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diff --git a/24642.txt b/24642.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7200e41 --- /dev/null +++ b/24642.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of "Five-Head" Creek; and Fish Drugging In The +Pacific, by Louis Becke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: "Five-Head" Creek; and Fish Drugging In The Pacific + 1901 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: February 18, 2008 [EBook #24642] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE HEAD CREEK *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +"FIVE-HEAD" CREEK; and FISH DRUGGING IN THE PACIFIC + +By Louis Becke + +T. Fisher Unwin, 1901 + + + + +"FIVE-HEAD" CREEK + + + + +I + +I had ridden all day through an endless vista ot ghostly grey gums and +ironbarks, when I came in sight of the long wavering line of vivid +green foliage which showed me that I had reached my destination--a +roughly-built slab hut with a roof of corrugated iron. This place was +to be my home for six months, and stood on the bank of Five-Head +Creek, twenty-five miles from the rising city of Townsville in North +Queensland. + +Riding up to the building, I got off my wearied, sweating horse, and, +removing the saddle and my blanket and other impediments, led him to +the creek to drink, and then hobbled and turned him loose to feed on the +soft lush grass and reeds growing along the margin of the water. Then +I entered the empty house, made a brief examination of it, and wondered +how my mate would like living in such an apparently comfortless abode. + +I must mention that I had come from Townsville to take charge of +Five-Head Creek cattle run, which had suffered so severely from a +terrible drought that it had been temporarily abandoned. We were to +look after and repair the fencing, many miles' length of which had been +destroyed by fire or succumbed to white ants, to search for and collect +the remnant of the cattle that had not perished in the drought, and see +after the place generally. My mate was to follow me out in a few days +with a dray-load of stores. + +I lit a fire, boiled a billy of tea, and ate some cold beef and damper. +Then, as the sun dipped below a range of low hills to the westward, I +filled my pipe, and, walking down to the bank of the creek, surveyed my +environs. + +"What a God-forsaken-looking country!" I thought as I gazed around me; +and, indeed, the prospect was anything but inviting. On both sides of +the creek the soil showed evidences of the severity of the past drought. +Great gaping fissures--usun cracks we called them--traversed and +zig-zagged the hot, parching ground, on which not a blade of grass was +to be seen. Here and there, amid the grey-barked ghostly gums, were +oases of green--thickets of stunted sandalwood whose evergreen leaves +defied alike the torrid summer heat and the black frosts of winter +months; but underneath them lay the shrivelled carcasses and whitening +bones of hundreds of cattle which had perished of starvation--too weak +even to totter down to die, bogged in the banks of the creek. As I +sat and smoked a strong feeling of depression took possession of me; I +already began to hate the place, and regretted I could not withdraw from +my engagement. + +Yet in less than a week I began to like it, and when I left it I did so +with some regret, for I had made friends with sweet Mother Nature, whose +loving-kindness is with us always in wild places, though we may not know +it at first, and take no heed of her many calls and silent beckonings to +us to come and love, and rest and dream, and be content upon her tender, +mighty bosom. + +My horse, cropping eagerly at the soft grass and salty pigweed, suddenly +raised his head and pricked up his ears. He had heard something and was +listening, and looking across to the opposite bank I saw a sight that +lifted me out of my sudden fit of depression and then filled me with +delight. + +Two stately emus were walking along in single file, the male bird +leading, holding his head erect, and marching like the drum-major of a +regiment of Guards. On the margin of the bank they halted and looked at +the horse, which now stood facing them; a minute's scrutiny satisfied +both parties that there was nothing to fear from each other, and then +the great birds walked down the bank to a broad dry patch of bright +yellow sand, which stretched halfway across the bed of the creek. Here +the male began to scratch, sending up a shower of coarse sand, and +quickly swallowing such large pebbles as were revealed, whilst the +female squatted beside him and watched his labours with an air of +indifference. Her digestive apparatus was, I suppose, in good order, and +she did not need three or four pounds' weight of stones in her gizzard, +but she did require a sand bath, for presently she too began to scrape +and sway from side to side as she worked a deep hole beneath her body, +just as a common hen scrapes and sways and ruffles her feathers in the +dry dust of the farmyard. In less than five minutes the huge bird was +encompassed in a cloud of flying sand, and working her long neck, great +thick legs, and outspread toes exactly as an ordinary fowl. Then, having +thoroughly covered herself with sand from beak to tail, she rose, +shook herself violently, and stalked away up the bank again, where her +companion soon followed her, and I lost sight of the pair as they strode +through the thick green of the she-oak trees. + +As darkness fell I built up a larger fire and spread my blanket beside +it to sleep under the open sky instead of in the deserted house, for +the night was soft, warm, and windless. Overhead was a firmament of +cloudless blue, with here and there a shining star beginning to +show; but away to the south-west a dark line of cloud was rising and +spreading, and I felt cheered at the sight, for it was a sign of rain. +As I watched it steadily increasing the first voices of the night began +to call--a 'possum squealed from the branches of a blue gum in the +creek, and was answered by another somewhere near; and then the long, +long mournful wail of a curlew cried out from the sunbaked plain beyond. +Oh, the unutterable sense of loneliness that at times the long-drawn, +penetrating cry of the curlew, resounding through the silence of the +night amid the solitude of vast Australian plains, causes the solitary +bushman or traveller to feel! I well remember on one occasion camping +on the banks of the Lower Burdekin River, and having my broken +slumbers--for I was ill with fever--disturbed by a brace of curlews, +which were uttering their depressing cries within a few hundred yards +of me, and how I at last became so wrought up and almost frenzied by +the persistency of their doleful notes, that I followed them up with a +Winchester rifle, mile after mile, wasting my cartridges and exhausting +mind and body in the vain attempt to shoot them in the dark. There is to +my knowledge nothing so mournful as the call of the curlew, unless it +be the moaning cry of a penguin out upon the ocean, when a sea-fog +encompasses the ship that lies becalmed. There is something so intensely +human about it--as if some lost soul were wailing for mercy and +forgiveness. + +But on this night the cry of the curlew was pleasing to my ear, for as +I lay and watched the rising bank of cloud, I heard others calling from +the opposite bank of the creek, and then a parrot screamed shrilly--and +I knew that rain was certain. I jumped up, carried my blanket, saddle, +and gun into the house, and then went out to collect firewood. My horse, +as he heard my footsteps, bounded up, hobbled as he was, from the bed +of the creek, and neighed to me in the darkness. He too smelt the coming +rain, and was speaking to me out of his gladness of heart. I called back +to him, and then set to work and soon collected a number of dry logs, +which I carried in to the hut and threw down on the hard earthen floor +made of pulverised ant heaps, just as the welcome thunder muttered away +off in the distance. + +I brought a burning brand from the fire, threw it inside, and then +called to my horse. Taking off his hobbles, I slipped the bridle over +his head, and brought him in under shelter of the verandah, where he +stood quietly, with a full stomach and contented mind, watching the +coming storm. + +Half an hour later the iron roof of the house was singing a sweet, +delightful tune to the heavy down-pouring rain, which, till long past +midnight, fell in generous volume, the dry, thirsty soil drinking it +in with gladness as it closed up the gaping fissures, and gave hope and +vigour and promise of life to the parched and perishing vegetation of +the wide plains around. + +With supreme satisfaction I sat at the open door, and smoked and +watched, with my fire blazing merrily away; then, before it was too +late, I stripped off, and went out and let the rain wash off the dust +and dirt of a day's journey under a fierce, baking sun. How cool, +delightful, and invigorating it felt! + +I dried myself with a spare shirt, and then lay down on my blanket +beside the fire to listen contentedly to the clamour of the rain upon +the roof. About two in the morning the downpour ceased, the sky cleared, +and a fair half-moon of silvery brightness shone out above the tops of +the white gum forest. Fifty yards or so away, in front of the door, a +shallow pool had formed in a depression of the hard, sun-baked soil, and +as the soft light of the moon fell upon it there came a whirr of wings +as a flock of night-roving, spur-winged plover lit upon its margin. I +could have shot half a dozen of them from where I sat, but felt that I +could not lift gun to shoulder and slaughter when there was no need, +and their shrill cries, as they ran to and fro, afforded me an infinite +pleasure. + +I took off my horse's bridle, put his hobbles on again, rubbed my cheek +against his warm, moist nose, and left him. An hour before daylight +he stepped quietly inside and stood near the fire--the mosquitoes were +annoying him, and he had come in to get the benefit of what little smoke +was arising from the burning logs. + +At dawn, as I lay half-awake, I heard a sound that made me jump to my +gun--the soft quacking of wild duck in the creek. Stealing cautiously +down through the fringe of she-oaks, I came to a fine broad pool, in the +centre of which was a small sandbank, whereon stood a black duck with +a brood of seven half-fledged ducklings around her, dabbling merrily +amongst the weed and _debris_ of the margin. Of course, no one who +_thinks_, unless impelled by sheer hunger, would shoot either an +incubating or "just familied" duck, and I laid down my gun with an +exclamation of disappointment. But I was soon to be rewarded, for +a minute or two later five beautiful black and white Burdekin ducks +flashed down through the vista of she-oaks, and settled on the water +less than thirty yards away from me. They lit so closely together that +my first barrel killed two, and my second dropped one of the others as +they rose. I waded in and brought them ashore.* + + * The name "Burdekin" hat been given to these ducks became + they are to common on the river of that name. Their wings + are pure white and black. + +I wonder how many people know how to cook and eat wild duck as they +should be cooked and eaten--when they are plentiful, and when the man +who shoots them is, in his way, a gourmet, and is yet living away from +civilisation and restaurants? This is _the_ way. Pluck the feathers +off the breast and body, then cut the breast part out, sprinkle it +with salt, impale it upon a stick--if you have a stick or branch of +any kind--and hold it over a fire of glowing wood coals. If you have +no skewer, then lay the red, luscious-looking flesh upon the coals +themselves, and listen to it singing and fizzing, as if it were +impatiently crying out to you to take it up and eat it! + +When I returned, the sunrays were piercing through the gum-trees and +dissipating a thin mist which hung about the green, winding fringe of +she-oaks bordering the creek. From the ground, which now felt soft, +warm, and springy to my naked foot, there came that sweet earthy smell +that arises when the land has lain for long, long months under a sky of +brass, and all green things have struggled hard to live. As I drew near +the hut I saw that the flock of spur-winged plover were still standing +or running about the margin of the newly-formed pool. They took not the +slightest notice of my approach, and I was careful not to alarm them, +knowing that as long as the water remained they would continue to haunt +the vicinity of the pool, and, besides that, I already had three plump +ducks, which would last me at least till the following morning. + +After breakfast I set out to make a detailed examination of the creek +for a distance of three or four miles towards its source. I was glad to +find some very extensive water-holes at intervals of a few hundred yards, +then would come a stretch of sand from bank to bank, for owing to the +want of rain the water had fallen very low, though it was still flowing +by percolation through the sand. Yet, in time of flood, the whole of the +flat country was submerged, and some of the large gum-trees growing on +the banks held in their forks, thirty-five feet from the ground, great +piles of dead wood and tangled debris that had been deposited there in a +great flood of two years before. + +I was not long in making a very pleasing discovery--all the pools +contained fish, some of which were of good size, for the water was so +clear that I could see them swimming about, and I remembered now with +satisfaction that among the stores coming on in the dray was a bundle of +fishing-tackle which I had bought in Townsville. Bird life all along the +creek was plentiful; but this was to be expected, as the long drought +had naturally driven game of all sort towards the water. I saw two or +three small kangaroos, and everywhere along the margin were bandicoot +holes, where the little pig-like creatures had been digging for roots. + +Two miles from the hut I came across a well-constructed native +fish-weir, and near by found the site of a camp; evidently a party of +blacks had been enjoying themselves quite recently, fishing and cattle +killing, for under some scrub I found the head and foreleg of a young +steer. + +As I walked my horse slowly over the sand under the fringing oaks, I +made the unpleasant discovery that snakes were very plentiful--not only +the harmless carpet snake, but the deadly brown and black-necked tiger +variety; though against this were a corresponding number of iguanas, +both of the tree-climbing and water-haunting species. The latter, to +which I shall again allude, is a particularly shuddersome reptile. I had +never before seen these repulsive creatures, and, indeed, had never +heard of them. + +I returned to the hut at noon, and to my surprise found a party of +thirty or more blacks camped under some Leichhardt trees. They seemed a +fairly healthy lot of savages, and were not alarmed when they saw I was +carrying a gun. I rode quietly up to them, and shook hands with two or +three of the bucks, who spoke a little English. They were, they told me, +from the Ravenswood district, which they had left some weeks ago, and +were now travelling towards the Burdekin, hunting as they went. + +Some of them came to the hut with me, and I saw at once that they had +not taken anything of mine, though among other articles I had left on a +wooden seat outside were several plugs of tobacco. I gave them a plug to +divide, and then asked the most voluble of them how many cattle they had +speared. + +"Baal blackfellow spear him cattle," he answered.* "What about that +young fellow bullock you been eat longa creek?" I inquired. + + * Lit., "We blacks did not spear any cattle." + +They assured me that they had not speared the animal, which they had +found lying at the bottom of a deep gully with a broken leg. Then +knowing it could not live, they had killed and eaten it. I was pleased +to hear this, and have no doubt the poor creatures told the truth. +They remained with myself and mate for a month, and proved of great +assistance to us in fencing and other work, and I learnt much valuable +bush-craft from these wandering savages, especially of their methods of +hunting and fishing. I shall now give the reader an account of some of +the happy days my mate and myself spent in this lonely spot. + + + + +II + +A few days later my mate arrived with the dray, which we at once +unloaded, and then turned the horses out to feed and have a spell before +working them again. Every night since I had arrived a thunderstorm had +occurred, much to my delight, and already the once cracked and baking +flats were beginning to put on a carpet of grass; and indeed, in three +weeks it was eighteen inches high, and made a glorious sight, the +few remaining cattle eating it so hungrily that when night fell the +creatures were scarcely able to move, so distended were their stomachs. + +Having started our aboriginal friends to cut down ironbark saplings +to repair the fencing, we first of all paid a visit to our nearest +neighbour, a settler named Dick Bullen, who lived ten miles away. He +received us most hospitably, like all good bushmen, and offered to +assist us in looking for lost cattle. He was a splendid type of the +native-born Australian bushman, over six feet two in height, and simple +and unaffected in his manner. I shall remember this man for one thing. +He had two of the finest teams of working bullocks I have ever seen, and +handled them in a way that commanded our admiration. Never once did he +use his whip for any other purpose than to crack it occasionally, and it +did one good to hear his cheery call to the fourteen labouring beasts as +they toiled up the steep side of a creek or gully with a heavy load of +timber, straining every nerve in their great bodies, while the sweat +poured off their coats in streams. He was like one of his own bullocks, +patient, cheerful, and strong, and an exclamation of anger seldom passed +his lips--an oath never. He took a great pride in the appearance of his +teams, and especially of the fact that no one of them showed the marks +of a whip. + +We spent a pleasant hour with this man, and returned home by a different +route, in the hope of getting a "plain" turkey--an altogether different +bird from the "scrub" turkey. Hansen (my mate) was an excellent shot, +especially with a rifle, and indeed when shooting turkeys preferred to +use a 44 Winchester rifle. We managed to get one bird--a cock--but so +old and poor that we gave it to the black contingent to eat. Nothing in +the shape of food came amiss to these people, and their appetites were +astounding. One day Hansen and I were following down a creek which +junctioned with the Reid River, when we saw smoke ascending from a dry +gully. Riding up we came across a very old and shrivelled gin and a boy +and girl of about eight years of age. They were busily engaged in eating +emu eggs, and out of thirteen had already devoured eleven, together +with four or five hundred of fresh-water cockles! Such a meal would +have satisfied half a dozen hungry white men. Their over-loaded stomachs +presented a disgusting appearance, and they were scarcely able to +articulate. + +A week after our arrival the blacks told us that there were indications +that the rainy season would come on earlier than usual, and that game, +except duck and spur-winged plover, would be very scarce; also that if +the creek came down in flood, it would carry away most of the fish. This +was bad news for such ardent sportsmen as Hansen and myself, for we were +looking forward to plenty of fishing and shooting, not alone for its +pleasures, but also because we were charged heavily for anything but +the ordinary salt beef, tea, sugar and flour. Sardines and tinned salmon +were luxuries we could not afford, but fresh fish and game were better, +and, even when salted, were preferrable to a continuous diet of beef. + +We had among our stores a 250 lb. bag of coarse salt--we had to kill our +own meat and salt it down--and I proposed that we should at once set to +work whilst the weather was fine and spend a week shooting and fishing. +Such game as plain turkeys (the bustard), scrub turkeys, cockatoos, +ducks, &c., we could put in brine, whilst the fish could be drysalted +and then put in the sun to dry. Hansen quite approved the idea, and +we at once set to work. I was to be fisherman, and he the gunner; +for, curiously enough, my mate was the most helpless creatures with a +fishing-line or rod that I ever saw. In five minutes he would either +have his line hopelessly tangled, his rod broken, or his hook caught in +his hand; and yet he never lost his temper. + +Taking with me two sturdy black boys as porters, and also bringing my +gun and ammunition in case of meeting duck, I set out on foot, Hansen +riding off, accompanied by a blackfellow, to a chain of shallow lagoons +five miles away. + +Within a quarter of a mile from the house was a fine deep water-hole +formed by the creek being here confined between high banks. At one +end, however, an exposed bar of small, coarse round pebbles ran almost +across, and here I decided to begin, instead of from the bank, for not +only were snakes difficult to see in the undergrowth, but plants of +the dreaded stinging-tree were also growing around and between the +magnificent gums and the Leichhardts. These latter trees, named after +the ill-fated Dr. Leichhardt, are, I think, the most strikingly handsome +of all large trees in the north of Queensland. They love to grow near +or even in the water, and their broad, beautiful leaves give a welcome +shade. + +But before I descended to the bank I had to remain for some minutes to +gaze on the beauty of the scene. The water at one end of the pool was of +the deepest blue, towards the pebbly bar it gradually shallowed, and +for the next eight or ten feet from the margin was as clear as crystal. +Close in under the banks the broad leaves of blue flowering water-lilies +covered the surface with a carpet of many shades of green and pink; +hovering above the lily leaves were hundreds of small white +butterflies, with here and there a black and yellow-banded dragon-fly-- +"horse-stingers" the Australian youth call them. Not a sound broke the +silence, except now and then the rippling splash of a fish rising to +the surface, or the peculiar _click, click_ made by a crayfish burrowing +under a stone. + +I leant over the bank and looked down, and then gave a start of +pleasure, for right beneath me were three fish floating motionless on +the surface--fish that, until then, I never knew lived in fresh water. +They were in shape, colour, and appearance exactly like the toothed gar +so common on the sea coast--a long slender body with back of dark blue, +sides of silvery white, and fins and tail of blue tipped with yellow. I +was so excited that I was about to shoot them, but remembered that at so +short a distance I should have only blown them to pieces, especially as +they were directly beneath me. I motioned to the blackboys to come and +look; they did so, and I learnt that these fish, when the creek was +low, were sometimes plentiful, and would take almost any floating bait, +especially if it were alive. + +Eager to begin, I told the boys to collect some crayfish for bait, but +they said that it would take too long, and small fish were better, and +running to some small lily-covered pools about two feet in diameter, and +very shallow, they jumped in and stirred up the sand and muddy sediment +at the bottom. In a few minutes some scores of very pretty red and +silvery-hued minnows were thrown out on the sand. I quickly baited my +line, and threw it, with the sinker attached, into the centre of the +pool; before it could sink the bait was taken by a fine bream of 2 +lbs., which I landed safely, and tossed to the boys. It was the first +fresh-water bream I had caught in Queensland, and I felt elated. + +Finding that the pool was clear of snags, I bent on three extra hooks, +baiting each one with the whole of a tiny fish. Again the baits were +seized before they reached the bottom; I hauled in two more bream, and +as they came struggling and splashing into the shallow water I saw they +were being followed by literally hundreds of the same species, and also +by fish much like an English grayling--the pool seemed to be alive! +The presence of such large numbers in so circumscribed a space could, +however, be easily accounted for by the absence of rain for so many +months, the drying up of many minor pools and stretches, and 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, even had we eaten nothing else. Our black +friends--with the exception of one lad who desired to remain--left us +one morning at sunrise, and we saw them no more. I am afraid they were +deeply hurt by our poisoning half a dozen of their mangy dogs, which +were, with the rest of the pack, a continual source of annoyance to us +by their expert thieving. + +One dull, rainy day, as we sat indoors mending our clothes, and yarning +and smoking, we heard the scream of parrots, and, going to the door, saw +some twenty or thirty of them, large, fine, green and scarlet plumaged +birds, hanging on to and crawling in and out among the branches of some +low trees growing between the stockyard and the creek. These trees +were a species of wattle, and were just opening out their yellow, +sweet-smelling, downy flowers, which the beautiful birds were devouring +eagerly. We did not disturb them, and they did not appear to be alarmed +when we walked up to within a few yards of the trees, merely screaming +defiance, and flying up to the higher branches, or to other trees near +by. These birds the local settlers called "king-parrots"; they were +larger than those of the same species in New South Wales, and later in +the season we shot a few of them for soup. This particular flock visited +us for many days in succession, forming a pretty picture as they hung +on the branches, chattering loudly the while, and flashing their +gaily-coloured plumage in the bright sunshine. Like the spur-winged +plover, they were very inquisitive birds; if one of their number was +shot, and fell wounded, the rest of the flock would fly round and round +the poor creature, watching its movements and listening to its cries, +not out of pity, but of sheer curiosity, and each could be shot in +succession, or sometimes knocked down with a stick. I was told by a +stockman on Fanning Downs station that on several occasions when he +had wounded birds of this variety of the parrot tribe, their companions +descended upon them with fury, tore out their feathers, and bit and +lacerated them savagely. + +Now and again a few wandering emus would cross the grey gum plains +around us, and then, as they caught sight of our figures, shamble +quickly off again. In former years they had been plentiful in the +district, and provided good food for the aborigines when the latter +organised their big hunting parties. But as the country was taken up as +cattle runs, hundreds of the great birds were wantonly shot by white +men for the mere pleasure of killing, and all the months we lived in the +district we did not see more than twenty. + +I have before spoken of the number of snakes that were everywhere to be +seen in the vicinity of the water, particularly about pools with a reedy +margin. Scarcely a week passed without our killing three or four, and +we were always careful in bathing to do so in very shallow water, where +there was a clear sandy bottom. There were three kinds of water-snakes, +one of which was of a dull blue colour, and these the blacks said were +"bad fellow," _i.e._, venomous. They seldom grew over two feet and +a half in length, and on a bright day one might see several of these +reptiles swimming across from one bank to the other. Of the common brown +snake--the kind we most dreaded--and the black-necked tiger snake, we +killed numbers with our guns and with sticks, and one day, when crossing +some red ironstone ridges on the Ravenswood road, we despatched two +death-adders which were lying asleep on the bare, hot road. They were +of a dull reddish brown, the same hue as the ground in the ironstone +country, just as they are a yellowish brown in a sandstone region. + +One great pest to us when fishing were the number of mud turtles, greedy +little creatures which persistently swallowed our hooks, which could +only be recovered by placing one's foot on their backs, drawing out +their long snaky necks to the utmost tension, and cutting off their +heads; the other pests were the hideous flabby water iguanas (I do not +know their proper name), which, although they never interfered with our +lines, sickened us even to look at them. They were always to be seen +lying on a log or snag in the water. As you approached they either +crawled down like an octopus, or dropped, in a boneless, inert mass, +without a splash. Their slimy, scaleless skins were a muddy yellow, and +in general they resembled an eel with legs. Even the blacks looked on +them with disgust, though they are particularly fond of the ordinary +iguana. + +The time passed somewhat wearily to us when heavy rains and flooded +country kept us indoors for days together. Then one night after +the weather had begun to get cooler and clearer, we heard, far, far +overhead, the _honk, honk_ of the wild geese, flying southwards to +distant lagoons, and Hansen reminded me that in another week our term of +service came to an end. + +"What made you think of it?" I asked. + +"The cry of the wild geese going South." + +For we, too, longed for the South again. + + + + + +FISH DRUGGING IN THE PACIFIC + +In an American magazine of a few months ago mention was made of the +"discovery" of a method of capturing fish by impregnating the waters of +slowly running rivers or small lakes with a chemical which would produce +stupefaction, and cause the fish to rise helpless to the surface. The +American discoverer no doubt thought he really had "discovered," though +I am sure many thousands of people in the civilised world have heard +of, and some few hundreds very often seen, fish captured in a somewhat +similar manner, the which is, I believe, practised not only in India, +Africa and South America, but in the islands of the North and South +Pacific, and I have no doubt but that it was known thousands of years +ago--perhaps even "when the world was young." + +Nearly all the Malayo-Polynesian people inhabiting the high, mountainous +islands of the South Pacific and North Pacific Oceans can, and do, +catch fish in the "novel" manner before mentioned, _i.e._, by producing +stupefaction, though no chemicals are used, while even the Australian +aborigines--almost as low a type of savage as the Fuegians--use a +still simpler method, which I will at once briefly describe as I saw it +practised by a mob of myall (wild) blacks camped on the Kirk River, a +tributary of the great Burdekin River in North Queensland. + +At a spot where the stream was about a hundred feet wide, and the water +very shallow--not over six inches in depth--a rude but efficient dam was +expeditiously constructed by thrusting branches of she-oak and _ti_-tree +into the sandy bottom, and then making it partially waterproof by +quickly filling the interstices with earthen sods, _ti_-tree bark, +reeds, leaves, and the other _debris_ found on the banks. In the centre +a small opening was left, so as to relieve the pressure when the +water began to rise. Some few hundred yards further up were a chain of +water-holes, some of which were deep, and in all of which, as I knew +by experience, were plenty of fish--bream, perch, and a species of +grayling. As soon as the dam was complete, the whole mob, except some +"gins" and children, who were stationed to watch the opening before +mentioned, sprang into the water, carrying with them great quantities of +a greasy greyish blue kind of clay, which rapidly dissolved and charged +the clear water with its impurities. Then, too, at the same time thirty +or forty of their number (over a hundred) began loosening and tearing +away portions of the overhanging bank, and toppling them over into +the stream; this they accomplished very dexterously by means of heavy, +pointed sticks. The work was carried out with an astounding clamour, +those natives in the water diving to the bottom and breaking up the +fallen earth still further till each pool became of the colour and +something of the consistency of green pea-soup. Hundreds of fish soon +rose gasping to the surface, and these were at once seized and thrown +out upon the banks, where a number of young picaninnies darted upon them +to save them being devoured by a swarm of mongrel dogs, which lent +an added interest to the proceedings by their incessant yelping and +snapping. As the slowly running current carried the suffocating and +helpless fish down-stream the hideous noise increased, for the shallow +stretch in front of the dam was soon covered with them--bream, and the +so-called "grayling," perch, eels, and some very large cat-fish. The +latter, which I have mentioned on a previous page, is one of the +most peculiar-looking but undoubtedly the best flavoured of all the +Queensland fresh-water fishes; it is scaleless, tail-less, blue-grey +in colour, and has a long dorsal spike, like the salt-water +"leather-jacket." (A scratch from this spike is always dangerous, as +it produces intense pain, and often causes blood-poisoning.) Altogether +over a thousand fish must have been taken, and I gazed at the +destruction with a feeling of anger, for these pools had afforded my +mining mates and myself excellent sport, and a very welcome change of +diet from the eternal beef and damper. But, a few days later, after our +black friends had wandered off to other pastures, I was delighted to +find that there were still plenty of fish in the pools. + +* * * * * + +Early in the "seventies" I was shipwrecked with the once notorious +Captain "Bully" Hayes, on Kusaie (Strong's Island), the eastern outlier +of the Caroline Islands on the North Pacific, and lived there for twelve +happy months, and here I saw for the first time the method of fish +stupefaction employed by the interesting and kindly-natured people of +this beautiful spot. + +I had previously seen, in Eastern Polynesia, the natives drugging fish +by using the pounded nuts of the _futu_ tree (_Barringtonia speciosa_), +and one day as I was walking with a native friend along the beach near +the village in which I lived, I picked up a _futu_ nut lying on the +sand, and remarked that in the islands to the far south the people used +it to drug fish. + +Kusis laughed. "_Futu_ is good, but we of Kusaie do not use it--we have +_oap_ which is stronger and better. Come, I will show you some _oap_ +growing, and to-morrow you shall see how good it is." + +Turning off to our right, we passed through a grove of screw-pines, and +then came to the foot ot the high mountain range traversing the island, +where vine and creeper and dense jungle undergrowth struggled for light +and sunshine under the dark shade of giant trees, whose thick leafy +branches, a hundred feet above, were rustling to the wind. Here, +growing in the rich, red soil, was a cluster of _oap_--a thin-stemmed, +dark-green-leaved plant about three feet in height. Kusis pulled one by +the roots, and twisted it round and round his left hand; a thick, white +and sticky juice exuded from the bark. + +"It 'sickens' the fish very quickly," he said, "quicker than the _futu_ +nut. If much of it be bruised and thrown into the water, it kills the +largest fish very soon, and even turtles will 'sicken.' It is very +strong." + +I asked him how the people of Kusaie first became acquainted with the +properties of the plant. He shook his head. + +"I do not know. God made it to grow here in Kusaie in the days that were +dark" (heathenism) "and when we were a young people. A wise man from +Germany was here ten years ago, and he told us that the people of +Ponape, far to the west, use the _oap_ even as we use it, but that in +Ponape the plant grows larger and is more juicy than it is here."* + + * The "wise man from Germany," I ascertained a year or two + afterwards, was the well-known J. S. Kubary, a gentleman + who, although engaged in trading pursuits, yet enriched + science by his writings on his discoveries in Micronesia. + +Early on the following morning, when the tide was falling, and the +jagged pinnacles of coral rock began to show on the barrier reef +opposite the village, the entire population--about sixty all told--were +awaiting Kusis and myself outside his house. The men carried small, +unbarbed fish-spears, the women and children baskets and bundles of +_oap_. + +From the village to the reef was a distance of two miles, which we soon +covered by smart paddling in a dozen or more canoes; for had we delayed +we should, through the falling tide, have been obliged to leave our +stranded crafts on the sand, half-way, and walk the remainder. + +I need not here attempt to describe the wondrous beauties of a South Sea +coral reef at low tide--they have been fully and ably written about by +many distinguished travellers--but the barrier reef of Strong's Island +is so different in its formation from those of most other islands in the +Pacific, that I must, as relative illustration to this account of the +fishing by _oap_ mention its peculiarity. + +Instead of the small clefts, chasms, and pools which so frequently +occur on the barrier reefs of the mountainous islands of Polynesia and +Melanesia, and which at low tide are untenanted except by the smallest +varieties of rock-fish, here were a series of deep, almost circular, +miniature lakes, set in a solid wall of coral rock with an overlapping +edge, which made the depth appear greater than it was, especially when +one stood on the edge and looked down to the bottom, four to six fathoms +below. + +In all of these deep pools were great numbers or fish of many varieties, +size, and colour; some swimming to and fro or resting upon the sandy +bottom, others moving upwards and then downwards in the clear water with +lazy sweep of tail and fin. One variety of the leather-jacket tribe +was very plentiful, and their great size was excelled only by their +remarkable ugliness; their ground colour was a sombre black, traversed +by three broad bands of dull yellow. Some of the largest of these fish +weighed quite up to 20 lbs., and were valued by the natives for their +delicacy of flavour. They would always take a hook, but the Strong's +Islanders seldom attempted to capture them in this manner, for their +enormous, hard, sharp, and human-like teeth played havoc with an +ordinary fish-hook, which, if smaller than a salmon-hook, they would +snap in pieces, and as their mouths are very small (in fact the +leather-jacket's mouth is ridiculous when compared to its bulk), larger +and stronger hooks could not be used. + +Another and smaller variety were of a brilliant light blue, with vivid +scarlet-tipped fins and tail, a perfectly defined circle of the same +colour round the eyes, and protruding teeth of a dull red. These we +especially detested for their villainous habit of calmly swimming up to +a pendant line, and nipping it in twain, apparently out of sheer humour. +Well have the Samoans named the leather-jacket _Isu'umu Moana_--the +sea-rat. + +In one or two of the deeper pools were red, bream-shaped fish that I had +in vain tried to catch with a hook, using every possible kind of bait; +but the natives assured me that I was only wasting my time, as they fed +only upon a long thread-like worm, which lived in the coral, and that +a spear or the _oap_ was the only way of capturing them. So far I had +never actually handled one, but on this occasion we secured some dozens. +Here and there we caught sight of a young hawk-bill turtle darting out +of sight under the ledge of the overhanging walls of coral, putting to +flight thousands of small fish of a score of shapes and colours. + +We waited until the tide had fallen still lower and until the whole +surface of the great sweeping curve of reef stood out, bare and +steaming, under the bright tropic sun. Westward lay the ocean, blue +and smooth as a mill pond, with only a gentle, heaving swell laving +the outer wall of the coral barrier. Here and there upon its surface +communities of snowy white terns hovered and fluttered, feeding upon +small fish, or examining floating weed for tiny red and black crabs no +bigger than a pea. Eastward and across the now shallowed water of the +lagoon was our village of Leasse, the russet-hued, saddle-backed houses +of thatch peeping out from the coco-palms and breadfruit-trees; beyond, +the broken, rugged outline of the towering mountain range, garmented +from base to summit with God's mantle of living green; overhead a sky ot +wondrous, un-specked blue. + +We were all sitting on the rocks, on the margin of the best and largest +pool, smoking and chatting, when at a sign from Kusis, who was the head +man (or local chief) of the village, the women took their bundles of +_oap_ and laying the plants upon smooth portions of the reef began to +pound them with round, heavy stones, brought from the village for the +purpose. As each bundle was crushed and the sticky white juice exuded, +it was rolled into a ball, used like a sponge to wipe up and absorb all +the liquid that had escaped, and then handed to the men and boys, who +leapt into the pool, and dived to the bottom, thrusting the balls of +_oap_ underneath every lower ledge and crevice, and then rising quickly +to the surface and clambering out again. In less than five minutes the +once crystal water had changed to a pale milky white, thousands upon +thousands of tiny fish, about half an inch in length, and of many hues, +began to rise to the surface; then others of a larger size, which the +women at once scooped up with small nets; then presently, with much +splashing and floundering, two or three of the handsome red fish I have +described, with a great leather-jacket, came up, and, lying on their +sides, flapped helplessly on the surface. Other kinds, of the mullet +species, came with them, trying to swim upright, but always falling +over on their sides, and yet endeavouring to lift their heads above the +water, as if gasping for air. Then more big leather-jackets, some of +which shot up from below as if they had been fired from a mortar, and, +running head-on to the rocky wall of the pool, allowed themselves to +be lifted out without a struggle. It was most exciting and intensely +interesting to witness. + +Presently up came a half-grown hawkbill turtle, his poor head erect +and swaying from side to side; a boy leapt in and, seizing it by its +flippers, pushed it up to some women, who quickly carried the creature +to a small pool near by, where it was placed to recover from the effects +of the _oap_ and then be taken ashore to the village turtle-dock to +grow and fatten for killing. (The "turtle-dock," I must explain, was a +walled-in enclosure--partly natural, partly artificial--situated in a +shallow part of the lagoon, wherein the Leasse people confined those +turtle that they could not at once eat; sometimes as many as thirty were +thus imprisoned and fed daily.) + +Out of this one pool--which I think was not more than fifteen yards +across--we obtained many hundredweights of fish and three turtle. All +fish which were too small to be eaten were thrown into other pools to +recover from the effects of the _oap_. The very smallest, however, did +not recover, and were left to float on the surface and become the prey +of large fish when the incoming tide again covered the reef. + +I must here relate an incident that now occurred, and which will serve +to illustrate the resourcefulness and surgical knowledge of a race of +people who, had they met them, Darwin, Huxley and Frank Buckland would +have delighted in and made known to the world. I shall describe it as +briefly and as clearly as possible. + +I had brought with me a knife--a heavy, broad-backed, keen-edged weapon, +which the Chinese carpenter of our wrecked ship had fashioned out for +me from a flat twelve-inch file of Sheffield steel, and Kusis had, later +on, made me a wooden sheath for it. In my excitement at seeing a large +fish rise to the surface I used it as a spear, and then, the fish +secured, had thrown the knife carelessly down. It fell edge upwards in a +cleft of the coral rock, and Kinie, the pretty twelve-year-old daughter +of Kusis, treading upon it, cut her left foot to the bone. Her +father and myself sprang to her aid, and whilst I was tying the one +handkerchief I possessed tightly round her leg below the knee so as +to stay the terrible flow of blood, he rapidly skinned a large leather +jacket by the simple process of cutting through the skin around the head +and shoulders and then dragging it off the body by holding the upper +edge between his teeth and then with both hands pulling it downwards +to the tail. In less than five minutes the sheet of tough fish-skin +was deftly and tightly wrapped round the child's foot, the handkerchief +taken off and replaced by a coir fibre fishing-line, wound round and +round below and above the knee. The agony this caused the poor child +made her faint, but her father knew what he was about when he ordered +two of the women to carry her ashore, take off the covering of +fish-skin, cover the foot with wood-ashes, and bind it up again. This +was done, and when we returned to the village an hour or two later +I found the girl seated in her father's house with her injured foot +bandaged in a way that would have reflected credit on a M.R.C.S. + +After exploiting the large pool we turned our attention to some of those +which were wider, but comparatively shallow; and in these, the bottoms +of which were sandy, we obtained some hundreds of mullet and gar-fish, +which were quickly overpowered by the _oaf_ juice. In all I think that +we carried back to the village quite five hundredweight of fish, some +of which were very large: the weight of three of the large banded +leather-jackets I estimated at fifty pounds. + +In after years, in other islands of the Pacific, when I saw the fearful +and needless havoc created by traders and natives using vile dynamite +cartridges and so destroying thousands of young fish by one explosion, I +tried hard to get them to use either the _futu_ nut or the _oap_ plant, +both of which under many names are known to the various peoples of +Eastern Polynesia. + +But the use of dynamite has an attractive element of danger; it is more +sudden and destructive in its effect; it makes a noise and churns up +and agitates the water; its violent concussion breaks and smashes the +submarine coral forest into which it is thrown; and its terrific shock +kills and mutilates hundreds of fish, which, through their bladders +bursting, sink and are not recovered. + +Only a few years ago an old and valued American friend of mine--an +ex-ship captain settled in the Gilbert Islands in the North +Pacific--became annoyed at what he deemed to be the excessive prices the +natives charged for fish. The "excessive price," I may mention, meant +that he was asked a half-dollar for a basket of fish weighing, say, +fifty or sixty pounds. A half-a-dollar is equal to an English florin; +but no coin was handed over--four sticks ot tobacco costing the trader +about ten cents, was the equivalent. So my friend decided to show the +natives that he could do without them as far as his fish supply went. +He bought a box of dynamite, with fuse and caps, from a German trading +schooner, and at once set to work, blowing off his right hand within +twenty-four hours, through using too short a fuse. + +That wretched box of dynamite proved a curse to the island. The natives, +despite my friend's accident, bought every cartridge from him, singly or +in lots, and they then began to enjoy themselves. Every hour of the +day for many weeks afterwards the sullen thud of the explosive could be +heard from all parts of the lagoon, followed by applauding shouts. Vast +numbers of fish were blown to pieces, for no native would ever think of +dividing a cartridge into half a dozen portions and using only one at a +time; the entire 6-oz. cartridge was used, and sometimes so short were +the fuses, that explosions would take place on the surface, to the +delight of the children, who said, "it was as good to hear as the +cannons of a man-of-war." In the short space of eight weeks there were +five serious accidents, two of which ended fatally. I was thankful when +the last charge had been exploded, and although the natives begged me to +import a fresh supply, I always declined--not on their account only, but +because of the wanton destruction of fish involved. + +One day I decided to try and ascertain if _oap_ would affect fish by +being swallowed. I prepared twenty or thirty small balls of the plant, +wrapped each one up carefully in thin strips of fish flesh, so as to +thoroughly conceal the contents, and took them out to the "turtle dock." +The dock, although it was a safe enclosure for turtle, yet had many +small passages through the coral rock which permitted the ingress and +exit of moderately-sized fish, particularly a variety of black and +red-spotted rock-cod. + +Throwing in the balls, one by one, I watched. Three of them were at once +swallowed by a lively young hawk-bill turtle, and the remainder were +soon seized by some yellow eels and rock-cod, before the larger and +slower-moving turtle (of which there were about twenty in the dock) +discerned them. I waited about on the reef in the vicinity for quite +three hours or more, returning to the pool at intervals and examining +the condition of its occupants. But, at the end of that time, the _oap_ +had apparently taken no effect, and, as night was near, I returned to +the village. + +On the following morning, I again went to the "dock," lowered my line, +and caught six rock-cod. In the stomachs of two I found the undigested +fibres of the _oap_ which, through expansion, they had been unable to +dislodge; but that it had not had any effect on them I was sure, for +these two fish were as strong and vigorous when hooked as were the four +others in whose stomachs there was no sign of _oap_. + +The young hawkbill turtle, however, was floating on the surface, and +seemed very sick. + +Here is a point for ichthyologists. Are the digestive arrangements of a +turtle more delicate than those of a fish? + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Five-Head" Creek; and Fish Drugging +In The Pacific, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE HEAD CREEK *** + +***** This file should be named 24642.txt or 24642.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/4/24642/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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