The encumbrance too of
carrying large nets from one place to another will require a more
permanent residence; and hence it would naturally follow, that their
houses would be of a better construction. Those which had been met with
in Shoal Bay and Glass-House Bay were certainly far superior to any that
had been seen in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson; and this superiority
Mr. Flinders attributed to the different mode of procuring fish which had
been adopted by the inhabitants. He likewise supposed that the use of
nets, and consequently whatever resulted from such use, arose from the
form of the bay, which, being shoal for a considerable distance from the
shores, gave the greatest advantage to nets, over every other method,
more especially the setting and scoop nets. Pumice Stone river, being
full of shoals, required the same manner of fishing; and it was observed
that most, if not all, of the islands in the bay were surrounded by
extensive shoals, which, by extending the necessity, would assist in
bringing nets into more general use.
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