The Australian fish of that nameis Prototroctes maroena, Gunth. It is called also the Fresh-water Herring, Yarra Herring (inMelbourne), Cucumber-Fish, and Cucumber-Mullet.The last two names are given to it from its smell. It closelyresembles the English Grayling.
1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 93:
«These must be the long-looked-for cucumber mullet, or fresh-water herring. . . . `The cucumber mullet,' I explain,`I have long suspected to be a grayling.'»
1882. Rev._I. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,'p. 109:
«Though not a fish of New South Wales, it may be as wellto mention here the Australian grayling, which in character,habits, and the manner of its capture is almost identical withthe English fish of that name. In shape there is somedifference between the two fish. . . . A newly caught fishsmells exactly like a dish of fresh-sliced cucumber. It iswidely distributed in Victoria, and very abundant in all thefresh-water streams of Tasmania. . . . In Melbourne it goes bythe name of the Yarra herring. There is another species in NewZealand.»
1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 206:
«The river abounds in delicious grayling or cucumber fish,rather absurdly designated the `herring' in this [Deloraine]and some other parts of the colony [Tasmania].»