. 261.
- ↑ Wilhelmi, p. 175.
