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+Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of a Beachcomber, by E J Banfield
+
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+Title: The Confessions of a Beachcomber
+
+Author: E J Banfield
+
+Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5113]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 1, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Col Choat colc@gutenberg.org.au
+
+
+
+
+
+The Confessions of a Beachcomber by E J Banfield
+
+
+
+
+"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he
+hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears."
+THOREAU
+
+
+To the Honourable Robert Philp, M.L.A.
+"Exact in his life,
+Extensive in his charity,
+Exemplary in everything he does,"
+THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY ONE WHO OWES
+TO HIM MUCH OF HIS LOVE FOR TROPICAL QUEENSLAND.
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+
+
+    PART I
+
+
+    INTRODUCTION
+
+    CHAPTER I
+
+    THE BEACHCOMBER'S DOMAIN
+    OFFICIAL LANDING
+    OUR ISLAND
+    EARLY HISTORY
+    SATELLITES AND NEIGHBOURS
+    PLANS AND PERFORMANCES
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+    BEACHCOMBING
+    TROPICAL INDUSTRIES
+    SOME DIFFRENCES
+    ISLAND FAUNA
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+    BIRDS AND THEIR RIGHTS
+    A CENSUS
+    THE DAYBREAK FUGUE
+    THE MEGAPODE
+    SWAMP PHEASANT
+    "GO-BIDGER-ROO"
+    BULLY, SWAGGERER, SWASHBUCKLER
+    EYES AFLAME
+    THE NESTFUL TREE
+    "STATELY FACE AND MAGNANIMOUS MINDE"
+    WHITE NUTMEG PIGEON
+    FRUIT EATERS
+    AUSTRALIA'S HUMMING BIRD
+    "MOOR-GOODY"
+    THE FLAME-TREE'S VISITORS
+    RED LETTER BIRDS
+    CASUAL AND UNPRECISE
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+    GARDEN OF CORAL
+    QUEER FISH
+    THE WARTY GHOUL
+    "BURRA-REE"
+    FOUR THOUSAND LIKE ONE
+    THE BAILER SHELL
+    A RIVAL TO THE OYSTER
+    SHARKS AND SKIPPERS
+    GORGEOUS AND CURIOUS
+    TURTLE GENERALLY
+    THE MERMAID OF TO-DAY
+    BECHE-DE-MER
+
+    CHAPTER V
+
+    THE TYRANNY OF CLOTHES
+    SINGLE-HANDEDNESS
+    A BUTTERFLY REVERIE
+    THE SERPENT BEGUILED
+    ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE
+    THE ARAB'S PRECEPT
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+
+    IN PRAISE OF THE PAPAW
+    THE CONQUERING TREE
+    THE UMBRELLA-TREE
+    THE GENUINE UPAS-TREE
+    THE CREEPING PALM
+    MAUVE, GREEN AND GREY
+    STEALTHY MURDERERS
+    TREE GROG
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+
+    "THE LORD AND MASTER OF FLIES"
+    A TRAGEDY IN YELLOW
+    COLOUR EFFECTS
+    MUSICAL FROGS
+    ACTS WELL ITS PART
+    GREEN ANT CORDIAL
+    WOOING WITH WINGS
+    THE GREED OF THE SNAKE
+    A SWALLOWING FEAT
+
+
+    PART II
+
+    STONE AGE FOLKS
+
+    CHAPTER I
+
+    PASSING AWAY
+    TURTLE AND SUCKERS
+    A "KUMMAORIE"
+    WEATHER DISTURBERS
+    A DINNER-PARTY
+    BLACK ART
+    A POISONOUS FOOD
+    MESSAGE STICKS
+    HOOKS OF PEARL
+    "WILD" DYNAMITE
+    A CAVERN AND ITS LEGEND
+    A SOULFUL DANCE
+    A SONG WITHOUT WORDS
+    ORIGIN OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
+    CROCODILE CATCHING
+    SUICIDE BY CROCODILE
+    DISAPPEARANCE OF BLACKS
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+    GRORGE: A MIXED CHARACTER
+    YAB-OO-RAGOO: OTHERWISE "MICKIE"
+    TOM: HIS WIVES: HIS BATTLES
+    "LITTLE JINNY": IN LIFE AND IN DEATH
+    THE LANGUAGE TEST
+    LAST OF THE LINE
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+    ATTRIBUTES AND ANECDOTES
+    COMMON AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
+    THE "DEBIL-DEBIL"
+    CLOTHING SUPERFLUOUS
+    BROTHER AND SISTER
+    THE RAINBOW
+    SWIMMING FEATS
+    SMOKE SIGNALS
+    THUNDER FACTORY
+    THE ORACLE
+    A REAL LETTER
+    A BLACK DEGENERATE
+    JUMPED AT A CONCLUSION
+    PRIDE OF RACE
+    "YANKEE CHARLEY"
+    MYALL'S BAKING
+    EVERYTHING FOR A NAME
+    THE KNIGHTLY GROWTH
+    HONOUR AND GLORY
+    FIRE JUMP UP
+    SLOP TEETH
+    A FASCINATED BOY
+    AWKWARD CROSS-EXAMINATION
+    THE ONLY ROCK
+    SAW THE JOKE
+    ZEBRA'S VANITY
+    LAURA'S TRAITS
+    ROYAL BLANKETS
+    HIS DAILY BREAD
+    HUMAN NATURE
+    AN APT RETORT
+    MISSIS'S TROUSERS
+    DULL-WITTED
+    STRATEGY
+    LITERAL TRUTH
+    MAGIC THAT DID NOT WORK
+    ANTI-CLIMAX
+    LITTLE FELLA CREEK SAILOR
+    A FATEFUL BARGAIN
+    EXCUSABLE BIAS
+    THE TRIAL SCENE
+    A REFLECTION ON THE HORSE
+    TRIUMPH OF MATTER OVER MIND
+    THE RUSE THAT FAILED
+    THE BIG WORD
+    MICKIE'S VERSION
+    HONOURABLE JOHNNY
+    THE TRANSFORMATION
+    MONEY-MAKING TRICK
+    HONOURABLE CHASTISEMENT
+    "AND YOU TOO"
+    PARADISE
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+    AND THIS OUR LIFE
+
+    * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Does the fact that a weak mortal sought an unprofaned sanctuary--an
+island removed from the haunts of men--and there dwelt in tranquillity,
+happiness and security, represent any just occasion for the relation of
+his experiences--experiences necessarily out of the common? To this
+proposition it will be for these pages to find answer.
+
+Few men of their own free will seek seclusion, for does not man belong to
+the social vertebrates, and do not the instincts of the many rule? And
+when an individual is fain to acknowledge himself a variant from the
+type, and his characteristics or idiosyncrasies (as you will) to be so
+marked as to impel him to deem them sound and reasonable; when, after
+sedate and temperate ponderings upon all the aspects of voluntary exile
+as affecting his lifetime partner as well as himself, he deliberately
+puts himself out of communion with his fellows, does the experiment
+constitute him a messenger? Can there be aught of entertainment or
+instruction in the message he may fancy himself called upon to deliver?
+or, is the fancy merely another phase of the tyranny of temperament?
+
+We cannot always trust in ourselves and in the boldest of our illusions.
+There must be trial. Then, if success be achieved and the illusion
+becomes real and transcendental, and other things and conditions merely
+"innutritious phantoms," were it not wise, indeed essential, to tell of
+it all, so that mayhap the illusions of others may be put to the test?
+
+Not that it is good or becoming that many should attempt the part of the
+Beachcomber. All cannot play it who would. Few can be indifferent to that
+which men commonly prize. All are not free to test touchy problems with
+the acid of experience. Besides, there are not enough thoughtful islands
+to go round. Only for the few are there ideal or even convenient scenes
+for those who, while perceiving some of the charms of solitude, are at
+the same time compelled by circumstances ever and anon to administer to
+their favourite theories resounding smacks, making them jump to the
+practical necessities of the case.
+
+Here then I come to a point at which frankness is necessary. In these
+pages there will be an endeavour to refrain from egotism, and yet how may
+one who lives a lonesome life on an island and who presumes to write its
+history evade that duty? My chief desire is to set down in plain language
+the sobrieties of everyday occurrences--the unpretentious homilies of an
+unpretentious man--one whose mental bent enabled him to take but a
+superficial view of most of the large, heavy and important aspects of
+life, but who has found light in things and subjects homely, slight and
+casual; who perhaps has queer views on the pursuit of happiness, and who
+above all has an inordinate passion for freedom and fresh air.
+
+Moreover, these chronicles really have to do with the lives of two
+people--not youthful enthusiasts, but beings who had arrived at an age
+when many of the minor romances are of the past. Whosoever looks for the
+relation of sensational adventures, exciting situations, or even humorous
+predicaments, will assuredly be disappointed. Possibly there may be
+something to interest those who wish to learn a few of the details of the
+foundation of a home in tropical Australia; and to understand the
+conditions of life here, not as they affect the man of independence who
+seeks to enlarge his fortune, nor the settler who in the sweat of his
+face has to eat bread, but as they affect one to whom has been given
+neither poverty nor riches, and who has proved (to his own satisfaction
+at least) the wisdom of the sage who wrote--"If you wish to increase a
+man's happiness seek not to increase his possessions, but to decrease his
+desires." Success will have been achieved if these pages reveal candour
+and truthfulness, and if thereby proof is given that in North Queensland
+one "can draw nearer to nature, and though the advantages of civilisation
+remain unforfeited, to the happy condition of the simple, uncomplicated
+man!"
+
+In furtherance of the desire that light may shine upon certain phases of
+the character of the Australian aboriginal, space is allotted in this
+book to selected anecdotes. Some are original; a few have been previously
+honoured by print. Others have wandered, unlettered vagrants, so far and
+wide as to have lost all record of legitimacy. To these houseless
+strangers I gladly offer hospitality, and acknowledge with thankfulness
+their cheerful presence.
+
+Grateful acknowledgments are due to Mr F. Manson Bailey, F.L.S., the
+official botanist of Queensland, for the scientific nomenclature of trees
+and plants referred to in a general way.
+
+E. J. BANFIELD.
+BRAMMO BAY, DUNK ISLAND,
+November, 1906.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+THE BEACHCOMBER'S DOMAIN
+
+
+Two and a half miles off the north-eastern coast of Australia--midway,
+roughly speaking, between the southern and the northern limits of the
+Great Barrier Reef, that low rampart of coral which is one of the wonders
+of the world--is an island bearing the old English name of Dunk.
+
+Other islands and islets are in close proximity, a dozen or so within a
+radius of as many miles, but this Dunk Island is the chief of its group,
+the largest in area, the highest in altitude, the nearest the mainland,
+the fairest, the best. It possesses a well-sheltered haven (herein to be
+known as Brammo Bay), and three perennially running creeks mark a further
+splendid distinction. It has a superficial area of over three square
+miles. Its topography is diversified--hill and valley, forest and jungle,
+grassy combes and bare rocky shoulders, gloomy pockets and hollows,
+cliffs and precipices, bold promontories and bluffs, sandy beaches, quiet
+coves and mangrove flats. A long V-shaped valley opens to the south-east
+between steep spurs of a double-peaked range. Four satellites stand in
+attendance, enhancing charms superior to their own.
+
+This island is our home. He who would see the most picturesque portions
+of the whole of the 2000 miles of the east coast of Australia must pass
+within a few yards of our domain.
+
+In years gone by, Dunk Island, "Coonanglebah" of the blacks, had an evil
+repute. Fertile and fruitful, set in the shining sea abounding with
+dugong, turtle and all manner of fish; girt with rocks rough-cast with
+oysters; teeming with bird life, and but little more than half an hour's
+canoe trip from the mainland, the dusky denizens were fat, proud,
+high-spirited, resentful and treacherous, far from friendly or polite to
+strangers. One sea-captain was maimed for life in our quiet little bay
+during a misunderstanding with a hasty black possessed of a new bright
+tomahawk, a rare prize in those days. This was the most trivial of the
+many incidents by which the natives expressed their character.
+Inhospitable acts were common when the white folks first began to pay the
+island visits, for they found the blacks hostile and daring. Why invoke
+those long-silent spectres, white as well as black, when all active
+boorishness is of the past? Civilisation has almost fulfilled its
+inexorable law; but four out of a considerable population remain, and
+they remember naught of the bad old times when the humanising processes,
+or rather the results of them, began to be felt. They must have been a
+fine race, fine for Australian aboriginals at least, judging by the stamp
+of two of those who survive; and perhaps that is why they resented
+interference, and consequently soon began to give way before the
+irresistible pressure of the whites. Possibly, had they been more docile
+and placid, the remnants would have been more numerous though less
+flattering representatives of the race. You shall judge of the type by
+what is related of some of the habits and customs of the semi-civilised
+survivors.
+
+Dunk Island is well within the tropical zone, its true bearings being 146
+deg. 11 min. 20 sec. E. long., and 17 deg. 55 min. 25 sec. S. lat. It is
+but 30 miles south of the port of Geraldton, the wettest place in
+Australia, as well as the centre of the chief sugar-producing district of
+the State of Queensland. There the rainfall averages about 140 inches per
+annum. Geraldton has in its immediate background two of the highest
+mountains in Australia (5,400 feet), and on these the monsoons buffet and
+break their moisture-laden clouds, affording the district much
+meteorological fame. Again, 20 miles to the south lies Hinchinbrook
+Island, 28 miles long, 12 miles broad, and mountainous from end to end:
+there also the rain-clouds revel. The long and picturesque channel which
+divides Hinchinbrook from the mainland, and the complicated ranges of
+mountains away to the west, participate in phenomenal rain.
+
+Opposite Dunk Island the coastal range recedes and is of much lower
+elevation, and to these facts perhaps is to be attributed our modified
+rainfall compared with the plethora of the immediate North; but we get
+our share, and when people deplore the droughts which devastate
+Australia, let it be remembered that Australia is huge, and the most
+rigorous of Australian droughts merely partial. This country has never
+known drought. During the partial drought which ended with 1905, and
+which occasioned great losses throughout the pastoral tracts of
+Queensland, grass and herbage here were perennially green and
+succulent--the creeks never ceased running.
+
+Within the tropics heat is inevitable, but our island enjoys several
+climatic advantages. The temperature is equable. Blow the wind
+whithersoever it listeth, and it comes to us cooled by contact with the
+sea. Here may we drink oft and deep at the never-failing font of pure,
+soft, beneficent air. We have all the advantages which residence at the
+happy mean from the Equator bestows, and few of the drawbacks. By its
+fruits ye shall know the fertility of the soil.
+
+Birds are numerous, from the "scrub fowl" which dwells in the dim jungle
+and constructs of decaying leaves and wood and light loam the most
+trustworthy of incubators, and wastes no valuable time in the
+dead-and-alive duty of sitting, to the tiny sun-bird of yellow and
+purple, which flits all day among scarlet hibiscus blooms, sips nectar
+from the flame-tree, and rifles the dull red studs of the umbrella tree
+of their sweetness.
+
+The stalled ox is not here, nor the fatted calf, nor any of the mere
+advantages of the table; but there is the varied harvest of the sea, and
+all the freshness of an isle clean and green. The heat, the clatter, the
+stuffy odours, the toilsomeness, the fatigue of town life are abandoned;
+the careless quiet, the calm, the refreshment of the whole air, the tonic
+of the wide sea are gained. From the moment the sun illumines our hills
+and isles with glowing yellow until it drops in fiery splendour suddenly
+out of sight leaving a band of gleaming red above the purple western
+range, and a rippling red path across to Australia, the whole realm of
+nature seems ours to command.
+
+OFFICIAL LANDING
+
+Dunk Island was not selected haphazard as an abiding place. By
+camping-out expeditions and the cautious gleaning of facts from those who
+had the repute of knowing the country, useful information had been
+acquired unobtrusively. We were determined to have the best obtainable
+isle. More than one locality was favourably considered ere good fortune
+decided to send us hither to spy out the land. A camp-out on the shore of
+then unnamed Brammo Bay--a holiday-making party--and the result of the
+first day's exploration decided a revolutionary change in the lives of two
+seriously-minded persons. A year after, a lease of the best portion of
+the island having been obtained in the meanwhile, we came for good.
+
+Wholly uninhabited, entirely free from traces of the mauling paws of
+humanity, lovely in its mantle of varied foliage, what better sphere for
+the exercise of benign autocracy could be desired? Here was virgin
+country, 20 miles from the nearest port--sad and neglected Cardwell cut
+off from the mainland by more than 2 miles of estranging ocean, and yet
+lying in the track of small coastal steamers--here all our pet theories
+might serenely develop.
+
+But it was an inauspicious landing. With September begin the north-east
+winds, and we had an average experience that afternoon. Was it not a
+farce--a great deal more than a farce: a saucy, flippant imposition on the
+tender mercies of Providence--for an individual who could not endure a few
+hours of tossing on the bosom of the ocean without becoming deadly sick,
+to imagine that he possessed the hardihood to establish a home even in
+this lovely wilderness? We had tents and equipment and a boat of our own,
+a workman to help us at the start, and two faithful black servants.
+
+The year before, we had made the acquaintance of one of the few survivors
+of the native population of the island--stalwart Tom. Although our project
+and preparations had been kept fairly secret, he had overheard a casual
+reference to them; had made a canoe, and paddling from island to island
+with his gin, an infant and mother-in-law, had preceded our advent by a
+week. His duties began with the discharging of the first boatload of
+portable property. He comes and goes now after the lapse of years.
+
+They spread out tents and rugs for the weak mortal who had greatly dared,
+but who, thus early, was ready to faint from weariness and sickness. They
+made comforting and soothing drinks, and spoke of cheery things in cheery
+tones; but the sick man refused to be comforted. He wished himself back,
+a participator in the conflicts of civilisation, and was fain to cover
+his face--there was no wall to which to turn--and fancy that the most
+dismal sound in the universe was the surly monotone the north-easter
+harped on the beach. We reposed that night among the camp equipment, the
+sick man caring for naught in his physical collapse and disconsolation.
+
+But the first morning of the new life! A perfect combination of
+invigorating elements. The cloudless sky, the clear air, the shining sea,
+the green folded slopes of Tam o' Shanter Point opposite, the
+cleanliness of the sand, the sweet odours from the eucalypts and the
+dew-laden grass, the luminous purple of the islands to the south-east;
+the range of mountains to the west and north-west, and our own fair
+tract-awaiting and inviting, and all the mystery of petted illusions
+about to be solved! Physic was never so eagerly swallowed nor wrought a
+speedier or surer cure.
+
+Feebleness and dismay vanished with the first plunge into the still
+sleepy sea, and alertness and vigour returned, as the incense of the
+first morning's sacrifice went straight as a column to the sky.
+
+Over half a century before, Edmund B. Kennedy, the explorer, landed on
+the opposite shore, on his ill-fated expedition up Cape York, to find the
+country inland from Tam o' Shanter Point altogether different from any
+previously-examined part of Australia. We gave no thought to the gallant
+explorer, near as we were to the scenes of his desperate struggle in the
+entanglements of the jungle.
+
+The island was all before us, where to choose our place of rest, and the
+bustle of the transport of goods and chattels to the site in the thick
+forest invisible from the sea began at once. Before sunset, tents were
+pitched among the trees, and a few yards of bush surrounding then
+cleared, and we were at home.
+
+Prior to departing from civilisation we had arranged for the construction
+of a hut of cedar, so contrived with nicely adjusting parts and bolts,
+and all its members numbered, that a mere amateur could put it together.
+If at the end of six months' trial the life was found to be unendurable,
+or serious objection not dreamt of in our salad philosophy became
+apparent, then our dwelling could be packed up again. All would not be
+lost.
+
+The clearing of a sufficient space for the accommodation of the hut was
+no light task for unaccustomed hands, for the bloodwood trees were mighty
+and tough, and the dubious work of burning up the trunks and branches
+while yet green, in our eagerness for free air and tidiness, was
+undertaken. It was also accomplished.
+
+For several weeks there was little done save to build a kitchen and shed
+and widen the clearing in the forest. Inspection of the details of our
+domain was reserved as a sort of reward for present task and toil.
+According to the formula neatly printed in official journals, the
+building of a slab hut is absurdly easy--quite a pastime for the settler
+eager to get a roof of bark or thatch over his head. The frame, of
+course, goes up without assistance, and then the principal item is the
+slabs for walls. When you have fallen your tree and sawn off a block of
+the required length, you have only to split off the slab. Ah! but suppose
+the timber does not split freely, and your heavy maul does; and the
+wedges instead of entering have the habit of bouncing out as if they were
+fitted with internal springs, and your maul wants renewal several times,
+until you find that the timber prescribed is of no account for such
+tools; and at best your slabs run off to nothing at half length, and
+several trees have to be cut down before you get a single decent slab,
+and everybody is peevish with weariness and disappointment, the rudest
+house in the bush will be a long time in the building. "Experience is a
+hard mistress, yet she teacheth as none other." We came to be more
+indebted to the hard mistress--she gave us blistering palms and aching
+muscles--than to all the directions and prescriptions of men who claim to
+have climbed to the top of the tree in the profession of the "bush." A
+"bush" carpenter is a very admirable person, when he is not also a bush
+lawyer. Mere amateurs would be wise if they held their enthusiasm in
+check when they read the recipe--pat as the recipe for the making of a
+rice-pudding--for the construction of even a bark hut. It is so very easy
+to write it all down; but if you have had no actual experience in
+bark-cutting, and your trees are not in the right condition, you will put
+your elation to a shockingly severe test, harden the epidermis of your
+hands, and the whole of your heart, and go to bed many nights sadly ere
+you get one decent sheet for your roof.
+
+We do not all belong to the ancient and honourable family of the Swiss
+Robinsons, who performed a series of unassuming miracles on their island.
+There was no practical dispensation of providential favours on our
+behalf. Trees that had the reputation of providing splendid splitting
+timber defiantly slandered themselves, and others that should have almost
+flayed themselves at the first tap of the tomahawk had not the slightest
+regard for the reputation vouched for in serious publications.
+
+But why "burden our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone?" Why recall
+the memory of those acheful days, when all the pleasant and restful
+features of the island are uncatalogued? Before the rains began we had
+comfortable if circumscribed shelter. Does not that suffice? Our dwelling
+consisted of one room and a kitchen. Perforce the greater part of our
+time was spent out of doors. Isolation kept us moderately free from
+visitors. Those who did violate our seclusion had to put up with the
+consequences. We had purchased liberty. Large liberties are the
+birthright of the English. We had acquired most of the small liberties,
+and the ransom paid was the abandonment of many things hitherto deemed to
+form an integral part of existence.
+
+Had we not cast aside all traditions, revolting from the uniformity of
+life, from the rules of the bush as well as from the conventionalities of
+society? Here we were to indulge our caprices, work out our own
+salvation, live in accordance with our own primitive notions, and, if
+possible, find pleasure in haunts which it is not popularly supposed to
+frequent.
+
+Others may point to higher ideals and tell of exciting experiences, of
+success achieved, and glory and honour won. Ours not to envy superior
+qualifications and victories which call for strife and struggle, but to
+submit ourselves joyfully to the charms of the "simple life."
+
+OUR ISLAND
+
+    "Awake, O North Wind, and come, thou South,
+    Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."
+
+Our Island! What was it when we came into possession? From the sea,
+merely a range displaying the varied leafage of jungle and forest. A
+steep headland springing from a ledge of rock on the north, and a broad,
+embayed-based flat converging into an obtruding sand-spit to the west,
+enclose a bay scarcely half a mile from one horn to the other, the sheet
+of water almost a perfect crescent, with the rocky islet of Purtaboi,
+plumed with trees, to indicate the circumference of a circle. Trees come
+to the water's edge from the abutment of the bold eminence. Dome-shaped
+shrubs of glossy green (native cabbage--SCAEVOLA KOENIGII), with groups
+of pandanus palms bearing massive orange-coloured fruits; and here and
+there graceful umbrella trees, with deep-red decorations, hibiscus bushes
+hung with yellow funnells, and a thin line of ever-sighing beech oaks
+(CASUARINA) fringe the clean untrodden sand. Behind is the vistaless
+forest of the flat.
+
+Run the boat on the sand at high-water, and the first step is planted in
+primitive bush--fragrant, clean and undefiled. An empty jam tin or a
+broken bottle, spoors of the rude hoofs of civilisation, you might search
+for in vain. As difficult would it be to find either as a fellow to the
+nugget of gold which legend tells was used by a naked black as a sinker
+when he fished with hook of pearl shell out there on the edge of the
+coral reef,
+
+One superficial feature of our domain is distinct and peculiar, giving to
+it an admirable character. From the landing-place--rather more up towards
+the north-east cusp than the exact middle of the crescent bay--extends a
+flat of black sand on which grows a dense bush of wattles, cockatoo
+apple-trees, pandanus palms, Moreton Bay ash and other eucalypts, and the
+shapely melaleuca. This flat, here about 150 yards in breadth, ends
+abruptly at a steep bank which gives access to a plateau 60 feet above
+sea-level. The regularity of the outline of this bank is remarkable.
+Running in a more or less correct curve for a mile and a half, it
+indicates a clear-cut difference between the flat and the plateau. The
+toe of the bank rests upon sand, while the plateau is of
+chocolate-coloured soil intermixed on the surface with flakes of slate;
+and from this sure foundation springs the backbone of the island. On the
+flat, the plateau, and the hillsides, the forest consists of similar
+trees--alike in age and character for all the difference in soil--the one
+tree that does not leave the flat being the tea or melaleuca. In some
+places the jungle comes down to the water's edge, the long antennae of
+the lawyer vine toying with the rod-like aerial roots of the mangrove.
+
+The plateau is the park of the island, half a mile broad, and a mile and
+more long. Upon it grows the best of the bloodwoods (EUCALYPTUS
+CORYNBOSA), the red stringy bark (E. ROBUSTA), Moreton Bay ash (E.
+TESSALARIS), various wattles, the gin-gee of the blacks (DIPLANTHERA
+TETRAPHYLLA). PANDANUS AQUATICUS marks the courses and curves of some of
+the gullies. A creek, hidden in a broad ribbon of jungle and running from
+a ravine in the range to the sea, divides our park in fairly equal
+portions.
+
+Most part of the range is heavily draped with jungle--that is, on the
+western aspect. Just above the splash of the Pacific surges on the
+weather or eastern side, low-growing scrub and restricted areas of
+forest, with expansive patches of jungle, plentifully intermixed with
+palms and bananas, creep up the precipitous ascent to the summit of the
+range--870 feet above the sea. So steep is the Pacific slope that,
+standing on the top of the ridge and looking down, you catch mosaic
+gleams of the sea among the brown and grey tree-trunks. But for the
+prodigality of the vegetation, one slide might take you from the cool
+mountain-top to the cooler sea. The highest peak, which presents a
+buttressed face to the north, and overlooks our peaceful bay, is crowned
+with a forest of bloodwoods, upon which the jungle steadily encroaches.
+The swaying fronds of aspiring palms, adorned in due season with masses
+of straw-coloured inflorescence, to be succeeded by loose bunches of red,
+bead-like berries, shoot out from the pall of leafage. In the gloomy
+gullies are slender-shafted palms and tree-ferns, while ferns and mosses
+cover the soil with living tapestry, and strange, snake-like epiphytes
+cling in sinuous curves to the larger trees. The trail of the lawyer vine
+(CALAMUS OBSTRUENS), with its leaf sheath and long tentacles bristling
+with incurved hooks, is over it all. Huge cables of vines trail from tree
+to tree, hanging in loops and knots and festoons, the largest (ENTADA
+SCANDENS) bearing pods 4 feet long and 4 inches broad, containing a dozen
+or so brown hard beans used for match-boxes. Along the edge of the
+jungle, the climbing fern (LYNGODIUM) grows in tangled masses sending its
+slender wire-like lengths up among the trees--the most attractive of all
+the ferns, and glorified by some with the title of "the Fern of God," so
+surpassing its grace and beauty.
+
+September is the prime month of the year in tropical Queensland. Many of
+the trees are then in blossom and most of the orchids. Nocturnal showers
+occur fairly regularly in normal seasons, and every sort of vegetable is
+rampant with the lust of life. It was September when our isolation began.
+And what a plenteous realisation it all was that the artificial emotions
+of the town had been, haply, abandoned! The blood tingled with keen
+appreciation of the crispness, the cleanliness of the air. We had won
+disregard of all the bother and contradictions, the vanities and
+absurdities of the toilful, wayward, human world, and had acquired a
+glorious sense of irresponsibleness and independence.
+
+This--this was our life we were beginning to live--our very own life; not
+life hampered and restricted by the wills, wishes and whims of others;
+unencumbered by the domineering wisdom, unembarrassed by the formal
+courtesies of the crowd.
+
+September and the gin-gee, the quaint, grey-barked, soft-wooded tree with
+broad, rough, sage-green leaves, and florets massed in clumps to resemble
+sunflowers, was in all its pride, attracting relays of honey-imbibing
+birds during the day, and at night dozens of squeaking flying-foxes.
+Within a few yards of high-water stands a flame-tree (ERYTHRINA INDICA)
+the "bingum" of the blacks. Devoid of leaves in this leafy month, the
+bingum arrays itself in a robe of royal red. All birds and manner of
+birds, and butterflies and bees and beetles, which have regard for colour
+and sweetness come hither to feast. Sulphur-crested cockatoos sail down
+upon the red raiment of the tree, and tear from it shreds until all the
+grass is ruddy with refuse, and their snowy breasts stained as though
+their feast was of blood instead of colourless nectar. For many days here
+is a scene of a perpetual banquet--a noisy, cheerful, frolicsome revel.
+Cockatoos scream with excitement and gladness; honey-eaters whistle and
+call; drongos chatter and scold the rest of the banqueters; the tiny
+sun-bird twitters feeble protests; bees and beetles maintain a murmurous
+soothful sound, a drowsy blending of hum and buzz from the rising of the
+sun until the going down thereof.
+
+The dark compactness of the jungle, the steadfast but disorderly array of
+the forest, the blotches of verdant grass, the fringe of yellow-flowered
+hibiscus and the sapful native cabbage, give way in turn to the greys and
+yellows of the sand in alternate bands. The slowly-heaving sea trailing
+the narrowest flounce of lace on the beach, the dainty form of Purtaboi,
+and the varying tones of great Australia beyond combine to complete the
+scene, and to confirm the thought that here is the ideal spot, the freest
+spot, the spot where dreams may harden into realities, where unvexed
+peace may smile.
+
+There is naught to remind of the foetidness, the blare and glare of the
+streets. None of
+
+    "The weariness, the fever and the fret,
+    There, where men sit and hear each other groan."
+
+You may follow up the creeks until they become miniature ravines, or
+broaden out into pockets with precipitous sides, where twilight reigns
+perpetually, and where sweet soft gases are generated by innumerable
+plants, and distilled from the warm moist soil. How grateful and
+revivifying! Among the half-lit crowded groves might not another Medea
+gather enchanted herbs such as "did renew old Aeson."
+
+Past the rocky horn of Brammo Bay, another crescent indents the base of
+the hill. Exposed to the north-east breeze, the turmoil of innumerable
+gales has torn tons upon tons of coral from the out-lying reef, and cast
+up the debris, with tinkling chips and fragments of shells, on the sand
+for the sun and the tepid rains to bleach into dazzling whiteness. The
+coral drift has swept up among the dull grey rocks and made a ridge
+beneath the pendant branches of the trees, as if to establish a contrast
+between the sombre tints of the jungle and the blueness of the sea.
+Midway along the curve of vegetation a bingum flaunts its mantle--a
+single daub of demonstrative colouring. Away to the north stand out the
+Barnard Islands, and the island-like headland of Double-Point.
+
+Rocky walls and ledges intersected by narrow clefts in which the sea
+boils, gigantic masses of detached granite split and weathered into
+strange shapes and corniced and bridged at high water-mark by oysters,
+bold escarpments and medleys of huge boulders, extend along the weather
+side. No landing, except in the calmest weather, is possible. To gain a
+sandy beach, the south-east end of the island, passing through a deep
+channel separating the rocky islet of Wooln-garin, must be turned.
+Although there are no great cliffs, no awesome precipices on the weather
+side, the bluff rocks present many grotesque features, and the foliage is
+for the most part wildly luxuriant.
+
+From what has been already said, it may be gleaned that in the opinion of
+the most interested person the island is gilt-edged. So indeed it is, in
+fact, when certain natural conditions consequent on the presence of coral
+are fulfilled. A phenomenally high tide deposited upon the rocks a slimy,
+fragile organism of the sea, in incomprehensible myriads which, drying,
+adhered smoothly in true alignment. With the sun at the proper angle
+there appeared, as far as the irregularity of the coast line permitted, a
+shining band, broken only where the face of the rock was uneven and
+detached--a zone of gold bestowed upon the island by the amorous sea. But
+on the beach the slime which transformed the grey and brown rocks was
+nothing but an inconsistent, dirty, grey-green, crisp, ill-smelling
+streak, that haply vanished in a couple of days. As I see less of the
+weather side than I do of the beach, I argue to myself that it is nearer
+perfection to be minus a streak of dirt than plus a golden edge.
+
+At no season of the year is the island fragrantless. The prevailing
+perception may be of lush grasses mingled with the soft odour of their
+frail flowers; or the resin and honey of blossoming bloodwoods; or the
+essence from myriads of other eucalyptus leaves massaged by the winds.
+The incomparable beach-loving calophyllums yield a profuse but tender
+fragrance reminiscent of English meadow-sweet, and the flowers of a
+vigorous trailer (CANAVILA OBTUSIFOLIA), for ever exploring the bare sand
+at high-water mark, resembles the sweet-pea in form and perfume. The
+white cedar (MELIA COMPOSITA) is a welcome and not unworthy substitute in
+appearance and perfume for English lilac. The aromatic pandanus and many
+varieties of acacia, each has its appointed time and season; while at odd
+intervals the air is saturated with the rich and far-spreading incense of
+the melaleuca, and for many weeks together with the honeyed excellence of
+the swamp mahogany (TRISTANIA SUAVOSLENS) and the over-rich cloyness of
+the cockatoo apple (CAREYA AUSTRALIS). Strong and spicy are the odours of
+the plants and trees that gather on the edge of and crowd in the jungle,
+the so-called native ginger, nutmeg, quandong, milkwood, bean-tree, the
+kirri-cue of the blacks (EUPOMATIA LAURINA), koie-yan (FARADAYA
+SPLENDIDA), with its great white flowers and snowy fruit, and many
+others. Hoya, heavy and indolent, trails across and dangles from the
+rocks; the river mangrove dispenses its sweetness in an unexpected
+locality; and from the heart of the jungle come wafts of warm breath,
+which, mingling with exhalation from foliage and flower, is diffused
+broadcast. The odour of the jungle is definite--earthy somewhat, but of
+earth clean, wholesome and moist--the smell of moss, fern and fungus
+blended with balsam, spice and sweetness.
+
+Many a time, home-returning at night--when the black contours of the
+island loomed up in the distance against the pure tropic sky tremulous
+with myriads of unsullied stars--has its tepid fragrance drifted across
+the water as a salutation and a greeting. It has long been a fancy of
+mine that the island has a distinctive odour, soft and pliant, rich and
+vigorous. Other mixtures of forest and jungle may smell as strong, but
+none has the rare blend which I recognise and gloat over whensoever,
+after infrequent absences for a day or two, I return to accept of it in
+grateful sniffs. In such a fervid and encouraging clime distillation is
+continuous and prodigious. Heat and moisture and a plethora of raw
+material, leaves, flowers, soft, sappy and fragrant woods, growing grass
+and moist earth, these are the essential elements for the manufacture of
+ethereal and soul-soothing odours suggestive of tangible flavours.
+
+I know of but one particular plant that is absolutely repellent. Its
+large flowers are of vivid gold, pure and refined; the unmixed odour is
+obscene. A creeper of the jungle bears small yellow flowers (slightly
+resembling those of the mango, save that they are produced in frail loose
+cymes instead of on vigorous panicles), the excessive sweetness of which
+approaches nauseousness. But its essence mingles with the rest, and the
+compound is singularly rich and acceptable.
+
+On sandy stretches and along the deltas of the creeks are fragrant,
+gigantic "spider lilies" (CRINIUM). I do not pretend to catalogue
+botanically all the plants that contribute to the specific odour of the
+island. I cannot address them individually in scientific phraseology,
+though with all I am on terms of easy familiarity, the outcome of
+seasoned admiration. They please by the form and colour of their
+blossoms, and ring ever-recurring and timeful changes, so that month by
+month we enjoy the progress of the perfumes, the blending of some, the
+individual excellence of others. In endeavouring to convey to the unelect
+an impression of their variety and acceptableness, am I not but
+discharging a debt of gratitude?
+
+As far as I am aware, but four or five epiphytal orchids add to the
+scents of the island; and as they have not Christian names, their pagan
+titles must suffice--CYMBIDIUM SUAVE, ERIA FITZALANI, BULBOPHYLLUM
+BAILEYI, DENDROBIUM TERETIFOLIUM and D. UNDULATUM. The latter is not
+commonly credited with perfume; but when it grows in great unmolested
+masses its contribution is pleasant, if not very decided. The pretty
+terrestrial orchid (CYRTOSTYLIS RENIFORMIS) is delicately fragrant, but
+the great showy PHAIUS GRANDIFOLIUS (the tropical foxglove) and the meek
+GEODORUM PICTUM (Queensland's lily of the valley) are denied the gift.
+
+The forest, the jungle, the grassy spots, the hot rocks (with hoya and
+orchids), and even the sands, with the native sweet-pea, are fragrant. A
+lowly creeping plant (VITEX TRIFOLIA), with small spikes of
+lavender-coloured flowers, and grey-green silvery leaves, mingles with
+the coarse grasses of the sandy flats, and usurping broad areas forms an
+aromatic carpet from which every footstep expresses a homely pungency as
+of marjoram and sage. The odour of the island may be specific, and
+therefore to be prized, yet it gladdens also because it awakens happy and
+all too fleeting reminiscences. English fields and hedges cannot be
+forgotten when one of our trees diffuses the scent of meadow-sweet, and
+one of the orchids that of hawthorn. "Scent and silence" is the phrase
+which expresses the individuality of our island, and better "scented
+silence" than all the noisy odours of the town.
+
+However showy the flora of the island, the existence of kindly fruits
+must be deplored. Immense quantities, alluring in colour and form, are
+produced; but not a single variety of real excellence. The raspberries
+(two kinds) have but little flavour; the native "Cape gooseberry"
+(PHYSALIS MIMIS), which appears like magic when the jungle is felled and
+burnt off, is regarded with hostility, though unworthily, even by the
+blacks; the" wild" grapes are sour and fiery, and among the many figs
+only two or three are pleasant, and but one good. "Bedyewrie" (XIMENIA
+AMERICANA) has a sweetish flavour, with a speedy after-taste of bitter
+almonds, and generally refreshing and thirst-allaying qualities; the
+shiny blue quandong (ELAEOCARPUS GRANDIS), misleading and insipid; the
+Herbert River cherry (ANTIDESMA DALLACHYANUM), agreeable certainly, but
+not high class; the finger cherry "Pool-boo-nong" of the blacks
+(RHODOMYRTUS MACROCARPA), possesses the flavour of the cherry guava, but
+has a most evil reputation. Some assert that this fruit is subject to a
+certain disease (a kind of vegetable smallpox), and that if eaten when so
+affected is liable to induce paralysis of the optic nerves and cause
+blindness and even death. Blacks, however, partake of the fruit
+unrestrictedly and declare it good, on the authority of tradition as well
+as by present appreciation. They do not pay the slightest respect to the
+injurious repute current among some white folks. Perhaps some trick of
+constitution or some singularity of the nervous system renders them immune
+to the poison, as the orange pigment said to reside in their epidermis
+protects them from the actinic rays of the sun. Does not Darwin assert
+that while white sheep and pigs are upset by certain plants dark-coloured
+individuals escape. At any rate blacks are not affected by the fruit,
+though large consumers of it, and many whites also eat of it raw and
+preserved, without fear and without untoward effects. Some of the Eugenias
+produce passable fruits, and one of the palms (CARYOTA) bears huge
+bunches of yellow dates, the attractiveness of which lies solely in
+appearance.
+
+Quite a long list of pretty fruits might be compiled, and yet not more
+than half a dozen are edible, and only half that number nice. The
+majority are bitter and acrid, some merely insipid, and of the various
+nuts not one is satisfactory.
+
+Why all this profuse vegetation and the anomaly of tempting fruits and
+nuts cram-full of meat and yet no real food--that is, food for man? Is it
+that man was an after-thought of Nature, or did Nature fulfil herself in
+his splendid purpose and capacities? She supplies abundantly food
+convenient for birds and other animals lower in the scale of life, but
+man is left to master his fate. Even when uncivilised he is called upon
+to exercise more or less wit before he may eat, and the higher his grade
+the more stress upon his intelligence.
+
+When one contemplates the unpromising origin of the apple of today, and
+the rich assortment of fruits here higher in the scale of progression
+than it, imagination delights to dwell upon the wonders which await the
+skill of a horticultural genius. The crude beginnings of scores of
+pomological novelties are flaunted on every side. The patient man has to
+come.
+
+EARLY HISTORY
+
+To that grand old mariner, Captain Cook, belongs the honour of the
+discovery of the island. The names that he bestowed--judicious and
+expressive--are among the most precious historic possessions of Australia.
+They remind us that Cook formed the official bond between Britain and
+this great Southern land, and bear witness to the splendid feats of quiet
+heroism that he performed, the privations that he and his ship's company
+endured, and the patience and perseverance with which difficulties were
+faced and overcome.
+
+In his journal, on 8th June 1770, Cook writes--"At noon we were by
+observation in the lat. of 17 degrees 59 minutes and abreast of the N.
+point of Rockingham Bay which bore from us N. 2 miles. This boundary of
+the Bay is formed by a tolerable high island known in the chart by the
+name of Dunk Isle; it lay so near the shore as not to be distinguished
+from it unless you are well in with the land... At this time we were in
+the long. of 213 degrees 57 minutes, Cape Sandwich bore S. by E. 1/2 E.
+distant 19 miles, and the northernmost land in sight N. 1/2 W. Our depth
+of water in the course of this one day's sail was not more than 16 nor
+less than 17 fathoms."
+
+In those history-making days the First Lord of the Admiralty was George
+Montagu Dunk, First Earl of Sandwich, Second Baron and First Earl of
+Halifax, and Captain Cook took several opportunities of preserving his
+patron's name. Halifax Bay (immediately to the north of Cleveland Bay)
+perpetuates the title; "Mount" Hinchinbrook (from his course Cook could
+not see the channel and did not realise that he was bestowing a name upon
+an island) commemorates the family seat of the Montagus; Cape Sandwich
+(the north-east point of Hinchinbrook) the older title, and Dunk Isle the
+family name of the distinguished friend of the great discoverer of lands.
+
+From this remote and unheard of spot may, accordingly, be traced
+association with a contemporary of Robert Walpole, of Pitt and Fox, of
+Edmund Burke, of John Wilkes (of the NORTH BRITON), of the author of THE
+LETTERS OF JUNIUS and of JOHN GILPIN, and many others of credit and
+renown. The First Earl Sandwich of Hinchinbrook was the "my lord" of the
+gossiping Pepys. Through him Dunk Island possesses another strand in the
+bond with the immortals, and is ensured connection with remote posterity.
+He gambled so passionately that he invented as a means of hasty
+refreshment the immemorial "sandwich," that the fascination of basset,
+ombre or quadrille should not be dispelled by the intrusion of a meal.
+He, too, was the owner of Montagu House, behind which "every morning saw
+steel glitter and blood flow," for the age was that of the duellist as
+well as the gambler.
+
+Rockingham Bay was so named in honour of the marquis of that title, the
+wise Whig premier who held that while the British Parliament had an
+undoubted right to tax the American colonies, the notorious Stamp Act was
+unjust and impolitic, "sterile of revenue, and fertile of discontent!"
+
+Cook and his day and generation passed, and then for many years history
+is silent respecting Dunk Island. The original inhabitants remained in
+undisturbed possession; nor do they seem to have had more than one
+passing visitor until Lieutenant Jeffereys, of the armed transport
+Kangaroo, on his passage from Sydney to Ceylon in 1815, communicated with
+the natives on then unnamed Goold Island. Captain Philip P. King,
+afterwards Rear-Admiral, who made in the cutter MERMAID a running survey
+of these coasts between the year 1818 and 1822, and who was the first to
+indicate that "Mount" Hinchinbrook was probably separated from the
+mainland, arrived in Rockingham Bay on the 19th June 1818. He named and
+landed on Goold Island, and sailing north on the 21st, anchored off
+Timana, where he went ashore. "Dunk Island," he writes, "a little to the
+northward, is larger and higher, and remarkable for its double-peaked
+summit."
+
+Those natives who are versed in the ancient history of the island, tell
+of the time when all were amazed by the appearance of bags of flour,
+boxes of tobacco, and cases of goods drifting ashore. None at the time
+knew what flour was; only one boy had previously smoked, and the goods
+were too mysterious to be tested. Many tried to eat flour direct from the
+bag. The individual who had acquired the reputation of a smoker made
+himself so sick that none other had the courage to imitate him, and the
+tobacco and goods were thrown about playfully. In after years the
+inhabitants were fond of relating how they had humbugged themselves.
+
+The next ensuing official reference of particular interest is contained
+in the narrative of the voyage of H.M.S. RATTLESNAKE, by John
+Macgillivray, F.R.G.S., naturalist of the expedition. The date is 26th
+May 1848, and an extract reads--"During the forenoon the ship was moved
+over to an anchorage under the lee (north-west side) of Dunk Island,
+where we remained for ten days. The summit of a very small rocky island,
+near the anchorage, named, by Captain Owen Stanley, Mound Islet
+(Purtaboi), formed the first station. Dunk Island, eight or nine miles in
+circumference, is well wooded; it has two conspicuous peaks, one of which
+(the north-west one) is 857 feet in height. Our excursions were confined
+to the vicinity of the watering-place and the bay in which it is
+situated. The shores are rocky on one side and sandy on the other, where
+a low point runs out to the westward. At their junction, and under the
+sloping hill with large patches of bush, a small stream of fresh water,
+running out over the beach, furnished a supply for the ship, although the
+boats could approach the place closely only at high-water. Among the
+most interesting objects of natural history are two birds, one a new and
+handsome fly-catcher (MONARCHA LEUCOTIS), the other a swallow, which Mr
+Goold informs me is also an Indian species. Great numbers of butterflies
+frequent the neighbourhood of the watering-place; one of these (PAPILIO
+URVILLIANUS) is of great size, and splendour, with dark purple wings,
+broadly margined with ultramarine, but from its habit of flying high
+among the trees I did not succeed in catching one. An enormous spider,
+beautifully variegated with black and gold, is plentiful in the woods,
+watching for its prey in the centre of a large net stretched horizontally
+between the trees. The seine was frequently hauled upon the beach with
+great success. One evening through its means, in addition to plenty of
+fish, no less than five kinds of star-fishes and twelve of crustacea,
+several of which are quite new, were brought ashore. Among the plants of
+the island the most important is a wild species of plantain or banana,
+afterwards found to range along the north-east coast and its islands, as
+far as Cape York. Here I saw for the first time a species of
+Sciadophyllum (BRASSAIA ACTINOPHYLLA, the umbrella-tree) one of the most
+singular trees of the eastern coast-line of tropical Australia; a slender
+stem, about thirty feet in height, gives off a few branches with immense
+digitate dark and glossy leaves, and long spike-like racemes of small
+scarlet flowers, a great resort for insects and insect-feeding birds.
+Soon after the ship had come to an anchor, some of the natives came off
+in their canoes and paid us a visit, bringing with them a quantity of
+shell-fish (SANGUINOLARIA RUGOSA), which they eagerly exchanged for
+biscuit. For a few days afterwards we occasionally met them on the beach,
+but at length they disappeared altogether, in consequence of having been
+fired at with shot by one of two 'young gentlemen' of the BRAMBLE on a
+shooting excursion, whom they wished to prevent approaching too closely a
+small village where they had their wives and children. Immediate steps
+were taken in consequence to prevent the recurrence of such collisions
+when thoughtless curiosity on one side is apt to be promptly resented on
+the other if numerically superior in force... The men had large
+cicatrices on the shoulders and across the breast and belly, the septum
+of the nose was perforated, and none of the teeth had been removed. I saw
+no weapons, and some rude armlets were their only ornaments."
+
+Tam o' Shanter Point derives its title from the barque of that name, in
+which the members of the Kennedy Exploring Expedition voyaged from
+Sydney, whence they disembarked on 24th and 25th May 1848. H.M.S.
+RATTLESNAKE had been commissioned to lend Kennedy assistance, and
+Macgillivray relates that everything belonging to the party (with the
+exception of one horse drowned while swimming ashore) was safely landed.
+The first camp was formed on some open forest-land behind the beach at a
+small fresh-water creek. On the 27th Mr Carson, the botanist of the party,
+commenced digging a piece of ground, in which he sowed seeds of cabbages,
+turnips, leek, pumpkin, rock and water melons, pomegranate, peach-stones
+and apple-pips. No trace of this first venture in gardening in North
+Queensland is now discernible. No doubt, inquisitive and curious blacks
+would rummage the freshly turned soil as soon as the back of the
+good-natured gardener was turned. It occurred to me that possibly the
+pomegranate seeds might have germinated, and the plants become
+established and acclimatised, but search proved resultless. Carson makes
+no reference to the coco-nut palm which once flourished at the mouth of
+the creek. The inference is that the nut whence it sprang drifted ashore
+after his attempt to civilise the vicinity by the planting of seeds.
+Dalrymple refers to the tree which, at the date of his visit (September
+1873), was "about fourteen feet in height, but without fruit!" It grew to
+a great tree, and blacks found in the fruit a refreshing, nutritious
+food; but an evil thing came along one day in the shape of a thirsty
+Chinaman, and as he could not climb the tree he cut it down, and blacks,
+even to this day, hate the name of Chinaman. Opposite the Point is the
+Island of Timana, known to some as "the Island on which the Chinaman was
+killed!" Whether "the Chinaman" was the person who cut down the coco-nut
+palm is not known, but somehow his fate and that of the palm have become
+associated.
+
+The only traces of the expedition of half a century ago are marks upon
+trees at the mouth of the Hull River--2 miles to the south, at the spot
+which it appears to have crossed. The object of Kennedy's expedition was
+to explore the country to the eastward of the dividing range running
+along the north-east coast of Australia. Difficulties assailed them at
+the outset, as many weeks passed before they got clear of Rockingham Bay,
+its rivers, swamps, and dense scrubs fenced in by a mountain chain. The
+cart was abandoned on July 18th and the horses were packed. An axle and
+other ironwork of a cart was found many years ago in the neighbourhood of
+the upper Murray River. As the axle was slotted for the old style of
+linchpins, no reasonable doubt exists as to its identity, and its
+discovery affords collateral proof of a statement published in Mr
+Dalrymple's official report--"It is noteworthy that several gins of the
+Rockingham Bay tribe now in service in private families, and with the
+native police are unanimous in their statements that an elderly white man
+is still resident amongst them, and they associate his capture with
+'white fellow leave him wheel-barrow along a scrub.' Kennedy abandoned his
+horse-cart in the scrub of the Rockingham Bay Range before these gins
+were born!" Kennedy's expedition was a disastrous failure. The brave
+leader was killed by the blacks far up Cape York Peninsula while he was
+heroically pushing on to obtain succour for his famishing and weary
+followers. Three only were subsequently rescued. All this has, perhaps,
+little to do with Dunk Island: but the scene is so close at hand that the
+temptation to include a slight reference to one of the most sensational
+and romantic episodes in the exploration of Australia could not be
+resisted.
+
+Twenty-five years lapsed, and then another official landing took place.
+In the meantime the island had been frequently visited, but there are no
+records, until the 29th September 1873, when the "Queensland North-East
+Coast Expedition," under the leadership of Mr G. Elphinstone Dalrymple,
+F.R.G.S., landed. Three members of the party have left pleasing
+testimonies of their first impressions, and I turn to the remarks of the
+leader for geological definitions. He says--"The formation of Dunk Island
+is clay slates and micaceous schist. A level stratum of a soft, greasy,
+and very red decomposing granitic clay was exposed along the southwest
+tide-flats, and quartz veins and blue slates were found on the same side
+of the island further in!" The huge granite boulders on the south-east
+aspect and the granite escarpments on the shoulders of the hills above
+did not apparently attract attention.
+
+One feature then existent has also disappeared. The explorers referred to
+the belt of magnificent calophyllum trees along the margin of the
+south-west beach, and Mr Dalrymple thus describes a vegetable wonder--
+"Some large fig-trees sent out great lateral roots, large as their own
+trunks, fifty feet into salt water; an anchor-root extending
+perpendicularly at the extremity to support them. Thence they have sent
+up another tree as large as the parent stem, at high-water presenting the
+peculiarity of twin-trees, on shore and in the sea, connected by a
+rustic root bridge." These trees have no place or part now.
+
+My chronicles are fated to be tinged with the ashen hue of the
+commonplace, though the scenes they attempt to depict are all of the
+sun-blessed tropics.
+
+SATELLITES AND NEIGHBOURS
+
+Consultation of the map will show that Dunk Island has four satellites
+and seven near relations. Though not formally included in the Family
+Group it stands as sponsor to all its members, and overlords the islets
+within a few yards of its superior shores. The official chart has been
+revised,
+
+Only a few examples of current titles are given, as the crowding in of
+the full list would have obscured the map in a maze of words. Many of the
+geographical titles of the blacks are without meaning, being used merely
+to indicate a locality. Others were bestowed because of the presence of a
+particular tree or plant or a remarkable rock. Some few commemorate
+incidents. Two places on Dunk Island perpetuate the names of females. The
+coast-line is so varied that specific names for localities a few hundred
+yards apart hardly seem necessary; but the original inhabitants, frugal
+of their speech, found it less trouble to strew names thickly than to
+enter into explanations one to another when relating the direction and
+extent which the adventures and the sport of the day led them. Few names
+for any part of the island away from the beach seem to have existed,
+although the site of camps along the edge of the jungle, and even in
+gullies as remote as may be from the sea, are even now apparent. Camps
+were not honoured by titles, but all the creeks and watercourses and other
+places where water was obtainable were so invariably, and camps were
+generally, though not always, made near water.
+
+Brief reference to each of the satellites and neighbours of Dunk Island
+may not be out of place; if only to preserve distinctions which were
+current long before the advent of white folks, and to make clear remarks
+in future pages upon the different features of the domain over which the
+Beachcomber exercises jurisdiction. Not to many men is permitted the
+privilege of choosing for his day's excursion from among so many
+beautiful spots, certain in the knowledge that to whichsoever he may
+elect to flutter his handkerchief is reserved for his delight; certain
+that the sands will be free from the traces of any other human being;
+certain that no sound save those of nature will break in upon his musings
+and meditations.
+
+Purtaboi, the first and the nearest of the satellites, lies
+three-quarters of a mile from the middle of the sweep of Brammo
+Bay--always in view through the tracery of the melaleuca trees.
+Mung-um-gnackum and Kumboola, to the south-west, are linked at low-water
+spring tides to Dunk Island and to each other; and Wooln-garin, to the
+south-east, is separated from the rocky cliffs and ledges of the island
+by 300 yards of deep and swiftly-flowing water.
+
+Purtaboi--dainty and unique--its hill crowned with low-growing trees and
+shrubs, a ruddy precipice, groups of pandanus palms, beach lined with
+casuarinas, banks of snow-white coral debris, ridge of sharped-edged
+rocks jutting out to the north-western cove and out-lying reef of coral,
+tangle of orchids and scrub all in miniature--save the orchids--gigantic
+and gross and profuse of old-gold bloom. In October and November hosts of
+sea-birds come hither to nest, and so also do nutmeg or Torres Straits
+pigeons, blue doves, peaceful doves, honey-eaters, wood-swallows, the
+blue reef heron, and occasionally the little black cormorant. The
+large-billed shore plover (ESACUS MAGNIROSTRIS) deposits her single egg
+on the sand, merely carelessly whisking aside the casuarina needles for
+its reception.
+
+Hundreds of terns (six species) lay their eggs among the tinkling coral
+chips, and discarding all attempts at concealment, practise artistic
+deception. So perfect is the artifice that the eggs are frequently the
+least conspicuous of the elements of the banks of drift, broken coral and
+bleached shells. Not until each square yard is steadfastly inspected can
+they be detected, though there may be dozens around one's feet, the
+colours--creamy white with grey and brown and purple spots, and blotches
+and scribblings--blending perfectly with their environment. The eggs, by
+the way, are a great delicacy, sweet, nutty, and absolutely devoid of
+fishy flavour. When the downy young are hatched they, too, are almost
+invisible. They cunningly lie motionless, though within a few inches of
+your hand, and remain perfectly passive when lifted. Snoodling beside
+lumps of coral or beneath weather-beaten drift-wood, they afford
+startling proof of the effect of sympathetic coloration. When one stoops
+to pick up a piece of wood, whitened and roughened by the salt of the
+sea, and finds that more than half its apparent bulk is made up of
+several infants in soft swaddles, crowded together into a homogeneous
+mass, the result is pleasing astonishment. Only when individuals of the
+group move do they become visible to their natural enemies. These tender
+young birds enjoy no protection nor any of the comfort of a nest; and if
+they were not endowed from the moment of birth with rare consciousness of
+their helplessness, the species, no doubt, would speedily become
+exterminated, for keen-sighted hawks hover about, picking up those which,
+failing to obey the first law of nature, reveal themselves by movement.
+If the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb, what is the provision of
+Nature which enables so tender a thing as a young bird, a mere helpless
+ball of creamy fluff, to withstand the frizzling heat with which the sun
+bleaches the broken coral? Many do avail themselves of the meagre shadow
+of shells and lumps of coral, but the majority are exposed to the direct
+rays of the sun, which brings the coral to such a heat that even the
+hardened beachcomber walks thereon with "uneasy steps," reminding him of
+another outcast who used that oft-quoted staff as a support over the
+"burning marl." Gilbert White relates that a pair of fly-catchers which
+inadvertently placed their nests in an intolerably hot situation hovered
+over it "all the hotter hours, while with wings expanded and mouths
+gaping for breath, they screened the heat from their suffering young."
+Parental duty of the like nature does not appear to be practised for the
+benefit of the young tern; but they are well fed with what may be
+considered thirst-provoking food. Thirst does occasionally overcome the
+instinct which the young birds obey by absolute stillness, and a
+proportion of those which give way to the ever-present temptation of the
+sea falls to the lot of the hawks. Mere fluffy toddlers, with mouths
+gaping with thirst, slide and scramble down the coral banks, waddle with
+uncertain steps across the strip of smooth sand to be rolled over and
+over in their helplessness by the gentle break of the sea. They cool
+their panting bodies by a series of queer, sprawling marine gymnastics,
+swim about buoyantly for a few minutes, are tumbled on to the sand, and
+waddle with contented cheeps each back to its own birthplace among
+hundreds of highly-decorated eggs, and hundreds of infants like unto
+themselves.
+
+The parents of the white-shafted ternlet (STERNA SINENSIS), the most
+sylph-like of birds, with others of the family, ever on the look-out,
+follow in circling, screaming mobs the disturbance on the surface of the
+sea caused by small fish vainly endeavouring to elude the crafty bonito
+and porpoise, and take ample supplies to the ever-hungry young. How is it
+that the hundreds of pairs recognise among the hundreds of fluffy young,
+identical in size and colour, each their particular care?
+
+The picture "where terns lay" testifies to the solicitude of Nature for
+the preservation of types. The apparent primary carelessness of the terns
+in depositing their eggs is shown, when the chicks are hatched, to have
+been artfulness of a high order. At least a dozen, if not more, young
+birds were sharply focused by the camera, but so perfectly do their
+neutral tints blend with the groundwork of coral, shells and sand that
+only three or four are actually discernible, and these are perplexingly
+inconspicuous. A microscopic examination of the photograph is necessary
+to differentiate the helpless birds from their surroundings.
+
+On another island within the Barrier Reef several species of sea-birds
+spontaneously adapted themselves to altered circumstances. They, in
+consonance with the general habits of the species, were wont to lay their
+eggs carelessly on the sand or shingle, without pretence of nests. A
+meat-loving pioneer introduced goats to the island, the continual
+parading about of which so disturbed the birds, and deprived them of
+their hope of posterity, that they took to the building of nests on dwarf
+trees, out of the way of the goats. That birds unaccustomed to the
+building of nests should acquire the habit, illustrates the depths of
+Nature's promptings for the preservation of species; or is it that the
+faculty existed as an hereditary trait, was abandoned only when its
+exercise was unnecessary, and resumed when there was conspicuous occasion
+for it? On a neighbouring island of the same group unstocked with goats,
+no change in the habits of the birds has taken place.
+
+Among the rocks of Purtaboi, in cool dark grottoes, the brown-winged tern
+rears her young. She often permits herself to be trapped rather than
+indicate her presence by voluntary flight. One of the most graceful of
+the sea-swallows this. Brown of back and greenish-white under surface;
+noisy, too, for it "yaps" as a terrier whensoever intruders approach the
+island during the brooding season; and its puff-ball chicken, crouching
+in dim recesses, takes the bluish-grey hue of the rock.
+
+The Blue Reef heron builds a rough nest of twigs on the ledges of the
+rocks, sometimes at the roots of the bronze orchid (DENDROBIUM
+UNDULATUM), and endeavours to scare away intruders by harsh squawks,
+stupidly betraying the presence of pale blue eggs or helpless brood. When
+the blue heron flies with his long neck stiffly tucked between his
+shoulders, he is anything but graceful; but under other circumstances he
+is not an ungainly bird. Occasionally my casual observations are made
+afar off, with the medium of a telescope. Then the birds are seen
+behaving naturally, and without fear or self-consciousness. The other day
+the cute attitudes of a beach curlew interested me, as he stood upon a
+stone just awash, and ever and anon picked up a crab. A blue heron
+flapped down beside him, and the curlew skipped off to another rock. In
+a minute the heron straightened his neck, poised its long beak for
+striking, and brought up a wriggling fish, which with a jerk of its head
+it turned end for end and swallowed. Another actor came within the field
+of the glass--the mate of the heron, alighting on the stone beside her
+lord and master. He was in a peckish humour, and instantly the tufts on
+his shoulders, the long feathers on the neck, and the rudimentary crest
+were angrily erected, and he made a peevish snap at her. You can imagine
+his reproof--"Get away from this. Don't crowd a fellow. Go to a rock of
+your own. This is my place. You spoil my sport!" Then, remembering that
+domestic tiffs were not edifying to strangers--and there was the sober
+brown curlew looking on--the bird let his angry feathers subside, and made
+way for his spouse on the best point of the rock. Each on one leg, they
+stood shoulder to shoulder, the very embodiment of connubial bliss. I
+noticed, too, that the mistress was allowed to fish to her heart's
+content, the master never raising a feather in remonstrance, though she
+gobbled up all that came along.
+
+Low-lying Mung-um-gnackum, the abode of the varied honey-eater, the
+tranquil dove, and the brooding-place of the night-jar (CAPRIMULGUS) and
+lovely Kumboola, lie to the south-west, a bare half-mile away.
+
+Kumboola's sheltered aspect is thickly clad with jungle; a steep grassy
+ridge springs from the blue-grey rocks to the south-east; and on the
+precipitous weather side grow low and open scrub and dwarf casuarina.
+Here is a natural aviary. Pigeons and doves coo; honey-eaters whistle;
+sun-birds whisper quaint, quick notes; wood swallows soar and twitter.
+Metallic starlings seek safe sleeping-places among the mangroves, ere
+they repair last year's villages, and join excitedly in the chorus; while
+the great osprey wheels overhead, and the grey falcon sits on a bare
+branch, still as a sentinel, each waiting for an opportunity to take toll
+of the nutmeg pigeons. The channel-billed cuckoo shrieks her discordant
+warning of the approaching wet season; and the scrub fowl utters those
+far-off imitations of the exclamation of civilised hens. Sundown at
+Kumboola towards the end of September, when the sea laps and murmurs
+among the rocks, and great white pigeons gather in thousands on the dark
+foliage, or "coo-hooing" and flapping, disappear beneath the thick leafy
+canopy, and all the other birds are saying their good-nights, or
+asserting their rights, or protesting against crowding or intrusion, is
+an ever-to-be-remembered experience. Added to the cheerful presence of
+the noisy birds, are the pleasant odours which spring from the jungle as
+coolness prevails, and the flaming west gives a weird tint of red to the
+outlines of the trees, and of purple to the drowsy sea.
+
+Of entirely different character is the last of the satellites to be
+mentioned, Wooln-garin. Lying 300 yards off the south-western end of Dunk
+Island, across a swift and deep channel, it is naught but a confused mass
+of weather-beaten rocks, the loftiest not being more than 50 feet above
+high-water. A few pandanus palms, hardy shrubs and trailers, and
+mangroves, spring from sheltered crevices, but for the most part the
+rocks are bare. The incessant assaults of the sea have cut deep but
+narrow clefts in the granite, worn out sounding hollows, and smoothed
+away angularities. Here a few terns rear their young, and succeeding
+generations of the sooty oyster-catcher lay their eggs just out of the
+reach of high-tide. A never-ending procession of fish passes up and down
+the channel, according as the tide flows and ebbs, though they do not at
+all times take serious heed of bait. To one who generally fishes for a
+definite purpose, it is tantalising to peep down into the clear depths
+and watch the lazy fish come and go, ignoring the presence of that which
+at other times is greedily snapped at. Turtle, and occasionally dugong,
+favour the vicinity of Wooln-garin which on account of its distinctive
+character is one of the most frequented of the satellites.
+
+The neighbouring islands include Timana, 2 1/2 miles from the sand-spit
+of Dunk Island and 1 1/2 mile from Kumboola. Bedarra lies a little to the
+southward; Tool-ghar three-quarters of a mile from Bedarra; Coomboo half
+a mile from Tool-ghar; and the group of three--Bud-joo, Kurrambah and
+Coolah--still further to the south-east. These comprise the Family
+Islands of the chart.
+
+On Timana are gigantic milkwood trees (ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS) which need
+great flying buttresses to support their immense height, their roots
+being mainly superficial. For many generations two ospreys have had their
+eyrie in one of these giant trees, fit nursery for imperial birds! With
+annual additions, the nest has attained immense proportions, and as years
+pass it will still further increase, for blacks capable of climbing such
+a tree and disturbing the occupants are few and far between. Great
+distinction and pride, however, are the lot of the athlete who secures
+the snowy down of the young birds to stick in tufts on his dirty head
+with fat, gum or beeswax, for he will be the admired of all admirers at
+the CORROBBOREE. Vanity impels human beings to extraordinary exertions,
+trials and risks, and the black who desires to outshine his fellows, and
+who has the essential of strength and length of limb, will make a loop of
+lawyer vine round the tree, and with his body within the loop begin the
+ascent. Having cut a notch for the left great toe, he inclines his weight
+against the tree, while he shifts the loop three feet or so upwards. Then
+he leans backward against the loop, cuts a notch for his right great toe,
+and so on until the nest is reached. There has been but one ascent of
+this tree in modern times, and the name of the black, "Spider," is still
+treasured.
+
+A heavy, slovenly-patched mantle of leafage, impervious to sunlight,
+covers the Isle of Timana, creating a region of perpetual dimness from
+western beach to eastern precipice, where orchids cling and palms peer on
+rocks below. All the vegetation is matted and interwoven, only the
+topmost branches of the milkwood escaping from the clinging, aspiring
+vines. Tradition asserts that not many years since Timana was much
+favoured by nutmeg pigeons, now sparsely represented; but the varied
+honey-eater and a friar bird possessing a most mellow and fluty note,
+cockatoos and metallic starlings are plentiful. Although there is no
+permanent fresh water, the pencil-tailed rat leaves numerous tracks on
+the sand, and scrub fowls keep the whole surface perpetually raked.
+
+From a mound adjacent to the beach a black boy brought fifteen eggs as we
+picnicked on the beach, and though some of them were nigh upon hatching,
+not one was covered with white ants--which, an authority asserts,
+particularly like crawling over the eggshells, so as to be ready when
+wanted by the chicks. Nor have I ever seen an instance of this alleged
+exhibition of self-sacrifice on the part of the white ant. Another boy
+had eaten his very substantial lunch, but the eggs were tempting and he
+baked two. One, and that new-laid, is ample for an ordinary mortal. The
+condition of the first resembled that which the embarrassed curate
+described as "good in parts"; but "Mickie" was not nice over a
+half-hatched egg. Indeed, was it not rather more piquant than otherwise?
+The second proved to contain a fully developed chicken. Now the chick
+emerges from the shell feathered, and this, but for the unfortunate
+accident of discovery, would have begun to scratch for its living in a
+day or so. Mickie flicked away the fragments of shell from the steaming
+dainty and laid it snugly on a leaf. "That's for Paddy"--an Irish
+terrier, always of the party. It was an affecting act of renunciation.
+Presently "Paddy" came along; but "Paddy," who, too, had lunched,
+bestowed merely a sniff and a "No, thank you" wag of the tail. "What, you
+no want 'em? All right." No second offer was risked, and in a moment, in
+one mouthful, the chick was being crunched by Mickie, feathers and all.
+The menu of the Chinese--with its ducks' eggs salted, sharks' fins and
+tails, stewed pups, fowls' and ducks' tongues, fricasseed cat, rat soup,
+silkworm grubs, and odds and ends generally despised and rejected--is
+pitifully unromantic when set against the generous omnivority of
+Australian blacks.
+
+A mile beyond Timana is Bedarra, with its lovely little bays and coves
+and fantastically weathered rocks, its forest and jungle and scrub, and
+its rocky satellite Pee-rahm-ah.
+
+Several of the most conspicuous landmarks are associated in the minds of
+blacks with legends, generally of the simplest and most prosaic nature.
+About this rough rock Pee-rahm-ah is a story which in the minds of the
+natives satisfactorily accounts for its presence.
+
+In the far-away past two nice young gins, they say, were left by
+themselves on Dunk Island, while the others of the tribe went away in
+canoes to Hinchinbrook. Tiring of their lonesomeness, they made up their
+minds to regain the company of their relatives by swimming from island to
+island. Kumboola was easily reached; to Timana it is but a mile and a
+half, and a mile thence to Bedarra. Leaving the most easterly point of
+Bedarra, they were quickly caught in the swirl of a strong current and
+spun about until both became dazed and exhausted. As they disappeared
+beneath the water they were changed to stone, and the stone rose in
+fantastic shape, and from that day Pee-rahm-ah has weathered all the
+storms of the Pacific and formed a feature in the loveliest scene these
+isles reveal.
+
+The largest of the neighbouring isles, Bedarra, has less than a square
+mile of superficial area; the smallest but 4 or 5 acres. The smaller are
+made up of confused masses of granite, for the most part so overgrown
+with fig trees, plumy palms, milkwoods, umbrella-trees, quandongs,
+eugenias, hibiscus bushes, bananas and lawyer vines, as to be
+unexplorable without a scrub-knife; for the soil among the rocks is soft
+and spongy, the purest of vegetable mould, and encourages luxurious
+growth. The jungle droops over the grey rocks on the sheltered side.
+Twisted Moreton Bay ash and wind-crippled scrub spring up among the
+clefts and crevices on the weather frontage--the south-east--while a
+narrow strip of sand, the only landing-place, is a general characteristic
+of the north-west aspect. Birds nest in numbers in peace and security,
+for the islets are off the general track. Seldom is there any disturbance
+of the primeval quietude, and in the encompassing sea, if the fish and
+turtle suffer any excitement, rarely is the cause attributable to man.
+
+The islands immediately to the south-east form the Family Group--triplets,
+twins and two singles. I like to think approving things of them; to note
+individual excellences; to familiarise myself with their distinguishing
+traits; to listen to them in their petulance and anger, and in that
+sobbing subsidence to even temper; to their complacent gurglings and
+sleepy murmurs. One--and the most Infantile of all--not of the Family, has
+a distinctive note, a copyright tone which none imitates, and which
+becomes at times a sonorous swelling boom, a lofty recitative, for even an
+island has its temper and its moods.
+
+PLANS AND PERFORMANCES
+
+"The folly of this island! They say there's but five upon this isle; we
+are two of them; if the other three be brained like us the State
+totters!"
+
+
+The scheme for the establishment of our island home comprehended several
+minor industries. This isle of dreams, of quietude and happiness; this
+fretless scene; this plot of the Garden of Eden, was not to be left
+entirely in its primitive state. It was firmly resolved that our
+interference should be considerate and slight; that there should be no
+rude and violent upsetting of the old order of things; but just a gentle
+restraint upon an extravagant expression here and there, a little
+orderliness, and ever so light a touch of practicability. A certain
+acreage of land was to be cleared for the cultivation of tropical fruits;
+of vegetables for everyday use, and of maize and millet for poultry,
+which we proposed to breed for home consumption. Bees were to be an
+ultimate source of profit. There are millions of living proofs of direct
+but vagrant descent from the Italian stock, with which we started,
+humming all over this and the adjacent islands to-day.
+
+How we went about the practical accomplishment of our plans; in what
+particulars they failed; what proportion of success was achieved, and the
+process of education in rural enterprises generally, it were idle to
+account. Rather, an attempt must be made to give particulars of the
+project as a whole as it stands after a period of nine years. Be it
+understood that we depended almost solely on the aid of the blacks. Means
+at command did not permit the employment of even a single white workman,
+save for a brief experimental period. Indeed, there is yet to be found in
+Australia the phase of tropical agriculture which affords payment of the
+ruling rate of wages. The proximity of countries in which cheap labour
+predominates counterbalances the minimum demand of white men in these
+parts. Those who have had experience of aboriginals as labourers,
+understand their erratic disposition; yet with considerate treatment, the
+exact and prompt fulfilment of obligations and promises, the display of
+some little sympathy with their foibles, interest in their doings, and
+ready response to any desire expressed to "walk about," they are not
+wholly to be set at naught as labourers. Some are intelligent and honest
+to a degree, and when in the humour will work steadily and consistently.
+When not in humour, it is well to accept the fact cheerfully.
+
+Here I must have leave to be candid, so that the reader may be under no
+misapprehension as to the exact circumstances under which the undertaking
+progressed. Income from the land as the result of agricultural operations
+was not absolutely necessary. This acknowledgment does not imply the
+possession of, or any disrespect for, "the cumbersome luggage of riches,"
+nor any affectation; but rather an accommodating and frugal
+disposition--the capacity to turn to account the excellent moral that
+poor Mr Micawber lamented his inability to obey. Profit from the sale of
+produce and poultry would have supplied additional comforts which would
+have been cordially appreciated; but if no returns came, then there was
+that state of mind which enabled us to endure the deprivation as the
+Psalmist suffered fools. And shall not this be accounted unto us for
+righteousness? Shall we not enjoy the warm comfort of virtue? We were at
+liberty to reflect with the Vicar of Wakefield--"We have still enough
+left for happiness, if we are wise; and let us draw upon content for the
+deficiencies of fortune." Certainly, we were not inclined to risk that
+which thriftily employed provided for all absolute necessaries on the
+chance of securing that which might, after all, prove to be superfluous.
+At least, there remains the consciousness of having lived, and of having
+wrought no evil (not having interfered in recent Federal Legislation),
+and being able to enjoy the sleep which is said to be that of the just.
+
+Occasionally there are as many as four blacks about the place. They come
+and go from the mainland, some influenced by the wish for the diet of
+oysters for a time. "Me want sit down now; me want eat oyster." At rare
+intervals we are entirely alone for months together, and then cultural
+operations stand still. Twice, a considerable portion of the plantation
+was silently overrun by the scouts of the jungle, and had to be
+re-surveyed in order to locate smothered-up orange-trees. Our staff,
+domestic and otherwise, usually consists of one boy and his gin, and save
+for the housework, affairs are not conducted on a serious or systematic
+plan. The spur necessity not being applied, there is no persistent or
+sustained effort to make a profit, and, of course, none is earned.
+
+In a few months from the felling of the first strip of jungle and the
+burning off of the timber and rubbish, however, we grew produce that went
+towards the maintenance of the establishment. That pious old man who
+lived to the majestic age of 105, and during the last ninety years
+existed wholly upon bread and water, was not the only one who had "a
+certain lusting after salad." Until we grew fruit, the papaw, the
+quickest and amongst the best, vegetables were more necessary.
+
+Our plantation, all carved out of the jungle, has an area of 4 1/2 acres.
+We have orange-trees (two varieties), just coming into bearing, and from
+which profits are expected; pineapples (two varieties), papaws, coffee
+(ARABICA), custard apples, sour sop, jack fruit, pomegranate, the
+litchee, and mangoes in plenty. Sweet potatoes are always in successive
+cultivation, also pumpkins and melons, and an occasional crop of maize.
+Bananas represent a staple food. We have had fair crops of English
+potatoes, and have grown strawberries of fine flavour, though of
+deficient size, among the banana plants. Parsley, mint, and all "the
+vulgar herbs" grow freely. Readers in less favoured climes may hardly
+credit the statement that pineapples are so plentiful in the season in
+North Queensland that they are fed to pigs as well as horses. Twenty good
+pines for sixpence!--who would cultivate the fruit and market it for such
+remuneration? Hundreds of tons of mangoes go absolutely to waste every
+year. The taste for this wholesome and most delicious fruit has not yet
+become established in the large centres of population of Australia. At
+one time the same could he said of bananas; but now the trade has become
+prodigious. The era of the mango has yet to come.
+
+The original cedar hut now forms an annexe to a bungalow designed, in so
+far as means permitted, as a concession to the dominating characteristics
+of the clime. Around the house is an acre or so given over to an attempt
+to keep up appearances.
+
+Poultry are comfortably housed; a small flock of goats provides milk and
+occasionally fresh meat. There are two horses (one a native of the
+island) to perform casual heavy work; the boat has a shed into which she
+is reluctantly hauled by means of a windlass to spend the rowdy months;
+there is a buoy in the bay to which she is greatly attached when she is
+not sulking in the shed or coyly submitting to the caresses of the waves.
+
+It may have been anticipated that I would, Thoreau-like, set down in
+details and in figures the exact character and cost of every designed
+alteration to this scene; but the idea, as soon as it occurred, was
+sternly suppressed, for however cheerful a disciple I am of that
+philosopher, far be it from me to belittle him by parody.
+
+A good portion of the house represents the work of my own unaccustomed
+hands. I have found how laborious an occupation fencing is, and how very
+exasperating if barbed wire is used; that the keeping in order of even a
+small plantation in which ill-bred and riotous plants grow with the
+rapidity of the prophet's gourd, and which if unattended would lapse in a
+very brief space of time into the primitive condition of tangled jungle,
+involves incessant labour of the most sweatful kind. A work on structural
+botany tells me that "the average rate of perspiration in plants has been
+estimated as equal to that of seventeen times that of man." Only dwellers
+in the tropics are capable of realising the profundity of those pregnant
+words. Nowhere does plant life so thrive and so squander itself. And to
+toil among all this seething, sweating vegetation! No wonder that the
+trashing of sugar-cane is not a popular pastime among Britishers.
+
+Given a quiet and contented mind, a banana-grove, a patch of sweet
+potatoes, orange and mango and papaw trees, a few coffee plants; the sea
+for fish, the rocks for oysters; the mangrove flats for crabs, and is it
+not possible to become fat with a minimum of labour? Fewer statements
+have found wider publicity than that the banana contains more nutriment
+than meat. I have good reason to have faith--faith in it. In Queensland
+every man has to find money for direct and indirect taxation; but apart
+from the imposts upon living, moving and having being, what ready money
+does a man want beyond a few shillings for tea, sugar and other luxuries,
+and some few articles of essential clothing? But I am attempting to
+describe a special set of circumstances, and would not have it on my
+conscience that I indirectly offered encouragement even to a forlorn and
+shipwrecked brother to abandon hope of becoming the prime minister of the
+Commonwealth, and to enter upon a life of reckless irresponsibility such
+as mine.
+
+As soon as test and trial proved in this special case that life on the
+periphery of the whirl of civilisation was not only endurable but "so
+would we have it," arrangements were made with the Government of the
+State for a change in the tenure upon which the right of possession was
+upheld.
+
+In obedience to those altruistic tendencies which, with due recognition
+of the law of self-preservation, comprehend the duty of man, it is
+necessary that the terms and conditions upon which others may acquire
+freehold estates in tropical Queensland--the most fruitful and the most
+desirable part of Australia--should be briefly detailed. As insurance
+against intrusion, a small area of the island had been secured from the
+Government under special lease for a term of thirty years, at the rental
+of 2 shillings 6 pence per acre per annum. This lease was maintained
+only for the period during which our verdant sentiments were put to the
+test. That phase having passed without the destruction of a single
+illusion, no restraint was imposed upon the passion to possess the land.
+Negotiations resulted in a certain acreage being proclaimed open to
+selection, and in such case the original applicant has the prior right.
+What is termed under the exceedingly liberal land laws of Queensland an
+agricultural homestead may comprise 160 acres, 320 acres, or 640 acres,
+in accordance with the classification of the land as of first, second, or
+third quality. The selector must pay 2 shillings 6 pence per acre at the
+rate Of 3 pence per acre for ten years, and must reside continuously on
+the land. Five years are allowed for the completion of
+improvements--house, clearing, fencing, cultivation, etc., which in
+valuation must equal 10 shillings, 5 shillings, or 2 shillings 6 pence
+per acre respectively, according to the classification of the land. At
+the end of the five years the selector may pay in a lump sum the second
+moiety of rent, making the total 2 shillings 6 pence per acre, and he is
+thereupon entitled to the issue of a deed of grant of the land in
+fee-simple. Otherwise payments may extend over the term of ten years,
+when the land becomes freehold. Briefly, for the sum Of 2 shillings 6
+pence per acre distributed over ten years, in addition to a trifle for
+survey fees (also payable in easy instalments) and the construction of
+improvements equal in value to 2 shillings 6 pence per acre, the freehold
+of land unsurpassed in fertility in the whole world may be acquired. The
+selector may build his own hut and erect his fences of timber from his
+clearing, and the officials assess improvements on a liberal scale. Who
+would not be a landed proprietor under such terms? Other clauses of the
+Land Act are far more encouraging. Not only are payments held in abeyance
+until the selector is able to meet them out of his earnings from the
+land, but in special cases monetary assistance is afforded him. Literally
+the meekest of men may inherit the choicest part of the earth.
+
+What has been said of the natural features of Dunk Island is applicable
+to the coastal tract extending, say, 300 miles, than which no land is
+more fertile. A very notable advantage is enjoyed here. Brammo Bay is but
+three or four minutes' steam from the track of vessels which make weekly
+trips up and down the coast, and by arrangements with the proprietary of
+one of the lines we have the boon of a regular weekly mail and of cheap
+carriage of supplies. Without this connecting link, life on the island
+would have been very different. The Companies running parallel lines of
+steamers, one skirting the coast and the other outside the islands in
+deep water, have done much to open up the wealth of the agricultural land
+of North Queensland. Trade follows the flag. Here the flag of the
+mercantile marine has frequently been first planted to demonstrate the
+certainty of trade.
+
+Without apology, a few facts are submitted which utterly condemn the
+practicability of one department of island enterprise, and which possibly
+(without protest) may provide a reason for the placing of other branches of
+industry beyond the pale of recognition by those who devote every moment
+of time to, and make never-ending sacrifices of ease and health and
+comfort on behalf of, what folks term the main chance. When after some
+expenditure in the purchase of plant and material, and no little labour,
+the couple of beehives that formed the original stock of a project for
+the harvesting of the nectar which had hitherto gone to waste or been
+disposed of by unreflecting birds, had increased to a dozen, and honey
+of pleasant and varying flavour flowed from the separator at frequent
+intervals, hopes ran high of the earning of a modest profit from one of
+the cleanest, nicest, most entertaining and innoxious of pursuits.
+
+No one who takes up bees and who studies their manners and methods can
+allow his admiration to remain dormant. It is not the fault of the bees
+if he does not become ashamed of himself in some respects; nor are they
+to blame if the wisest men fail quite to comprehend some of the wonders
+they perform. Only by those "who list with care extreme," are their
+gentle tones heard aright; and even from such are some secrets hidden.
+How is it that an egg deposited by the queen-mother in a more than
+ordinarily capacious compartment hatches a grub, "just like any other,"
+which grub, feasting upon the concentrated food stored within its cell,
+expands and lengthens and emerges an amber queen in all her glory?
+Bee-keepers learn that the queen and the drones are the only perfect
+insects in the hive, the hoard of willing, bustling slaves being females
+in a state of arrested development. Each worker might have been a queen
+but for the fact that environment and a special food were not vouchsafed
+in the embryonic stage. By making artificial queen-cells, which the
+workers provide for, men bring about the birth of queens at will. Not yet
+has the secret of the manufacture of royal jelly been revealed. But is it
+not the common belief that the spacious compartment and the special food
+work the transformation of what otherwise would have been a brief-lifed
+toiler to an insect of majestic proportions, regal adornment and imperial
+instinct, whose wants are anticipated and who has no duty to perform save
+that of increasing and multiplying her faithful subjects? Man controls
+the development of an insect. May not those who complain of the disparity
+between the births of females and males still listen to hope's
+"flattering tale"? Such is one of the homilies of the hive.
+
+Interest in bee-culture grows; and some of the habits of the insect came
+to be understood and, inevitably, admired, the while all convenient
+vessels available, even to the never-to-be-despised kerosene tins, were
+utilised to store the nectar garnered from myriads of blossoms. But as
+time passed the fair prospects faded. Less and less quantities of honey
+were stored. The separator seldom buzzed with soothing melody as the
+honey, whirled from the dripping frames of combs, pattered against its
+resonant sides. Bees seemed less and less numerous. An air of idleness,
+almost dissoluteness and despair, brooded over some of the hives. The
+strong robbed the weak; and the weak contented themselves with gathering
+in listless groups, murmuring plaintively. If the hives were inquiringly
+tapped, instead of a furious and instant alarm and angry outpouring of
+excited and wrathful citizens, eager to sacrifice themselves in the
+defence of the rights of the commonwealth, there was merely a buzzing
+remonstrance, indicative of decreased population, weakness and
+disconsolation.
+
+The cause of so great a change in the character and demeanour of citizens
+who erstwhile worked as honey carriers all day, and who during the hot,
+still nights did duty as animated ventilating fans to maintain a free
+circulation of air through the hive, had to be investigated. Soon it was
+revealed in the presence of two species of birds, the Australian
+bee-eater (MEROPS ORNATUS) and the white-rumped wood-swallow (ARTAMUS
+LEUCOGASTA). The former is one of the handsomest of the smaller birds of
+Australia, its chief colouring being varying shades of green with
+bronze-brown and black head and blue back; and to add to its appearance
+and pride two graceful feather-shafts of black protrude from the green
+and yellow of the tail. It travels in small companies of, say, from four
+and five to a couple of dozen, and in its flight occasionally seems to
+pause with wings and tail outspread, revealing all its charms. Fond it
+is, too, of perching on bare twigs commanding a wide survey, whence It
+darts with unerring precision to catch bees and other insects on the
+wing. If its prey takes unkindly to its fate, the bird batters it to
+death on its perch ere swallowing it with a twitter of satisfaction. The
+wood-swallow wears a becoming suit of soft pearly grey and white, to
+contrast with its black head and throat. It has a graceful, soaring
+flight and a cheerful chirrup. At certain seasons scores congregate on a
+branch, perching in a row, so closely compact that their breasts show as
+a continuous band of white. When one leaves his place to catch an insect,
+the others close up the ranks and dress the line, and on returning,
+wrangle and scold as he may, he needs must take an outside place. Let a
+bush fire be started, and flocks of wood-swallows whirl and circle along
+the flanks of the circling smoke, taking flying insects on the wing, or
+deftly pick "thin, high-elbowed creatures," scuttling up tree-trunks out
+of the way of the flames. Those were the marauders who confounded
+anticipations of a comfortable livelihood in the decent calling of an
+apiarist. They devoured bees by the hundred every day. Every hive paid
+dreadful toll to them, for they found food so plentiful, and with so
+little exertion, that they made the vicinity of the hives a permanent
+abiding place. For a brief season I found myself confronted by a problem.
+I had to apply my own favourite theories and arguments to myself and
+weigh against them practical advantages. Honey was plentiful and, given
+that the bees were protected against voracious enemies, might have been
+stored in marketable quantities. But was I not bound by honour as well as
+sentiment to protect the birds? Was not my coming hither due to a certain
+extent to a wish for the preservation of bird-life? Was there not in my
+presence an implied warranty to that effect? Had not the island since my
+occupancy become a sanctuary, a city of refuge, a safe abiding place, a
+kingdom where all the birds of the air--save tyrants and cannibals were
+welcomed with gladness and enthusiasm? Had I not warned others of the
+dreadful consequences that would befall any disturbance of the sacred air
+by so much as the unauthorised report of a gun? How then was I to deal
+out justice to the defenceless bees that I had hurried hither,
+willy-nilly, without consideration of their likes and dislikes and their
+multitudinous descendants? How protect my investment in apiarist plant?
+How maintain the stock of honey, white, golden and tawny brown,
+excellent, wholesome delicious food, and still preserve the natural
+rights, the privileges of the birds? Had not the birds the right of prior
+occupancy and other legitimate claims, in addition to sentimental demands
+upon my conscience? Not only, too were the birds beautiful to look upon
+and of engaging habits; not only had they become companionable and
+trustful; not only were they among the primeval features of the island
+that I was so eager to leave unspotted from the world; but they were
+eminently useful in the work of keeping within bounds the rampant host of
+insects to which mankind is in the habit of applying the term injurious.
+
+It took no long time to make up my mind. Gladly came the determination to
+abandon the enterprise rather than do violence to the birds. Fortunately
+a kindly friend took the entire plant and the hives off my hands. We are
+the worse off in respect of honey; but we have the birds, and the thought
+comes that there are now hundreds of colonies of bees from the original
+stock, here and on the mainland, working out their own destinies. Had the
+enterprise been allowed to flourish, it would have been at the cost of
+the lives of hundreds of graceful birds; and hundreds of others that now
+merrily make so free would have been scared away. The money that would
+have been spent in cartridges is applied to the purchase of honey from
+foreign parts. No one is much the worse off. Indeed, my friend who
+purchased the stock is the richer by my abandonment of the calling, and
+am not I conscious of consistency?
+
+So, these my vocations drift into the gentle and devious stream of
+inconsequence. It would be vain-glorious, no doubt, to assert that there
+is placid indifference to vain-glory, which Carlyle declares to be, with
+neediness and greediness, one of the besetting sins of mankind; but am I
+not free from the cares that obtrude on those of tougher texture of mind
+who find joy in the opposite to this peace and unconcern for the rewards
+and honours of the world? Better this isolation and moderation in all
+things than, racked with worries, to moan and fret because of non-success
+in the ceaseless struggle for riches, or the increase thereof; better
+than to bow down to and worship in the "soiled temple of Commercialism"
+that haughty and supercilious old idol Mammon; better than to offer
+continual sacrifices of rest, health, and the immediate good of life to
+appease the exacting and silly deities of fashion and society.
+
+There may be some who, in a disparaging tone, will at this stage of my
+confessions enter an accusation of impracticableness. To such a charge I
+would plead guilty; but to those who proffer it, I neither appeal, nor do
+I fear their judgment. These writings are for those who see something in
+life beyond the mere "getting on in world," or making a din in it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+BEACHCOMBING
+
+
+"For the Beachcomber, when not a mere ruffian, is the poor relation of
+the artist."
+
+In justification of the assumption of the title of "Beachcomber," it must
+be said that, having made good and sufficient provision against the
+advent of the wet season (which begins, as a rule, during the Christmas
+holidays), the major portion of each week was spent in first formal and
+official calls, and then friendly and familiar visits to the neighbouring
+islands and the mainland.
+
+Duty and inclination constrained me to find out what were the states and
+moods of all the bays and coves of all the isles; the location and form
+of rocks and reefs; the character of shrubs and trees; the nature of the
+jungle-covered hilltops; the features of bluffs and precipices; to
+understand the style and manner and the conversation of unfamiliar birds;
+to discover where the turtle most do congregate; the favourite haunts of
+fishes. I was in a hurry to partake freely of the novel, and yearned for
+pleasure of the absolute freedom of isles uninhabited, shores untrodden;
+eager to know how Nature, not under the microscope, behaved; what were
+her maiden fancies, what the art with which she allures.
+
+But there was an excuse, rather an imperious command, for all the
+apparent waste of time. Before the rains came thundering on the iron roof
+of our little hut, the washed-out and enfeebled town dweller who gave way
+to bitter reflections on the first evening of his new career, could
+hardly have been recognised, thanks to the robustious, wholesome effects
+of the free and vitalising life. Fourteen, frequently sixteen, hours of
+the twenty-four were spent in the open air, ashore and afloat.
+
+What a glowing and absolutely authentic testimonial could be written as
+to the tonic influence of the misrepresented climate of the rainy belt of
+North Queensland on constitutions that have run down? According to
+popular opinion, malaria ought to have discovered an exceptionally easy
+prey. Ague, if the expected had happened, should have gripped and shaken
+me until my teeth rattled; and after alternations of raging fever and
+arctic cold, I ought to have gone to my long home with the fearful shapes
+of delirium yelling in my ears. But there are places other than Judee
+where they do not know everything. At the fraction of the fee of a
+fashionable doctor, and of the cost of following his fashionable and
+pleasing advice--a change to one of the Southern States--in three months
+one of the compelling causes for the desertion of town life had been
+disposed of by agreeable processes. None of the bitter, after-taste of
+physic remained. I knew my island, and was on terms of friendly
+admiration--born of knowledge of beauty spots--with all the others. I had
+become a citizen of the universe.
+
+During this period of utter abandonment of all serious claims upon time
+and exertion came the conviction that the career of the Beachcomber, the
+closest possible "return to Nature" now popularly advocated, has charms
+none other possesses. Then it was that the lotus-blossom was first eaten.
+
+Unfettered by the laws of society, with the means at hand of acquiring
+the few necessaries of life that Nature in this generous part of her
+domain fails to provide readymade, a Beachcomber of virtuous instinct,
+and a due perception of the decency of things, may enjoy a happy life.
+Should, however, he be of the type that demands a wreck or so every month
+to maintain his supplies of rum or gin, and other articles of his true
+religion, and is prepared if wrecks do not come with regularity, to
+assist tardy Nature by means of false lights on the shore, he will find
+no scope whatever among these orderly isles.
+
+The Beachcomber of tradition parades his coral islet barefooted, bullying
+guileless natives out of their copra, coco-nut oil and pearl-shell; his
+chief diet, turtle and turtle eggs and fish; his drink, rum and coco-nut
+milk--the latter only when the former is impossible. When a wreck happens
+he becomes a potentate in pyjamas, and with his dusky wives, dressed in
+bright vestiture, fares sumptuously. And though the ships from the isles
+do not meet to "pour the wealth of ocean in tribute at his feet," he can
+still "rush out of his lodgings and eat oysters in regular desperation."
+A whack on his hardened head from the club of a jealous native is the
+time-honoured fate of the typical Beachcomber.
+
+Flotsam and jetsam make another class of Beachcomber by stimulating the
+gaming instincts. Is there a human being, taking part in the rough and
+tumble of the world, who can honestly make confession and say that he has
+completely suffocated those inherent instincts of savagedom--joy and
+patience in the chase, the longing for excitement and surprise, the crude
+selfishness, the delight in getting something for nothing? Society
+journals have informed me that titled dames have been known to sit out
+long and wearisome evenings that they may obtain some paltry favour in a
+cotillon. And when the sea casts up its gifts on these radiant shores, I
+boldly and with glee give way to my beachcombing instincts and pick and
+choose. Never ever up to the present have I found anything of real value;
+but am I not buoyed up by pious hopes and sanguine expectations? Is not
+the game as diverting and as innocent as many others that are played to
+greater profit? It is a game, too, that cannot be forced, and therefore
+cannot become demoralising; and having no nice feelings nor fine shades,
+I rejoice and am glad in it.
+
+And then what strange and varied things one sees! Once a "harness-cask,"
+hostile to every sense, came trundled by waves eager to expel it from the
+vicinity of these oxless but scented isles. It overcame us as we sailed
+by, 20 yards off, and the general necessity for temperate diet and
+restricted dishes came as a sweet and a comforting reflection. No marvel
+if the ship whence it was ejected was in bad odour among the sailors.
+Leaving, as it lurched along, a greasy, foul stain on the sea, it may
+have poisoned multitudes of uncomplaining fishes during its evil course.
+
+Occasionally a case of fruit, washed from the decks of a labouring
+steamer, drifts ashore. One was the means of introducing a valuable
+addition to the products of the island. It gave demonstration of how man
+may unwittingly, and even in opposition to his wit, assist in scattering
+and multiplying blessings on a smiling land--blessings to last for all
+time, and perhaps to amend or ameliorate the environment of a budding
+nation.
+
+Many years ago--in 1878, to speak precisely--a ship laden with fragrant
+cedar logs from the valley of the Daintree River--140 miles to the north--
+touched on Kennedy Shoal, 20 miles to the south-east of Dunk Island.
+Crippled though she was she managed to make Cardwell, where she was
+temporarily patched up, and whence she set sail for Melbourne. It was the
+critical month of March, and the MERCHANT--clumsy and cumbersome, but a
+good and safe ship given ample sea-room--before sailing many miles on her
+course, was caught in the coils of a cyclone, the violence of which is
+well remembered by old residents on the coast to this day, and was lost
+with all hands. She is supposed to have struck on a reef to the southward
+of the Palm Islands, as the bulk of her cargo was cast ashore in Ramsay
+Bay, Hinchinbrook Island. Portions of the wreckage were found on the
+Brook Islands; her figurehead--the spread eagle of the United States--and
+a seaman's chest were picked up on the beach here. Her windlass, with a
+child's pinafore entangled with it--for the skipper had taken his wife and
+two children to bear him company--drifted on the South Franklands, 40
+miles to the north, and a large portion of the shattered hulk on a reef
+eastward of Fitzroy Island, 25 miles still farther up the coast. Fate did
+her worst for the poor MERCHANT, and not yet content, relentlessly
+pursued two (if not more) of the vessels which sought to recover her
+cedar, strewn on the treacherous sands of Ramsay Bay. Some of the logs,
+however, drifted to our quiet coves, and portions remain sound to this
+day. One more promising and accessible we beachcombed. It provided
+planks for a punt, besides various articles of furniture, and gave me
+some most practical homilies on contentment. Having found and duly
+salvaged that log, it was necessary to cut it up; and then I began to be
+thankful that pit-sawing was not forced upon me as a profession in the
+days of inexperienced youth. Pit-sawing is deceptive. It has the
+appearance of being easy, though not genteel, when others are the
+toilers, and in the red dust, torn by the polished steel teeth from out
+the heart of the dull log, do you not "inhale the balmy smells of nard
+and cassia which the musky wings of the zephyrs scatter through the
+cedared groves of the Hesperides?" Is not that fragrance sufficient
+compensation for your toil, with the clean red planks profit over and
+above legitimate earnings? Yet that long saw tugs at our very
+heart-strings, and you know that to get a real, not merely sentimental,
+liking for the craft of the sawyer, you must take to it very young,
+before the possibilities of other occupations and pastimes have distorted
+your genius. This worthy lesson comes from the gentle art of
+Beachcombing.
+
+Again, a German barque, driven out of its course, found unexpectedly a
+detached portion of the Great Barrier Reef 200 miles away to the south.
+When the south-easters came, they pounded away so vigorously with the
+heavy runs of the sea that in a brief space nothing was left of the big
+ship save some distorted fragments of iron jammed in among the
+nigger-heads of coral and the crevices of the rocks. A few weeks after,
+portions of the wreck were deposited on Dunk Island, and the beach of the
+mainland for miles was strewn with timber. That wreck was the greatest
+favour bestowed me in my profession of Beachcomber. Long and heavy pieces
+of angle-iron came bolted to raft-like sections of the deck; various
+kinds of timber proved useful in a variety of ways. What? was I to leave
+it all, unclaimed and unregarded--in excess of morality and modesty--on
+the beach, to be honey-combed by white ants or to rot? or to honestly own
+up to that sentiment which is the most human of all? Without affectation
+or apology, I confess that I was overjoyed--that my instincts, pregnant
+with original sin, received a most delightful fillip. I wallowed for the
+time being in the luxury of beachcombing.
+
+Upon sober reflection, I cannot say that I am of one mind with the pastor
+of the Shetland Isles who never omitted this petition from his long
+prayer--"Lord, if it be Thy holy will to send shipwrecks, do not forget
+our island"; nor yet with the Breton fishermen, who to this day are of
+opinion that wreckage is the gift of God, and who therefore take
+everything that comes in a reverential spirit, as a Divine favour,
+whether casks of wine or bales of merchandise. But, after all, who am I
+that I should claim a finer shade of morality than those, with their
+sturdy widespread hands and perpetual blessing? My inherent powers of
+resistance to such temptations as the winds and tides of Providence put
+in their way have never been subject to proof. Does virtue go by default
+where there is no opportunity to be otherwise than virtuous? The very
+first pipe of port, or aum of Rhenish, or bale of silk, which comes
+rolling along may wrestle with my morality and so wrench and twist it as
+to incapacitate it for ordinary usage for months, or may even permanently
+disable it. And must not I, venturing to regard myself as a truthful
+historian, frankly admit a sense allied to disappointment when the white
+blazing beaches are destitute of the most trivial of temptations?
+
+No, the grating of the battered barque, upon which many a wet and weary
+steersman had stood, now fulfils placid duty as a front gate. No more to
+be trampled and stamped upon with shifty, sloppy feet--no more to be
+scrubbed and scored with sand and holystone; painted white, it creaks
+gratefully every time it swings--the symbol of security, the first
+outward and visible sign of home, the guardian of the sacred rights of
+private property, the embodiment of the exclusive. Better so than lying
+inert under foot on the deck of the barque thrashing through the cold
+grey seas of the Baltic, or scudding before the unscrupulous billows of
+Biscay.
+
+Moreover, what notable and precise information this derelict timber gave
+as to the strength and direction of ocean currents. The wreck took place
+on the 26th October 1900 in 18 deg. 43 min. S. lat., 147 deg. 57 min. E.
+long., 72 1/2 miles in a direct line from the port of Townsville, and
+about 200 miles from Dunk Island. She broke up, after a11 the cargo had
+been salvaged, early in January 1901, and on Tuesday, 5th February, at
+10 a.m., the seas landed the first of the broken planks in Brammo Bay.
+Then for a few days the arrivals were continuous. For over 50 miles along
+the coast the wreckage was scattered, very little going farther north.
+
+Nothing goes south on this part of the coast. Yes, there is one exception
+during my experience. A veritable cataclysm coincided with a stiff
+north-easterly breeze, and hundreds of bunches of bananas from
+plantations on the banks of the Johnstone River--25 miles
+away--landing-stages and steps, and the beacons from the mouth of the
+river, drifted south. Most of the more buoyant debris, however, took the
+next tide back in the direction whence came.
+
+When there are eight or ten islands and islets within an afternoon's
+sail, and miles of mainland beach to police, variety lends her charms to
+the pursuit of the Beachcomber. Landing in one of the unfrequented coves,
+he knows not what the winds and the tides may have spread out for
+inspection and acceptance. Perhaps only an odd coco-nut from the Solomon
+Islands, its husk riddled by cobra and zoned with barnacles. The germ of
+life may yet be there. To plant the nut above high-water mark is an
+obvious duty. Perhaps there is a paddle, with rude tracery on the handle,
+from the New Hebrides, part of a Fijian canoe that has been bundled over
+the Barrier, a wooden spoon such as Kanakas use, or the dusky globe of an
+incandescent lamp that has glowed out its life in the state-room of some
+ocean liner, or a broom of Japanese make, a coal-basket, a "fender," a
+tiger nautilus shell, an oar or a rudder, a tiller, a bottle cast away
+fat out from land to determine the strength and direction of ocean
+currents, the spinnaker boom of a yacht, the jib-boom of a staunch
+cutter. Once there was a goodly hammer cemented by the head fast upright
+on a flat rock, and again the stand of a grindstone, and a trestle, high
+and elaborately stayed. Cases, invariably and disappointingly empty, come
+and go, planks of strange timber, blocks from some tall ship. A huge
+black beacon waddled along, dragging a reluctant mass of iron at the end
+of its chain cable, followed by a roughly-built "flatty" and a huge log
+of silkwood. A jolly red buoy, weary of the formality of bowing to the
+swell, broke loose from a sandbank's apron-strings, bounced off in the
+ecstasies of liberty, romped in the surf, rolled on the beach, worked a
+cosy bed in the soft warm sand, and has slumbered ever since to the
+soothing hum of the wind, indifferent to the perplexities of mariners and
+the fate of ships. The gilded masthead truck of a smart yacht, with one
+of her cabin racks, bespoke of recent disaster, unknown and unaccounted,
+and a brand new oar, finished and fitted with the nattiness of a
+man-o'-war's man, told of some wave-swept deck.
+
+That which at the time was the most eloquent message from the sea came
+close to our door, cast up on the snowy-white coral drift of a little
+cove, where it immediately attracted notice. Nothing but an untrimmed
+bamboo staff nearly 30 feet long, carrying an oblong strip of soiled
+white calico between two such strips of red turkey twill. Tattered and
+frayed, the flags seemed to tell of the desperate appeal for help of some
+forlorn castaway; of a human being, marooned on a lonely sandbank on the
+Barrier, without shelter, food or water, but not altogether bereft of
+hope. BECHE-DE-MER fishers have in times past been marooned on the Reef
+by mutinous blacks, and left to die by slow degrees, or to be drowned by
+the implacable yet merciful tide. A makeshift rudder well worn bespoke
+strenuous efforts to steer a troubled boat to shelter, but this crude
+signal staff, deftly arranged, told of present agony and stress. It might
+have been the emblem of a tragic event that the Beachcomber single-handed
+was not able to investigate. As a matter of fact, it was only a temporary
+datum of one of His Majesty's surveying ships engaged in attempting to
+set the bounds of the Barrier.
+
+Rarely do we sail about without enjoying the zest of the chance of
+getting something for nothing. Not yet has the seaman's chest,
+brass-bound, with its secret compartments full of "fair rose-nobles and
+bright moidores," been lighted upon; but who can say? Perhaps it has
+come ashore but now, after leagues of aimless wanderings, and awaits in
+some cosy cove the next Beachcombing expedition. That from the ill-fated
+MERCHANT came hither years before my time, and was, in any case,
+pathetically unromantic.
+
+Peradventure there are many who deem this solitary existence dull? Why,
+it is brimful of interest and sensation. There are the tragedies of the
+bush to observe and elucidate; all cannot be foreseen and prevented, or
+even avenged. A bold falcon the other day swooped down upon a wood-swallow
+that was imitating the falcon's flight just above my head, and bore it
+bleeding to a tree-top, while I stood shocked at the audacity of the
+cannibal. A bullet dropped the murderous bird with its dead victim fast
+in the talons. There are comedies, too, and you have the wit to see them,
+and in these Beachcombing expeditions expectation, fairly effervesces.
+
+One lucky individual--a mere amateur--casually picked up a black-lip
+mother-of-pearl shell on an island some little distance away. It
+contained a blue pearl, the price of which gave him such a start in life,
+that he is now an owner of ships. May not other tides cast up on other
+shores other oysters whose lives have been rendered miserable by the
+presence of pearls?
+
+Byron says--"Even an oyster may be crossed in love." Science, more
+precise and frank than the frankest of poets, tells us that oysters are
+afflicted with tapeworms, and to kill the germ of these indecent pests,
+enclose them in untimely tombs, which from the human standpoint are among
+the most lovely and precious of gems. The assertions of the scientific
+are often the reverse of poetical. We are constrained to believe them,
+but like our poetical delusions better, and for the origin of the pearl
+prefer the quaint fable of the Persians to the unpleasant fact of the
+zoologist. A drop of water of ineffable purity falls from heaven to the
+sea, an oyster gapes and swallows it, the drop hardens and ripens, and
+becomes a pearl; and who is so devoid of the perception of purity, beauty
+and worth as to despise a pearl?
+
+Here about, pearls were found. We delight in them, though they prove the
+previous existence of a filthy ailment. Any oyster may contain a pearl, a
+pearl of great price--a thing of beauty, a joy for ever. Every gold-lip,
+every black-lip oyster, is a chance in a lottery. Was there ever a
+Beachcomber so pure and elevated of soul as to refuse the chances that
+Nature proffers gratuitously? My meagre horde includes pearls of several
+tints, black, pink, and white. They represent the paltriest prizes. in
+the lottery that no Government, however paternal, may prohibit, being
+mere "baroque," fit only to be pounded up as medicine for some Chinaman
+luxuriously sick. Yet there is a chance. Some day the great prize may be
+drawn. And then, "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?" The
+Beachcomber may be perverted into--well, the next best on the list. Yet
+they say in pitiful tones, those who rake among the muck of the streets,
+"What a dull life! What a hopeless existence! He is out of it all!" Yes,
+with a gladsome mind, and all its sounds, if not forgotten, at least
+muffled by music, soft as dawn, profound as the very sea.
+
+Kennedy Shoal has been mentioned incidentally. Some miles further north
+are two bare sandbanks. Prior to the year 1890 they were occupied by a
+BECHE-DE-MER fisherman, whose headquarters were on the chief of the South
+Barnard Islands--some 12 or 14 miles to the north. In fateful March of
+that year a cyclone swooped down on this part of the coast with the
+pent up fury of a century's restraint. The enormous bloodwood-trees torn
+out by the roots on Dunk Island testified to the force and ferocity of
+the storm. The sandbanks, are isolated, dreary spots, the highest portion
+but 2 or 3 feet above the level reached by spring tides. A cutter--THE
+DOLPHIN--with a crew of aboriginals, in charge of a couple of Kanakas, was
+anchored at the shoal, and as the cyclone worked up, the Kanakas decided
+that the one and only bid for life was to run before it to the mainland.
+It was a forlorn hope--so forlorn that four or five of the aboriginals
+declined to take part in it, deeming it safer to trust to the sandbank,
+which they imagined could never be entirely swept by the besoms of the
+sea. The cutter fled before the storm, only to capsize in the breakers
+off the mouth of the Johnstone River. Clinging to the wreck until it
+drifted a few miles south, the Kanakas and crew battled through the waves
+and eventually reached the shore. Of those who placed their faith on the
+sandbank not one was spared. The seas raced over it, pounded and
+flattened it. The men upon it were unconsidered trifles.
+
+The tall and handsome Scandinavian whose fortune thus assailed was at his
+home with his wife and children and brother. His yacht--THE MAUD--in the
+height of the storm, began to drag her anchor. He and his brother went
+out in a dinghy to secure her. At dusk the wife, young, petite and
+pretty, with strained anxiety watched the efforts of the men to beat back
+to shelter. Darkness came, blotting out the scene and its climax. Never
+after was anything seen or heard of the brothers or the yacht. And for
+nearly a fortnight the disconsolate wife and her little ones were alone on
+the island.
+
+Ten years later, on one of the two bare patches of sand, another
+BECHE-DE-MER smoke-house was built. While the owner a swarthy Arabian,
+was out on the reef miles away, a phenomenally high tide occurred. His
+wife--a comely girl of British descent--was alone on the shoal. She
+watched the rising water apprehensively, until all the sand was covered
+save the few feet on which the frail shelter stood. One more ripple and
+the floor was swamped. Then, wading and swimming, she managed to reach a
+punt, and so saved her life. Since then these patches of sand have not
+been regarded as a safe outpost even by those most venturesome of
+people--BECHE-DE-MER fishers.
+
+This is not an apology, but a confession; not a plea of defence, but a
+justification--a fair and free chronicle, a frank acknowledgment of the
+tributes of impartial Neptune--Neptune who gives and who takes away--who
+stealthily filches with tireless fingers, and who, when in the mood, robs
+so remorselessly, and with such awful, such majestic violence, that it
+were impious to whimper. Who beachcombed my three rudders, the one
+toilfully adzed out in one piece from the beautiful heart of a bean-tree
+log, another cunningly fitted with a sliding fin, and that of red cedar
+with famous brass mountings? Who owns the pair of ballast tanks once
+mine? Who the buoy deemed securely moored? Who the paddles and the
+rowlocks and the signal halyards, lost because of Neptune's whims and
+violence? Beachcombing is a nicely adjusted, if not quite an exact art.
+Not once but several times has the libertine Neptune scandalously seduced
+punts and dinghies from the respectable precincts of Brammo Bay, and
+having philandered with them for a while, cynically abandoned them with a
+bump on the mainland beach, and only once has he sent a punt in return--a
+poor, soiled, tar-besmirched, disorderly waif that was reported to the
+police and reluctantly claimed.
+
+A mind inclined to casuistry, could it not defend Beachcombing? Does not
+the law recognise it under the definition of trover? Why bother about the
+law and the moralities when it is all so pleasing, so engrossing, and so
+fair?
+
+The Beachcomber wants no extensive establishment. His possessions need
+never be mortgaged. The cost of living is measurable by a standard
+adjustable to individual taste, wants and perceptions. The expenditure of
+a little manual labour supplies the omissions of and compensates for
+the undirected impulses which prevail, and the pursuit--not the
+profession--leads one to ever-varying scenes, to the contemplation of many
+of the moods of unaffected, unadvertised Nature. Ashore, one dallies
+luxuriously with time, free from all the restrictions of streets, every
+precious moment his very own; afloat in these calm and shallow waters
+there is a never-ending panorama of entertainment. Coral gardens--gardens
+of the sea nymphs, wherein fancy feigns cool, shy, chaste faces and
+pliant forms half-revealed among gently swaying robes; a company of
+porpoise, a herd of dugong; turtle, queer and familiar fish, occasionally
+the spouting of a great whale, and always the company of swift and
+graceful birds. Sometimes the whole expansive ocean is as calm as it can
+only be in the tropics and bordered by the Barrier Reef--a shield of
+shimmering silver from which the islands stand out as turquoise bosses.
+Again, it is of cobalt blue, with changing bands of purple and gleaming
+pink, or of grey blue--the reflection of a sky pallid and tremulous with
+excess of light. Or myriad hosts of microscopic creatures--the Red Sea
+owes to the tribe its name--the multitudinous sea dully incarnadine; or
+the boat rides buoyantly on the shoulders of Neptune's white horses, while
+funnel-shaped water spouts sway this way and that. Land is always near,
+and the flotsam and jetsam, do they not supply that smack of
+excitement--if not the boisterous hope--bereft of which life might seem
+"always afternoon?"
+
+These chronicles are toned from first to last by perceptions which came
+to the Beachcomber--perceptions which lead, mayhap, to a subdued and sober
+estimate of the purpose and bearing of the pilgrimage of life. Doubts
+become exalted and glorified, hopes all rapture, when long serene days
+are spent alone in the contemplation of the splendours of sky and sea,
+and the enchantment of tropic shores.
+
+TROPICAL INDUSTRIES
+
+Was there not an explicit contract that some of the experiences and
+events of a settler's life should be duly described and recorded? How to
+fulfil that obligation and at the same time avoid what is ordinarily
+regarded as the dull and prosaic, the stale, the flat, the unprofitable,
+is the trouble. I would gladly shirk even this small responsibility, even
+as greater ones have been outmanoeuvred, but a written promise
+unfulfilled may be troublesome to a conscience, which, when reminiscent
+of ante-beachcombing days, is not altogether unimpressionable.
+
+Well, the life of a settler--the man who drags his sustenance, all and
+every part of it, from the soil in tropical Queensland, as a mere settler
+very closely resembles that of others who cultivate. If an abstract of
+the universal experience were obtainable, it would very likely be found
+to go towards the establishment of a standard from which many would
+cheerfully desire many cheerful changes. After all, that represents a
+condition not altogether monopolised by settlers.
+
+Yet, when once the life is begun, how few there are who attempt to
+withdraw from it? It grows on the senses and faculties. It appeals to the
+emotional as well as to the stolid humours. The cares of this world as
+expounded in town life, and the sinfulness of never-to-be-acquired riches
+are foreign to the free, bland air which has filtered through the myriad
+leaves of the mountain, and which smacks so strongly of freedom.
+Sometimes the settler takes up studies and relieves the sameness of his
+duties by pastimes. One never went to his maize field, along narrow
+gloomy aisles through the jungle, without a net for the capture of
+butterflies. His humble home was as resplendent as the show-cases of a
+natural history museum. But he was singularly favoured. A lovely
+waterfall was the jewel on his estate. That was the shape of beauty that
+moved away the pall from his dark spirit and gave colour to his life and
+actions. Another took to collecting birds' eggs; another to the study of
+botany; another to photography. Each wreathed, according to his
+predilections, a flowery band to bind him to the earth, finding that even
+the life of a settler may be filled with "sweet dreams, and health and
+quiet." But the great majority seem to have taken to the scrap heap of
+Federal politics with such ardour that they clutch but the fag ends of
+the poetry of life.
+
+Many become great readers and are knowing and knowledgeable. Those who
+drift away from country life are for the most part men who hustle after
+the coy damsel fortune by searching for minerals, and just as many who
+have succeeded in that arduous passion settle quietly on the land. Each
+may and does desire amendments to and amelioration in his lot. There is
+still left to all the healthy impulse of achievement, the desire for
+something better, the noble and inspiriting virtue of discontent.
+
+Rare is a deserted home. Even the first rough dwelling of a settler
+possessing the slenderest resources is invested with tender sentiments.
+There is his home--a poor one, perhaps, but his own, and to it he clings
+with desperation, sees in and about it attractions and beauty where
+others perceive nothing but untoned dreariness, unrelieved hopelessness.
+His little bit of country may be remote and isolated, but Nature is warm
+and encouraging, and profuse of her stimulants here. She responds
+off-hand without pausing to reflect, but with an outburst of goodwill and
+purpose to appeals for sustenance. She has no despondent moods. She never
+lapses in prolific purposes. She may be wayward in accepting the
+interferences of man, but all her vigorous impulses are expended in
+productiveness. She cannot sulk or idle. Kill, burn and destroy her
+primeval jungle, and she does not give way to sadness and despair, nor
+are any of her infinite forces abated. Spontaneously she begins the work
+of restoration, and as if by  magic the scar is covered with as rich and
+riotous a profusion of vegetation as ever. Nature needs only to be
+restrained and schooled and her response is an abundance of various sorts
+of food for man.
+
+The routine that cultivators of the soil have to obey is diverse, but the
+life of the dweller in the country in tropical Queensland can be asserted
+with perfect safety to be more comfortable than that of the average
+settler in any other part of Australia. There are no phases of
+agricultural enterprise devoid of toil, save perhaps the growing of
+vanilla, the very poetry of the oldest of pursuits, in which one has to
+aid and abet in the loves and in the marriage of flowers. But vanilla
+production is not one of the profitable branches of agriculture here yet.
+We have to deal only with things that are at present practicable.
+
+Whether the settler grows maize, or fruit or coffee, or as a collateral
+exercise of industry gets log timber, or raises pigs or poultry, the life
+has no great variations. If he farms sugar-cane, being resident within the
+zone of influence of a mill, he belongs to a different order--an order
+with which it is not intended to deal. My purpose refers only to men who
+do not employ labour, who have to depend almost solely upon their own hard
+hands. The conditions upon which the land is acquired demand personal
+residence during a period of five years and the erection of permanent
+improvements, such as fencing, thereon, and there are not many who take
+up a selection who are in the position to pay wages. The selector must do
+the clearing, and the preparation of the soil for whatever crop in his
+experience or the experience of others is considered the most
+remunerative. During this period his love for the particular piece of
+land by-and-by to become his own begins. More realistically than anyone
+else he knows the quantity of his energy and enthusiasm, his very life,
+the land has absorbed. It becomes part of himself even in the early days
+of toil, and though when in the fulness of time and the completion of
+conditions he may lease the land to Chinese cultivators, and become a
+resident landlord, he cannot leave the place even for the attraction of
+town life, for possibly the rent he receives does not make him
+independent quite. At any rate he lives on the land. The alien race does
+the hard work, and takes the greater portion of profit; but he enjoys the
+luxury of possession, and must make sacrifices accordingly.
+
+I am fearful of entering upon a description of the cultivation of maize,
+or bananas, or citrus fruits, or pineapples, or mangoes, or coffee, or
+even sweet potatoes, because experience teaches me that others know of
+all the details in a far more practical sense.
+
+Would it not be presumptuous for a mere idler, an individual whose
+enterprise and industry have been sapped by the insidious nonchalance of
+the Beachcomber, to tell of practical details of cultural pursuits--the
+enthusiasm, the disappointments, the glowing anticipations, the
+realisation of inflexible facts, the plain emphatic truths which others
+have reason to know ever so much more keenly?
+
+But it may be forgiven if I generalise and say that the minor departments
+of rural enterprise in North Queensland are in a peculiar stage--a stage
+of transition and uncertainty. Coloured labour has been depended upon to
+a large extent. Even the poorest settler has had the aid of aboriginals.
+But with the passing of that race, and prohibition against the employment
+of any sort of coloured labour, the question is to be asked, Can tropical
+products be grown profitably unless consumers are willing to pay a
+largely increased price--a price equivalent to the difference between the
+earnings of those who toil in other tropical countries and the living
+wage of a white man in Australia?
+
+Fruit of many acceptable varieties can be grown to perfection with little
+labour in immense quantities. Coffee is one of the most prolific of
+crops. Timber is obtainable in magnificent assortment and unrealisable
+quantities. Poultry and pigs multiply extraordinarily. Apart from bananas
+the fruit trade is shifty and treacherous. The markets are far away and
+inconstant, the means of transport not yet perfect. Many assert that not
+half the pine-apples and oranges, and not one-hundredth part of the
+mangoes produced in North Queensland are consumed. That the quantity
+grown is trivial in comparison with what would be, were the demand
+regular and consistent, is self-evident. We want population to eat our
+produce, and then there will be no complaint.
+
+In the case of coffee a plentiful supply of cheap labour is essential to
+success. Those who by judicious treatment of the aboriginals command
+their services have so far made profit. A coffee plantation suggests
+pleasant, picturesque and spicy things. The orderly lines of the plants,
+in glossy green adorned for a brief space with white, frail, fugitive
+flowers distilling a deliciously sweet and grateful odour, the branches
+crowded with gleaming berries, green, pink and red, present pleasing
+aspect. As a change to the scenery of the jungle, a coffee estate has a
+garden-like relief. But picking berry by berry is slow and monotonous
+work, vexatious, too, to those mortals whose skin is sensitive to the
+attacks of green ants. Then comes the various processes of the removal of
+the pulp, first by machinery, finally by the fermentation of the still
+adhering slimy residuum; then the drying and saving by exposure to the
+sun on trays or on tarpaulins until all moisture is expelled; and the
+hulling which disintegrates the parchment from the twin berries; then
+winnowing, and finally the polishing. Do drinkers of the fragrant and
+exhilarating beverage realise the amount of labour and care involved
+before the crop is taken off and preserved from deterioration and decay?
+A few berries that may have become mildewed during the slow, tedious and
+anxious process of drying in the sun, may violate the delicate flavour
+and aroma which the grower has been at pains to secure and fix. In coffee
+it is as with many other features of rural life in Australia. The men who
+undertake the production are for the most part those who have gained
+their knowledge by personal experience on the spot. Reading and the
+advice of experts who have graduated in countries where climatic
+conditions are diverse and where the labour is cheap, yet skilled by
+reason of generation after generation of occupation in it, do not
+complete necessary knowledge. Problems have to be faced that have no
+theoretical nor official solution, and blunders paid for, until by the
+process of the elimination of mistakes the right way is discovered.
+Losses mount up until either patience and means are exhausted, or success
+crowns the application of intelligent enterprise. Then, when the coffee
+planter, self-taught, in each and all of the departments of culture and
+preparation, glories in the assurance of his capabilities to offer to the
+world an article of indubitable character, he discovers that the vulgar
+world, for the most part, prefers its coffee duly adulterated; indeed has
+become so warped and perverted in perception that the pure and undefiled
+article is looked upon with suspicion and distaste. Its flavour and aroma
+are quite foreign to the ordinary coffee drinker. The contaminated
+beverage is regarded as pure, and the genuine article is soundly
+condemned as an imposition, and the seller of it is liable to be accused
+of fraud. It is in a similar position to the good grape brandy which
+Victorians produce, and which drinkers of some imported stuff (described
+as one part cognac and three parts silent spirit) fail to recognise as
+real brandy. If coffee is not muddy and thick and does not possess a
+mawkish twang of liquorice, it is suspected. The delicate aromatic
+flavour, the fragrant odour, the genial and stimulant effects are now
+almost unknown, except in limited circles. North Queensland is capable of
+growing far more than sufficient coffee for the Commonwealth, but coffee
+is not a popular Australian beverage, and as it entirely loses its
+specific balsam and identity under the manipulation of manufacturers, it
+cannot get the chance of becoming popular. Australian wines, Australian
+spirits and Australian coffee might well be the popular beverages of
+Australians. But preference is given to foreign importations, of the
+genuineness of some of which there are strong grounds for suspicion; or
+in the case of coffee its elements are so disguised by adulteration that
+a revolution in public taste must take place before it can possibly find
+general favour.
+
+But there are other branches of tropical agriculture to which the settler
+may devote himself. Rubber offers belated fortune. Cotton, rice, tobacco
+and fibre--plants flourish exceedingly, and in the production of ginger
+and some sort of spices and medicinal gums, profit may be possible. The
+manufacture of manilla rope from the fibre of the easily cultivated MUSA
+TEXTILIS may be a remunerative industry. It is amply demonstrated that
+butter quite up to the standard of exportation is to be manufactured in
+tropical Queensland.
+
+No one need starve or pine for lack of wholesome appetising and
+nutritious food while the banana grows as it does in North Queensland,
+and common as it is, the banana is one of the curiosities of the
+vegetable world. One writer says: "It is not a tree, a palm, a bush, a
+vegetable, nor a herb; it is simply a herbaceous plant with the stature
+of tree, and is perennial." He adds that the fruit contains no seed,
+though he qualifies the latter statement by remarking that he has heard
+of fully developed seeds occasionally appearing in the cultivated fruit
+"when left to ripen on the tree," and further that wild varieties of the
+banana which propagate themselves by seed are reported to be found in
+some parts of Eastern Asia. A high botanical authority includes in his
+description of the species indigenous to Queensland, "Fruit oblong,
+succulent, indehiscent; seed numerous; tree-like herbs. Herbs with
+perennial rhizome."
+
+There are three if not more species of bananas native to Queensland, and
+they form a conspicuous feature of the jungle. With remarkable rapidity
+one of the species shoots up a ruddy symmetrical, slightly tapering
+stem--smooth and polished where the old leaf-sheaths have been shed--to a
+height of 20 and 30 feet, producing leaves 15 feet long and 2 feet broad,
+small and crude flowers, and bunches of dwarf fruit containing little but
+shot-like seeds. The energy of these plants seems to be concentrated in
+the production of an elegant and proud form, the fruit being a mere
+afterthought. But the effect of the broad pale green leaves, even when
+frayed and ragged at the edges in and among the dark entanglement of the
+jungle is so fine that the absence of edible fruit may be almost
+forgiven.
+
+In the most popular of the cultivated varieties, the far famed MUSA
+CAVENDISHII, there is little of graceful form, save the broad leaves
+mottled with brown. All the vitality of the plant is expended in
+astonishing results. A comparatively lowly plant, its productions
+in suitable soil are prodigious. In nine or ten months after the
+planting of the rhizome, it bears under favourable conditions a bunch
+weighing as much as 120 lb. to 160 lb. and comprising as many as
+forty-eight dozen individual bananas. So great is the weight that to
+prevent the downfall of the plant a stake sharpened at each end--one to
+stick in the ground and the other into the soft stem--is needed to
+buttress it. Before the fruit has fully developed, other shoots have
+appeared; but each plant bears but one bunch, and when that is removed
+the plant is decapitated and slowly decays, and the second and third and
+fourth shoots from the rhizome successively arrive at the bearing stage
+and are permitted to mature each its bunch and then fated to suffer
+immediate decapitation. And so the process goes on for five or seven
+years, by which time the vigour of the soil has been exhausted, and
+moreover the rhizomes, originally planted about a foot deep, have grown up
+to the surface, and are no longer capable of supporting a plant upright.
+Then a fresh planting of rhizomes elsewhere takes place. It must not be
+thought that the banana defertilises the soil. Phenomenal crops of sugar
+cane are produced on a "banana-sick" land.
+
+A traveller relating his tropical experiences glorifies the banana,
+stating that he has eaten it "ripe and luscious from the tree!" In
+North Queensland bananas ripening on the plant frequently split, and
+seldom attain perfect flavour. The ripening process takes place after the
+fully developed bunch is removed and hung up in a cool, shady, well-aired
+locality. Then the fruit acquires its true lusciousness and aroma. Other
+climes, other results, perhaps; but a banana, "ripe and luscious from the
+tree," is not generally expected in North Queensland. The fruit may
+mature until it falls to the ground, yellow and soft, yet lack that
+delicate finish, that benign essential, the craft of man bestows. It
+would seem that the plant has been cultivated for so long a period that
+it has become dependent upon man not only for its existence but for the
+excellence of its crowning effort. An abandoned banana grove soon
+disappears, for although seeds are undoubtedly produced, the occasions
+are so rare that the reproduction of the cultivated varieties depends
+solely upon the rhizome, and these very speedily deteriorate if
+neglected. Another feature of the banana, of which man takes full
+advantage, is that though the bunch be removed before the fruit is
+matured as to size, the ripening process proceeds, just as though there
+had been no untimely interference. The bananas may be small, but will, as
+a rule, be almost as sweetly flavoured as those allowed to develop on the
+plant. Yet the superfine aesthetic essence is not for the delight of
+those to whom the fruit is tendered after it has undergone a sea voyage.
+Let there be no misunderstanding with respect to the desirableness of the
+coastal tract of North Queensland as a territory capable of supporting a
+large, prosperous and healthful population. It is no part of the present
+purpose to extol the mineral or the pastoral districts. They lie apart.
+But in North Queensland agriculture is almost solely confined to the
+coast and is essentially tropical. The tropics represent that portion of
+the earth's surface wherein man may live with the minimum of exertion,
+where actual wants are few, and wherein ample comforts may be enjoyed by
+those who seek them with a quiet mind and easy understanding. Although
+the question may be perhaps beyond proof, it might be safely asserted
+that a larger proportion of men of the yeomen class, represented by those
+who have succeeded in tropical agriculture in North Queensland, are
+independent to-day, than of the men in Victoria and New South Wales, who
+devoted their energies to sheep-farming, wheat-growing and dairying. Out
+of the comparatively few sugar-cane farmers in North Queensland, a
+considerable percentage have acquired independence, and many wealth. Few
+have failed. Fortunes have been made and are being made out of sugar
+lands; immense profits have been earned and are being earned in the
+production of bananas, and from other easily grown tropical fruits, good
+incomes are realised. When private enterprise invests many thousands of
+pounds in the building of jetties and tram-lines to facilitate the
+shipment of fruit, evidence in support of these statements is
+unnecessary.
+
+The prosperity of the farmer and fruit-grower in North Queensland does
+not unhaply depend upon himself, but upon the existence of large
+populations within reasonable range. Land of unsurpassed fertility and
+meteorological conditions which represent perfection for the growth of
+all fruits, ranging from the tomato to the mango, and, with few
+exceptions, all the commoner as well as all the more delicate, but none
+the less desirable vegetables are the heritage of the people. If the
+coast of North Queensland does not in a few years support a large,
+well-to-do, lusty, and therefore contented population, it will not be
+because of the lack of any of the essentials, but because the population
+has failed elsewhere, and that consequently there is no demand for the
+easily grown fruits of the earth.
+
+Each and all of the branches of cultured industry mentioned (with the
+exception of the growth of sugar-cane) were at disposal for trial here.
+Soil, climate and aspect are extremely favourable when not approaching
+absolute perfection, while the advantages of direct communication with
+the markets are unique. But my disposition, "that rash humour which my
+mother gave," impelled me to disregard all the encouraging prospects of
+fortune, and to easily tolerate circumstances and conditions under which
+few would remain content. True it is that some few acres of jungle have
+been cleared and various sorts of fruit-trees planted, that corn and
+potatoes are grown, and that there are evidences of work; but no one is
+better qualified than I to realise the insignificance of the results of
+my labours in comparison with what they might have been, had the
+accomplishment of them been undertaken with harder hands and more
+determined purpose.
+
+SOME DIFFERENCES
+
+"The weather may be extremely fine; but not without such varieties as
+shall hinder it from being tiresome."
+
+
+What higher or better reward could be desired than the reflection that
+one had attempted to assist in the dispersion of the mists of ignorance
+which obscure some of the aspects of the land of his adoption? Australia
+is vast and of infinite variety. The efforts of an individual isolated by
+remoteness and the sea, must necessarily be circumscribed.
+
+No Australian is able to affirm that his knowledge of the country is
+entirely satisfactory to himself. There are some points upon which the
+best informed stand to the correction of others whose general knowledge
+may be admittedly inadequate. We who are scattered about in odd and
+out-of-the-way corners, pick up in the school of experience scraps of
+local knowledge, and may without presumption present them to others to
+confirm and to conjure with.
+
+The term "Australia" as generally used ignores most of the continent out
+of sight of Melbourne and Sydney, though both Victoria and New South
+Wales could be stowed away in little more than half the area of
+Queensland. Do we reflect that Australia includes some of the driest
+tracts in the world, as well as areas in which the rainfall approaches
+the phenomenal--that not very much more than half of the territory of the
+Commonwealth lies within the temperate zone--that there are as marked
+differences between Tasmania and North Queensland as between the South of
+England and Ceylon? That the one is the land of the potato, apple,
+apricot, cherry, strawberry and blackberry, and the other the land of
+sugar-cane, coffee, the pine-apple, mango, vanilla and cocoa; that though
+there exist no imposing geographical boundaries, such as chains of lofty
+mountains or great rivers to emphasise climatic distinctions, these
+distinctions nevertheless exist, and that they imply special policies on
+the parts of Government and Administrations.
+
+Do we realise that the voice of the tropic half of Australia is drowned
+in the torrent of the temperate? It may be possible to misrepresent
+opinions and to obscure the fair view of things, to defeat aspirations;
+but are we to be denied the right of being heard and of explaining
+ourselves. Politicians to whose loud and profane voices electors listen,
+have declared that North Queensland shall become a desolate and silent
+wilderness, rather than that their views shall be gainsaid. Do such as
+these reflect that North Queensland is a fruitful country, capable of
+producing food and immense wealth, and giving employment to millions, and
+that other nations will not stand idly by and see the worth of so much
+land wasted because of the vanity of men who do not, and who apparently
+will not, endeavour to comprehend the magnificence of its extent and the
+width of its capabilities. The world is not so vast that any part of
+it--still less a part so situated and so highly favoured as this--can be
+left unpeopled. If not peopled by Australians or those of British blood,
+it will assuredly be by people for whom the average Australian entertains
+but scant respect.
+
+Australians cannot with justice complain when the good old folks at home
+blunder in their geography and perceptions, the while that so much local
+misapprehension prevails.
+
+Error was ingrained in the youthful days of middle-aged Australians. Their
+school-books told them in swinging rhyme that they lived in a world of
+undiscovered souls, that 'twas Heaven's decree to have these lost souls
+brought forth; that man should assert his dignity and not allow "brutes"
+to look upon him. Discoveries are still being made. Heaven's decree is
+replaced by the decree of wild talkers, the dignity of man is found to be
+the vanity of a paid politician, and but few of the "brutes" of Australia
+are left to look down upon anything. But there are some of saving grace
+who frankly acknowledge shame upon finding how little they really know
+of their native country.
+
+Young Australians were once taught that Australian trees cast no
+shade--that the edges of the leaves were presented to the sun to avoid the
+heat of the cruel luminary; that Australian flowers had no scent, and
+Australian birds no song; that the stones of Australian cherries grew on
+the outside of the fruit, that the bees had no sting, and that the dogs
+did not bark. In those days a gentleman with a military title improved
+upon the then popular list of contradictions by asserting that in
+Australia the compass points to the south, the valleys are cold, the
+mountain-tops warm, the eagles are white, and so on. Many accordingly
+took their natural science as "Tomlinson" did his God--from a printed
+book--and that compiled in England. Until they began to investigate they
+were puzzled by contradictions. The first prompt bee-bite--there are many
+varieties of Australian bees, some pugnacious and pungent--diverted
+attention from the school-book romances. It was discovered that thousands
+of square miles of Australian soil never catch glimpses of the sun in
+consequence of the impenetrableness of the shade of Australian trees;
+that the scent of the wattles, the eucalypts, the boronias, the hoyas,
+the gardenias, the lotus, etc., etc., are among the sweetest and
+cleanest, most powerful and most varied in the world; that many of the
+birds of Australia have songs full of melody; that the so-called
+Australian cherry is no more a cherry than an acorn; that the Australian
+dog (though "the only true wild dog in the world") is deemed to be a
+comparatively recent introduction--a new chum of Asiatic origin who
+entered the glorious constellation of the State something before the era
+of exclusive legislation--so naturally he does not bark, for barking is an
+evidence of civilisation; but he soon learns the universal language of
+the dog.
+
+Many years ago most of this gross and superficial ignorance was brushed
+away here, though now and again evidence crops up that a good deal yet
+adheres in the old country. Australian school-books of the present day
+contain so much that is grossly false and misleading of the natural
+conditions of certain portions of the Commonwealth as to leave no room to
+doubt the present duty. We are continually making mutually beneficial
+discoveries, and may it be granted these efforts be blessed with happy
+purpose. All is not known yet even in Australia. The number of
+"observers" who believe that snakes swallow their young in time of
+danger, and allow them to emerge when it is past, and that the end of the
+death adder to avoid is the tail, which is fitted with a slightly curved
+spur, become fewer every year; but we are still sincere in many of the
+honourable points of ignorance. Some discredit such facts as climbing
+fish, oysters "growing" on living trees, birds hatching eggs without
+sitting on them, egg-laying mammals and mammals producing young from eggs
+within their bodies, plants that sow the seed of continents to be--yet
+these facts are of everyday occurrence here.
+
+As to climate, will general credence be given to the statement that Dunk
+Island is more "temperate" than Melbourne? We experience neither the
+extreme heat nor the extreme cold of the metropolis of Victoria--nearly
+2000 miles to the south; we have four or five times the volume of rain,
+yet a greater number of fine days--days without rain. The general
+principle that where the rainy days are fewest the amount of rain is
+greatest, is apt to be forgotten. During 1903 the rainfall of Dunk Island
+amounted to 153 inches. What is meant (to follow the phrase of Huxley)
+when one says in technical language that the rainfall of a place was 153
+inches for a certain year? Such a statement means simply that if all the
+rain which fell on any level piece of ground in that place could be
+collected--none being lost by drying up, none running off the soil and
+none soaking into it--then at the end of the year it would form a layer
+covering that piece of ground to the uniform depth of 12 feet 9 inches!
+An inch of rain signifies 114 tons, or 27,000 gallons per acre!
+
+Let me repeat that in 1903 the rainfall here totalled 153 inches. During
+the same period the mean rainfall of the State of Victoria was 27.36
+inches. In one locality, reputed to be the wettest, 42.11 inches were
+registered, and occasioned no little surprise. In another Australian
+state, among the natural advantages of land offered for close settlement,
+was catalogued an annual rainfall of 18 inches; in another an official
+inducement of an average rainfall of 27 inches was offered, in yet
+another 24 inches, with a not too shrewd note that 15 inches of rain was
+ample.
+
+Some of the denizens of a dry area in Victoria find it hard to credit the
+simple facts recorded by my rain-gauge. The rainfall for the month of
+January 1903, on Dunk Island was 26.60 inches, only 0.76 inches short of
+the mean for the whole year in Victoria, and more than twice the quantity
+that blessed the thirsty soil in some parts of Queensland. The total
+rainfall of the wettest locality in Victoria was 42.11 inches. Here the
+month of March alone gave 44.90 inches.
+
+At Thargomindah (South-Western Queensland) 11.37 inches were registered
+for 1903, and 9.82 inches for 1904. The two driest months of Dunk Island
+fell short by a trifle more than 2 inches of the total fall for 1904 for
+that parched area. At Eulolo (Mid-Western Queensland) 13.68 inches
+represented the sum of the blessing for 1903, while during 24 hours in
+December that year the Dunk Island gauge registered just 11 inches, and
+that quantity was 3 inches more than could he spared for Eulolo for the
+whole of 1904.
+
+During 1904 Cape Otway Forest (Victoria), registered 40.92 inches,
+Townsville (North Queensland) 26.32 inches, and Dunk Island--only 110
+miles from Townsville--94.14 inches. That was a dry year with us. What
+is known in this neighbourhood as "the drought year" gave just 60 inches.
+Plants unaccustomed to such hardship, and therefore devoid of inherent
+powers of resistance, then gave way with pitiful lack of resource, and as
+speedily recovered on the return of normal conditions. Yet the 60 inches
+of "the drought year" represented more than twice the average rainfall of
+London.
+
+The average annual rainfall for the State of Victoria during the last
+thirty years has been 26.68 inches. Townsville (considered to be one of
+the driest places on the coast of North Queensland) averaged 45.54 inches
+during the period of thirty-four years.
+
+Twenty-five miles further north the rainfall for 1904 exceeded that of
+Dunk Island by 6 inches more than the average rainfall of the upper basin
+of the Thames Valley, which is given as 28 inches. Australia is big--there
+is bigness in our differences.
+
+Here in the tropics we have the finer weather--no excess of either heat or
+cold, no sudden, constitution-shattering changes. At Wood's Point
+(Victoria) rain fell on 185 days in 1903, and on 166 days in 1904. At
+Dunk Island rain occurred on 107 days in 1903 and On 92 days in 1904. We
+had many more days of picnic weather, notwithstanding our overwhelming
+superiority in quantity of rain. Moreover, in the tropics the bulk of the
+rain falls after sundown. After a really fine day in the wet season the
+hours of darkness may account for several inches of rain. Here over 12
+inches have been collected between sundown and nine o'clock the following
+morning.
+
+Particular references are confined to seasons three or four years past
+because recent official data, necessary for enlightening comparisons are
+not available, but in confirmation of statements concerning the
+meteorological conditions of the coast of tropical Queensland, the
+record of rainfall at Dunk Island since 1903 may be quoted:
+
+1904                         94.41 inches.
+1905                         89.06   "
+First nine months of 1906   134.70   "
+
+Of the latter total, 56 inches occurred in February, two days (6th and
+18th), accounting for 22.95 inches--more than half the average rainfall of
+the State of Queensland.
+
+An illustration--homely but graphic--of climatic differences may be
+given. During the first five months of 1904 the rainfall of Dunk Island
+amounted to 75.15 inches, the lowest monthly record being May (5.30
+inches) and the highest March (29.05 inches). At the end of May on the
+Burdekin Delta--150 miles to the south--the sugarcane was beginning to be
+affected by the hot, dry weather, and irrigation was about to be resorted
+to. Here in January it became necessary to repair the roof of the
+boat-shed, and to keep the ridge covering of paper-bark in position,
+two long saplings were tied parallel with the ridge pole. At the end
+of May these saplings were taken down in order that the whole of the
+thatch might be renovated, when it was found that both had started to
+grow, several of the shoots being 8 and 10 inches long. While sugarcane
+was languishing for lack of moisture, 150 miles away down the coast,
+a roughly-cut sapling exposed on the roof of a building found the
+conditions for the beginning of a new existence so favourable and
+stimulative that it had budded as freely as Aaron's rod. "Through the
+scent of water it had budded and brought forth boughs like a plant."
+
+Nearly as much misapprehension prevails in the Southern States of the
+Commonwealth as to the characteristics of North Queensland as seems to
+prevail among the good old folks "at home" as to Australia generally. If
+the few facts presented excite even mild surprise, they will not be
+altogether out of place in these pages.
+
+Dunk Island has a mean temperature of about 69 deg.; January is the
+hottest month with a mean of 87 deg, and July the coolest, mean 57 deg.
+Taking the official readings of Cardwell (20 miles to the south), I find
+the greatest extremes on record occurred in one year, when the highest
+temperature was 103.3 deg. and the lowest 36.2 deg. At Geraldton (25
+miles to the north) the extremes were 96 deg. and 43.4 deg.
+
+Rainfall and temperature, the proportion of clear to cloudy skies, calms,
+the direction, strength and the duration of winds, do not wholly
+comprehend distinctive climatic features. There are other conditions of
+more or less character and note, some hard to define, yet ever present.
+Here the air is warm and soothing, seldom is it crisp and never really
+bracing. Hot dry winds are unknown, but in the height of the wet
+season--which coincides with the dry season of the Southern States--the
+moisture-laden air may be likened to the vapour of a steam bath. While
+the rain thunders on the roof at the rate of an inch per hour, inside the
+house it may be perspiringly hot. After a fortnight's rain the damp
+saturates everything. Neglected boots and shoes grow a rich crop of
+mould, guns demand constant attention to prevent rust, and clothes packed
+tight in chests of drawers smell and feel damp. But the atmosphere is so
+wholesome that ordinary precautions for the prevention of sickness are
+generally neglected without any fear of ill consequence.
+
+However sharply defined by reason of the personal discomfort it inflicts,
+this steamy feature of the wet season is no more a general characteristic
+than the hot winds are of Victoria. Warm as the rains are, they bring to
+the air coolness and refreshment. Clear, calm, bright days, days of even
+and not high temperature, and of pure delight, dovetail with the hot and
+steamy ones. The prolifigacy of vegetation is a perpetual marvel; the
+loveliness of the land, the ineffable purity of the sky, the glorious
+tints of the sea--green and gold at sunrise, silvery blue at noon, purple
+pink and lilac during the all too brief twilight, a perpetual feast.
+
+For six months it may be said the prevailing wind is the south-east,
+followed by gentle breezes from the east and north-east. North-easters
+begin in September and are intermittent until the beginning of the wet
+season. The south-east monsoons are regular and consistent; the
+north-east, which precede the rainy monsoon, fitful and wayward, never
+continuing long in one stay, and lasting but four out of the twelve
+months. Rare is the wind from the west, rarer from the south-west.
+North-easters are a pronounced feature. They work up by diurnal and
+easy grades from gentleness to strength, thunder coming as a climax.
+After a succession of calm days and days of gentle breezes from the
+east-south-east and east, the north-easter begins softly, and daily
+gathers courage and assumption, to find in the course of a week or
+two its haughty spirit subdued by thunder and rain showers. Calms
+prevail for a few days. Easterly breezes come, to give way to the
+north-east again, and so the programme is repeated with variations
+which none may foresee, and which set at naught the lengthiest experience.
+At last, at Christmas or the New Year, the rains come with a boisterous
+beginning. A north-easter accompanied by thunder lasted a whole July
+afternoon. It was as strange as a crop of mangoes would have been at
+that time of year.
+
+During the cool season--a generous half of the year--dews are common--not
+the trivial barely perceptible moisture called dew in some parts, but most
+ungentle dew, which saturates everything and drips from the under sides
+of verandahs as the sun warms the air; dew which bows the grass with its
+weight, soaks through your dungarees to the hips, and soddens your thick
+bluchers, until you feel and appear as though you had waded through a
+swamp; dew which releases the prisoned odour of flowers irresponsive to
+the heat of the sun, which keeps the night cool and sweet, which with the
+first gleam of the sun makes the air soft and spicy and buoyant, and
+inspires thankfulness for the joy of life.
+
+Are we not all apt to fall into the error of estimating the character of
+a country by its extravagances rather than its average and general
+qualities?
+
+North Queensland has the reputation of being the home of malaria and the
+special sport of any cyclone that may have mischief in view. Being
+tropical, we have malaria, but it is of no more serious consequence than
+any one of the ills to which human flesh is heir in temperate climes. It
+does not exact such a toll of suffering and death as influenza, nor as
+typhoid used to do in crowded cities; nor is it as common as rheumatism
+in damp and blustering New Zealand, where the thermometer ranges from 100
+deg. in the shade to 24 deg. of frost. Malaria touches us lightly, and it
+is chosen as a bugbear with which to scare people away. A southern
+critic, honestly pitiful of our ill state, urges that the experiment of
+destroying those mosquitoes which disseminate the germ of malaria, by
+sealing up lagoons and swamps with kerosene, is worthy the attention of
+town and country residents in tropical Queensland, "where attacks of
+malaria are felt every summer." Mere idle words of pernicious
+consequence. Many a wretch who has done less mischief than "these
+utterers of forged tales, coiners of scandal and clippers of reputation,"
+has had his liberty restricted. But a small and an annually lessening
+proportion of our population suffers from malaria, and yet all have the
+renown of an annual attack! In that case the writer ought to have had
+twenty-five attacks, and thousands of others, lusty and toneful fellows,
+forty and forty-five attacks. With as much claim upon reason might
+one say that because of the sudden jerks of their climate (40 deg.
+of difference within twelve hours) all Victorians have to make
+three changes of raiment every day in order to avoid ill consequences;
+or that every man, woman and child in merry England has had instead
+of expects or dreads or hopes to have appendicitis, since King
+Edward the Peacemaker suffered, and renown came upon that disorder.
+Malaria is fleeing before civilisation. It cannot--at any rate in North
+Queensland--long endure the presence of the white man.
+
+Unfeigned pity is bestowed upon the denizens of North Queensland on
+account of the pains and penalties and discomforts alleged to be the
+sentence of all who dare select it as home. We who know can but smile and
+wait; and ever call call to mind pleasant and happy experiences,
+everlasting truths and "the falsehood of extremes."
+
+Even in the matter of cyclones--often quoted as one of its
+detriments--North Queensland has nothing to hide. At intervals Nature
+does indulge in a reckless and violent outburst, but not more frequently
+here than in other parts of the world. Year after year the seasons are
+passive and pleasant, and in every respect considerate of humanity and
+encouraging to humanity's undertakings. Then, abandoning for a few hours
+her orderly and kindly ways, Nature runs amok, raving and shrieking. Her
+transient irresponsibleness and mischievousness are then cited as
+everyday, persistent vices. Not so. Nature is rational even in her most
+passionate moments. Vegetation, rank and gross as in an unweeded garden,
+requires vigorous lopping and pruning. These twenty-year-interval storms
+comb out superfluous leaves and branches, cut out dead wood, send to the
+ground decayed and weakly shoots, and scrub and cleanse trunks and
+branches of parasitic growths. All is done boldly, yet with such skill
+that in a few weeks losses are hidden under masses of clean, insectless,
+healthy, bright foliage. The soil has received a luxurious top-dressing.
+Trees and plants respond to the stimulus with magical vigour, for lazy,
+slumbering forces have been roused into efforts so splendid that the
+realism of tropical vegetation is to be appreciated only after Nature has
+swept and sweetened her garden.
+
+A more vivid and more idealised medium than the poor one which with
+diffidence I employ were essential if entertainment alone were sought in
+these pages; but even faint and imperfect etching of one Australian
+scene, little known even to Australians, may in some degree tend to
+enlightenment.
+
+Many have told of the thin forests of Queensland, the open plains, and
+the interminable downs whereon the mirage plays with the fancies of
+wayfarers; and of the dust, heat and sweat of cattle stations. Has not
+the "Never Never Country" inspired many a traveller and more than one
+poet? It is well to realise that we have such bountiful land, and to be
+proud of the men capable of investing its vastness, monotony and prosaic
+wealth with poetic imagery. Is it not also wise to remember now aagain
+that Queensland possesses two types of tropical climate, accentuated by
+boundaries having far great significance than those which divide tropical
+from temperate Australia, and worlds apart in their distinctions? Is not
+the land of the banana, the palm and the cedar, entitled to recognition,
+as well as the land of the gidyea, the boree, and the bottle-tree? Who
+has yet said or sung of the mystery of the half-lit jungles of our coast,
+in contrast to the vivid boldness of the sun-sought, shadeless western
+plains; of our green, moist mountains, seamed with gloomy ravines, the
+sources of perennial streams; of the vast fertile lowlands in which the
+republic of vegetation is as an unruly, ungoverned mob, clamouring for
+topmost places in unrestrained excess of energy; of still lagoons, where
+the sacred pink lotus and the blue and white water-lily are rivals in
+grace of form, in tint and in perfume?
+
+If I am successful in convincing that North Queensland is neither a
+burning fiery furnace nor yet a sweltering steamy swamp; that the country
+is not completely saturated with malaria; that there are vast areas which
+no drought can tinge with grey or brown, where there are never-failing
+streams, where cool fresh water trickles among the shale and shattered
+coral on the beaches, where sweet-voiced birds sport and resplendent
+butterflies flicker, then these writings will have been to some purpose.
+
+ISLAND FAUNA
+
+While the bird life of our island is plentiful and varied, mammalian is
+insignificant in number. The echidna, two species of rats, a flying fox
+(PTEROPUS FUNEREUS) and two bats, comprise the list. Although across a
+narrow channel marsupials are plentiful, there is no representative of
+that typical Australian order here, and the Dunk Island blacks have no
+legends of the existence of either kangaroos, wallabies, kangaroo rats or
+bandicoots in times past. But there are circumstantial details extant,
+that the island of Timana was an outpost of the wallaby until quite a
+recent date. A gin (the last female native of Dunk Island) who died in
+1900 was wont to tell of the final battue at Timana, and the feast that
+followed, in which she took part as a child. This island, which has an
+area of about 20 acres, bears a resemblance to a jockey's cap--the sand
+spit towards the setting sun forming the peak, a precipice covered with
+scrub and jungle, the back. Here, long ago, a great gathering from the
+neighbouring islands and the mainland took place. Early in the morning
+all formed up in line on the sand spit. Diverging, but maintaining order,
+men, gins, piccaninnies, shouting, yelling, and screaming, and clashing
+nulla-nullas (throwing-sticks), supported by barking and yelping dogs
+swept the timid wallabies up through the tangle of jungle, until like the
+Gaderene swine they ran, or rather hopped, down a steep place into the
+sea, or fell on fatal rocks laid bare by the ebb-tide. Those who partook
+of the last of the wallabies have gone the way of all flesh, and the
+incident is instructive only as an illustration of the manner in which
+animals may suddenly disappear from confined localities, leaving no relic
+of previous existence. Considering the bulk of Dunk Island (3 1/2 square
+miles), and recognising the rule that islands are necessarily poorer in
+species than continents, it is yet remarkable that no evidence of
+marsupials is to be found, and that the oldest blacks maintain that none
+of the type ever existed here.
+
+Though the drawings in caves depict lizards, echidna, turtle and men,
+there is no representation of kangaroo or wallaby. It is highly probable
+that if such had been common, the black artists would have chosen them as
+subjects, since nearly all their studies are from Nature.
+
+The largest and heaviest four-footed creature now existent on Dunk Island
+is the so-called porcupine (spiny ant-eater or echidna). An animal which
+possesses some of the features of the hedgehog of old England, and
+resembles in others that distinctly Australian paradox, the platypus,
+which has a mouth which it cannot open--a mere tube through which the
+tongue is thrust, which in the production of its young combines the
+hatching of an egg as of a bird, with the suckling of a mammal, and which
+also has some of the characteristics of a reptile, cannot fail to be an
+interesting object to every student of the marvels of Nature. When
+disturbed, the echidna resolves itself into a ball, tucking its long
+snout between its forelegs, and packing its barely perceptible tail close
+between the hind ones, presenting an array of menacing prickles
+whencesoever attacked. While in this ball-like posture, the animal, as
+chance affords, digs with its short strong legs and steel-like claws,
+tearing asunder roots, and casting aside stones, and the ease and
+rapidity with which it disappears in soft soil are astonishing. The
+horrific array of prickles presented as it digs an undignified retreat,
+and the tenacity with which it holds the ground, have given rise to the
+fiction that no dog is capable of killing an echidna. No ordinary dog is.
+He must be cunning, daring, brave, insensible to pain, and resourceful.
+Then the feat is quite ordinary. Indeed, once the trick is learned, the
+trouble is to keep the dog from attacking its innocent, useful and most
+retiring enemy. The echidna has the ill-luck to possess certain subtle
+qualities, which excite terrific enthusiasm for its destruction on the
+part of the dog. Either there is an hereditary feud between the dog and
+the echidna, which the former is bound in honour to push to the last
+extremity, or else the dog regards the prickly creature as a perpetual
+affront, or specially created to provide opportunities for displaying
+fanatic hatred and hostility. No dog of healthy instinct is able to pass
+an echidna without some sort of an attempt upon its life. The long
+tubular nose of the echidna is the vital spot. This is guarded with such
+shrewdness and determination as to be impregnable. But the dog which
+pursues the proper tactics, and is wily and patient, sooner or
+later-regardless of the alleged poisonous spur--seizes one of the hind
+legs, and the conflict quickly comes to an end.
+
+By the blacks the echidna, which is known as "Coombee-yan," is placed on
+the very top of the list of those dainties which the crafty old men
+reserve for themselves under awe-inspiring penalties.
+
+Next in size to the echidna is the white-tipped rat (UROMYS HIRSUTIS?),
+water-loving, nocturnal in its habits, fierce and destructive. A
+collateral circumstance revealed absolute proof of its existence, which
+had previously depended upon vague statements of the blacks. Cutting
+firewood in the forest one morning, I came across a carpet snake, 12 feet
+long, laid out and asleep in a series of easy curves, with the sun
+revealing unexpected beauty in the tints and in the patterns of the skin.
+Midway of its length was a tell-tale bulge, and before the axe shortened
+it by a head, I was convinced that here was a serpent that had waylaid
+and surprised or beguiled a fowl. Post-mortem examination, however,
+proved once more the unreliability of uncorroborated circumstantial
+evidence. The snake had done good and friendly service instead of ill,
+for it had swallowed a white-tailed rat--the only specimen that I have
+seen on the island.
+
+Next comes the little frugivorous rat of russet brown, with a glint of
+gold on its fur tips. A delicate, graceful creature, nice in its habits,
+with a plaintive call like the cheep of a chicken; preferring ripe
+bananas and pine-apple, but consenting to nibble at other fruits, as well
+as grain. The mother carries her young crouched on her haunches, clinging
+to her fur apparently with teeth as well as claws, and she manages to
+scuttle along fairly fast, in spite of her encumbrances. The first that I
+saw bearing away her family to a place of refuge was deemed to be
+troubled with some hideous deformity aft, but inspection at close
+quarters showed how she had converted herself into a novel perambulator.
+I am told that no other rodent has been observed to carry its young in
+this fashion. Perhaps the habit has been acquired as a result of insular
+peculiarities, the animal, unconscious of the way of its kind on the
+mainland, having invented a style of its own, "ages ahead of the
+fashion."
+
+Mr C. W. de Vis, M.A., of the Queensland Museum, who has considerately
+examined specimens of this rat, pronounces it to be extraordinary, in
+that it combines types of three genera--the teeth of the mus, the mammae
+of the mastacomys and the scales on the tail of the genus UROMYS. In the
+bestowal of a name he has favoured the latter genus. The animal has been
+introduced to the scientific world under the title UROMYS BANFIELDI, by
+Mr de Vis, who, referring to it as "eccentric," says, "The female first
+sent to us as an example of the species had no young with her, nor were
+her mammae much in evidence; consequently, the advent of a specimen
+caught in the act of carrying young was awaited with interest. Fortune at
+length favoured our correspondent with an opportunity of placing the
+correctness of his observation beyond question. (A mother with a pair of
+infants attached to the teats was chloroformed and sent to Brisbane). On
+arrival, the young were found detached. The conical corrugated nipples
+are, compared with the size of the animal, very long; one, especially,
+20 mm. in length, calls to mind a marsupial teat."
+
+By the examination of adult specimens the age at which the young
+disassociate themselves from the mother has been ascertained. Long after
+the time of life at which other species of rats are nibbling an
+independent way through the world, U. BANFIELDI clings resolutely to its
+parent, obtaining from her its sole sustenance. Not until the "infant" is
+nearly half the size of the mother does it begin to earn its living and
+trust to its own means of locomotion.
+
+The presence of the echidna in three colours--black, grey, and straw--and
+two species of rats emphasises the absence of marsupials, unaccountable
+unless on the theory of extermination by the original inhabitants in the
+remote past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+BIRDS AND THEIR RIGHTS
+
+
+"As the sweet voice of a bird,
+Heard by the lander in a lonely isle
+Moves him to think what kind of bird it is,
+That sings so delicately clear, and make
+Conjecture of the plumage and the form."
+
+
+Frankly it must be admitted that the idea of retiring to an island was
+not spontaneous. It was evolved from a sentimental regard for the welfare
+of bird and plant life. Having pondered upon the destructive instinct
+which prevails in mankind, having seen that, though the offences which
+man commits against the laws of Nature are promptly detected and
+assuredly punished, they are yet repeated over and over again, and having
+more pity for the victims of man's heartlessness and folly than regard
+for the consequences which man suffers in the blows that Nature inflicts
+as she recoils, the inevitable conclusion was that moral suasion was of
+little purpose--that there must be more of example than precept. In this
+particular case how speedy and effective has been the result will be seen
+later on. Man destroys birds for sport, or in mere wantonness, and the
+increasing myriads of insect hosts lay such toll upon his crops and the
+fruit of the earth which by the exercise of high intelligence and noble
+perseverance he has improved and made plentiful, that the national loss
+is to be counted by hundreds of thousands. In this, as in all other
+interferences with natural laws, we blunder unless we reckon
+
+
+"With that
+Fixed arithmic of the universe,
+Which meteth good for good, ill for ill,
+Measure for measure."
+
+
+There may be a sort of satisfaction in the reflection, that for, perhaps,
+every insectivorous bird wantonly killed, some proportion of its weight
+in silver has to be paid indirectly by the country. But the satisfaction
+is of no avail to the dead bird nor to the species, unless the taxpayer
+feels the smart and becomes indignant. We want to save the lives of the
+birds, and the silver, then to moralise; not kill the bird and be
+compelled to spend the silver in destroying insects that the bird would
+have delighted to consume, and moralise upon the destructiveness of some
+hitherto insignificant bug or beetle, which has suddenly developed into a
+national calamity.
+
+So it was resolved, as other phases of island life matured, that one of
+the first ordinances to be proclaimed would be that forbidding
+interference with birds. That ordinance prevails. Our sea-girt hermitage
+is a sanctuary for all manner of birds, save those of murderous and
+cannibalistic instincts. We give all a hearty welcome and make friends of
+them if possible. During the eight years of our occupancy many shy
+creatures have become quite bold and familiar; though I am fain to admit,
+with disappointment, that but slight increases in the species represented
+have been noticed. Four strange species of terns, which are wont to lay
+on the bare reef patches of the Barrier, now visit Purtaboi regularly
+every season, depositing their eggs among those of two other species,
+which in spite of disturbance by the blacks, year after year refused to
+abandon the spot. Possibly the fact that a haven of refuge has been
+established has not been widely promulgated among our friends. Those who
+are with us or visit us have peace and security, and are for the most
+part friendly and trustful.
+
+Man--the late-comer, the last work, the perfect form--is not always
+kindly disposed towards the lower orders, though the dominion he
+exercises over them is absolute. Were not the beasts of the field, the
+birds of the air, the very fish of the sea, given over to his arbitrary
+authority? Here the interest in birds is mainly protective. The printed
+law of the land says in ponderous paragraphs all duly numbered and
+subdivided, that it is unlawful to kill many Queensland birds; and the
+pains and penalties for disregard thereof, are they not set out in
+terrifying array? But who cares? Take, for an example, the lovely
+Gouldian finch. The law makes it an offence to kill the birds, or to take
+their eggs, or to have them in possession dead or alive. Yet trappers go
+out into the habitation of the bird and snare them by the thousand. Fifty
+thousand pairs have been sent away in a single season. Not one tenth of
+those which twitter so faintly and yet so sweetly to their tiny loves of
+their own land and their erstwhile freedom, ever live to be gloated over,
+because of their fatal gift of beauty, in London or on the Continent.
+
+A CENSUS
+
+While this census ignores several birds of the island as to the identity
+of which doubt exists in the mind of the compiler, it acknowledges the
+presence of all permanent residents familiar to him, as well as casual
+visitors, and those which stay for a few hours or days, as the case may
+be, for rest or refreshment during migratory flights. Chastened by the
+half-averted face of irresponsive science, the glowing desire to inflate
+the list gave way to the crisper sort of satisfaction which is like the
+joy that cometh in the morning.
+
+
+BIRDS OF PREY
+
+White Goshawk                ASTUR (LEUCOSPIZA) NOVAE HOLLANDIAE.
+Goshawk                      ASTUR APPROXIMANS.
+Sparrow-Hawk                 ACCIPITER CIRRHOCEPHALUS.
+Wedge-tailed Eagle           UROAETUS (AQUILA) AUDAX.
+White-bellied Sea-Eagle      HALIAETUS LEUCOGASTER.
+White-headed Sea-Eagle       HALIASTUS GIRRENERA.
+Kite                         MILVUS AFFINIS.
+Black-shouldered Kite        ELANUS AXILLARIS.
+Black-cheeked Falcon         FALCO MELANOGENYS.
+Grey Falcon                  FALCO HYPOLEUCUS.
+Black Falcon                 FALCO SUBNIGER.
+Kestrel                      CERCHNEIS (TINNUNCULUS) CENCHROIDES.
+Fish Hawk or Osprey          PANDION LEUCOCEPHALUS.
+Boobook Owl                  NINOX BOOBOOK.
+Rufous Owl                   NINOX HUMERALIS.
+Lurid Owl (De Vis)           NINOX LURIDA.
+
+PERCHING BIRDS
+
+Pied Crow-Shrike             STREPERA GRACULINA.
+White-winged Chough          CORCORAX MELANORHAMPHUS.
+Manucode                     PHONYGAMA (MANUCODIA) GOULDI.
+Yellow Oriole                ORIOLUS FLAVICINCTUS.
+Yellow-bellied Fig-bird      SPHECOTHERES FLAVIVENTRIS.
+Drongo                       CHIBIA BRACTEATA.
+Magpie Lark                  GRALLINA PICATA.
+Brown Shrike-Thrush          COLLYRIOCINCLA BRUNNEA.
+White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike  GRAUCALUS HYPOLEUCUS.
+Little Cuckoo-Shrike         GRAUCALUS MENTALIS.
+Barred Cuckoo-Shrike         GRAUCALUS LINEATUS.
+Caterpillar-cater            EDOLIISOMA TENUIROSTRE (JARDINII).
+Pied Caterpillar-eater       LALAGE LEUCOMELAENA.
+Northern Fantail             RHIPIDURA SETOSA (ISURA).
+Ruffis-fronted Fantail       RHIFIDURA RUFIFRONS.
+Black and White Fantail      RHIPIDURA (SAULOPROCTA) TRICOLOR
+                                 (MOTACILLOIDES).
+Leaden Fly-catcher           MYIAGRA RUBECULA (PLUMBEA).
+Blue Fly-catcher             MYIAGRA CONCINNA.
+Pied Fly-catcher             ARSES KAUPI.
+Shining Fly-catcher          PIEZORHYNCHUS NITIDUS.
+White-eared Fly-catcher      PIEZORHYNCHUS LEUCOTIS.
+Spectacled Fly-catcher       PIEZORHYNCHUS GOULDI.
+Black-faced Fly-catcher      MONARCHA MELANOPSIS (CARINATA).
+Tawny Grass-Bird             MEGALURUS GALACTOTES.
+Rufous-breasted Thickhead    PACHYCEPHALA RUFIVENTRIS.
+Sun-bird                     CINNYRIS (NECTARINIA) FRENATA.
+Dusky Honey-eater            MYZOMELA OBSCURA.
+Yellow White-eye             ZOSTEROPS LUTEA.
+Varied Honey-cater           PTILOTIS VERSICOLOR.
+Fasciated Honey-eater        PTILOTIS FASCIOGULARIS.
+Yellow-tinted Honey-eater    PLILOTIS FLAVA.
+Friar Bird                   PHILEMON CORNICULATUS.
+Helmeted Friar Bird          PHILEMON BUCEROIDES.
+Flower-Pecker
+    or Mistletoe Bird        DICAEUM HIRUNDINACEUM.
+Black-headed Diamond Bird    PARDALOTUS MELANOCEPHALUS.
+Eastern Swallow              HIRUNDO JAVANICA.
+Swallow                      HIRUNDO NEOXENA (FRONTALIS).
+White-rumped Wood-Swallow    ARTAMUS LEUCOGASTER.
+Shining Starling             CALORNIS METALLICA.
+Noisy Pitta                  PITTA STREPITANS.
+
+PICARIAN BIRDS
+
+Large-tailed Nightjar        CAPRIMULGUS MACROURUS.
+Roller or Dollar-Bird        EURYSTOMUS AUSTRALIS.
+Bee-eater                    MEROPS ORNATUS.
+Blue Kingfisher              ALCYONE AZUREA.
+Little Kingfisher            ALCYONE PUSILLA.
+Leach Kingfisher             DACELO LEACHII.
+Sacred Kingfisher            HALCYON SANCTUS.
+Mangrove Kingfisher          HALYON SORDIDUS.
+Bronze Cuckoo                CHALCOCOCCYX PLAGOSUS.
+Koel                         EUDYNAMIS CYANOCEPHALA.
+Channel-bill                 SCYTHROPS NOVAE HOLLANDIE.
+Coucal                       CENTROPUS PHASIANUS.
+
+PARROTS
+
+Red-collared Lorikeet        TRICHOGLOSSUS RUBRITORQUIS.
+Glossy Cockatoo              CALYPTORHYNCHUS VIRIDIS (LEACHIT).
+White Cockatoo               CACATUA GALERITA.
+Red-winged Lory              PTISTES ERYTHROPTERUS.
+
+PIGEONS AND DOVES
+
+Rose-crowned Fruit Pigeon    PTILOPUS EWINGI.
+Purple-crowned Fruit Pigeon  PTILOPUS SUPERBUS.
+Purple-breasted Fruit Pigeon MEGALOPREPIA MAGNIFICA.
+Allied Fruit Pigeon          MEGALOPREPIA ASSIMILIS.
+Nutmeg Pigeon                MYRISTICIVORA SPILORRHOA.
+White-headed Fruit Pigeon    COLUMBA LEUCOMELA.
+Pheasant-tailed Pigeon       MACROPYGIA PHASIANELLA.
+Barred-shouldered Dove       GEOPELIA HUMERALIS.
+Ground Dove                  GEOPELIA TRANQUILA.
+Little Dove                  GEOPELIA CUNEATA.
+Little Green Pigeon          CHALCOPHAPS CHRYSOCHLORA.
+
+GAME BIRDS
+
+Brown Quail                  SYNAECUS AUSTRALIS.
+Scrub Fowl                   MEGAPODIUS DUPERREYI (TUMULUS).
+Bald Coot                    PORPHYRIO MELANONOTUS.
+Little Quail                 TURNIX VELOX.
+
+RAIL
+
+Pectoral Rail                HYPOTAENIDIA PHILIPPINENSIS.
+
+CRANE
+
+Crane or Native Companion    ANTIGONE AUSTRALASIANA.
+
+PLOVERS, ETC.
+
+Stone Plover                 BURHINUS (OEDICNEMUS) GRALLARIUS.
+Long-billed Stone Plover     ORTHORHAMPHUS (ESACUS) MAGNIROSTRIS.
+Turnstone                    ARENARIA (STREPSILAS) INTERPRES.
+Pied Oyster-catcher          HAEMATOPUS LONGIROSTRIS.
+Black Oyster-catcher         HAEMATOPUS UNICOLOR.
+Masked Plover                LOBIVANELLUS MILES.
+Red-capped Dottrel           AEGIALITIS RUFICAPILLA.
+Black-fronted Dottrel        AEGIALITIS (MELANOPS) NIGRIFRONS.
+Red-necked Avocet            RECURVIROSTRA NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.
+Curlew                       NUMENIUS CYANOPUS.
+Whimbrel                     NUMENIUS VARIEGATUS.
+Barred-rumped Godwit         LIMOSA NOVAE-SEALANDIAE
+Common Sandpiper             TRINGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS.
+Greenshank                   GLOTTIS NEBULARIUS (GLOTTOIDES).
+Snipe                        GALLINAGO AUSTRALIS.
+
+SEA BIRDS
+
+Crested Tern                 STERNA BERGII.
+Brown-winged Tern                 STERNA ANAESTHETA.
+Sooty Tern                   STERNA FULIGINOSA.
+White-shafted Ternlet       STERNA SINENSIS.
+Black-naped Tern             STERNA MELANAUCHEN.
+Noddy                        ANOUS STOLIDUS.
+White-capped Noddy           MICRANOUS LEUCOCAPILLUS.
+
+IBISES
+
+White Ibis                   IBIS MOLUCCA.
+Straw-necked Ibis            CARPHIBIS SPINICOLLIS.
+
+HERONS
+
+Plumed Egret                 MESOPHOYX PLUMIFERA.
+White Egret                  HERODIAS TIMORIENSIS.
+White-fronted Heron          NOTOPHOYX NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.
+Reef Heron                   DEMIEGRETTA SACRA.
+Little Mangrove Bittem       BUTORIDES STAGNATILIS.
+Yellow-necked Mangrove
+    Bittem                   DUPETOR GOULDI.
+
+POUCHERS
+
+Little Cormorant             PHALACROCORAX MELANOLEUCUS.
+Darter                       PTOLUS NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.
+Masked Gannet                SULA CYANOPS.
+Red-legged Gannet            SULA PISCATOR.
+Brown Gannet (Booby)         SULA SULA (FIBER).
+Lesser Frigate Bird          FREGATA ARIEL
+Pelican                      PELICANUS CONSPICILLATUS.
+
+DIVER
+
+Black-throated Grebe         PODICIPES NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.
+
+DUCKS
+
+Black Duck                   ANAS SUPERCILIOSA.
+Grey Teal                    NETTION (ANAS) GIBBERIFRONS.
+
+
+Why have we no residential parrot, though cockatoos are plentiful; no
+scrub turkey though the megapode scampers in all directions in the
+jungle; no common black crow, nor butcher bird, though other shrikes (the
+magpie for instance) come and go; no wren, no finch, no lark? Scrub
+turkeys (TALLEGALLA LATHAMI), mound builders like the megapode, are
+plentiful all along the coast, at certain seasons visiting the scrub
+which margins the opposite beach, but they are not found on these
+islands. The blue mountain parrot (red-collared lorikeet), the red-winged
+lory, the black cockatoo (Leach's), and other well-known species, fleet
+and venturesome, to whom two miles and a half of "salt, estranging sea"
+cannot be any check, certainly do not use the island for nesting as birds
+of "innocent and quiet minds" might. Gauze-winged butterflies flit across
+the channel, occasionally in great numbers. What law restrains virile
+birds from the venture?
+
+The absence among the residents of swimming birds, save the beach
+frequenters, is due to the lack of open fresh water, though there are
+indications of the past existence of at least one swamp, and also that it
+was drained naturally by the fretting away of a sand ridge by the sea.
+
+How is it, that though we have echidna in three different colours--black,
+grey and straw--there is no typical marsupial, large or small, no iguana
+(rather, monitor lizard), though a fair variety of other reptiles, from
+white, house-haunting geckoes to carpet snakes? Though the CYCAS MEDIA is
+plentiful on the seaward slopes of the adjacent mainland, no trace of
+that interesting old-world plant has been discovered here. and but one
+casual representative has been found of the graceful fan palm (LICUALA
+MUELLERI), another relic of the far beginning of Australia. No doubt the
+seed whence the single fan palm sprung would be brought hither by a
+nutmeg pigeon; but there is no bird-carrier for the CYCAD, and the set of
+the current is opposed to its transport by the sea.
+
+In birds and in mammals and in plants, wide-spread Australian groups are
+unrepresented.
+
+THE DAYBREAK FUGUE
+
+Before there is any visible sign of the break of day, some keener and
+finer perception than man possesses reveals it to the noisy pitta, or
+dragoon bird, which in duty bound makes prompt proclamation. Man trusts
+to mechanism to check off the watches of the night; birds to a
+self-contained grace more sensitive if not so viciously exact. The noisy
+pitta bustles along the edge of the jungle rousing all the sleepy heads
+with sharp interrogative whistles before there is the least paling of the
+Eastern sky. He scents the sun as the ghost of Hamlet's father the
+morning air. His version of "Sleepers, wake," echoes in the silence in
+sharp, staccato notes. Seldom heard during the heat of the day, they are
+oft repeated at dusk and late in the evening. Of all the birds of the day
+his voice is the last as well as the first, and from that the natives
+derive his name, "Wung-go-bah."
+
+As the dawn hastens a subdued fugue of chirps and whistles, soft,
+continuous and quite distinct from the cheerful individual notes and
+calls with which the glare is greeted, completes a circle of sounds.
+Wheresoever he stands the listener is in the centre of ripples of melody
+which blend with the silence almost as speedily as the half lights flee
+before the pompous rays of the imperial sun. This charming melody is but
+a general exclamation of pleasure on the recovery of the day from the
+apprehension of the night, a mutual recognition, an interchange of
+matutinal compliments. Those who take part in it may be jealous rivals in
+a few minutes, but the first impulse of each new day is a universal
+paean, not loud and vaunting, but mellow, sweet and unselfish.
+
+THE MEGAPODE
+
+The cackle and call of the scrub fowl (MEGAPODIUS DUPERREYS) are
+nocturnal as well as sounds of the day, being repeated at intervals all
+through the night. Rarely venturing out of the shades of the jungle, the
+eyesight of this bird is, no doubt, specially adjusted to darkness and
+subdued lights, and is thus enabled to detect and prey upon insects which
+during the day lurk under leaves and decayed wood, or bury themselves in
+the surface of the ever moist soil. Astonishment is excited that there can
+by any possibility be any grubs or beetles, centipedes and worms,
+scorpions and spiders left to perpetuate their species, when the floor of
+the jungle is raked over with such assiduity by this powerful and active
+bird. During the day the megapode is sometimes silent, but ever and anon
+it gives way to what may in charity be presumed to be a crow---an
+uncouth, discordant effort to imitate the boastful, tuneful challenge of
+the civilised rooster. In common with "Elia" (and others) the megapode
+has no ear for music. It seems to have been practising
+"cock-a-doodle-doo" all its life in the solitary corners and undergrowth,
+and to have not yet arrived within quavers of it. It "abhors the measured
+malice of music."
+
+The inclusion among the birds of the air of such an inveterate land
+lover, a bird which seldom takes flight of its own motive, is permissible
+on general principles, while its practical exercise of rare domestic
+economy entitles it to special and complimentary notice. Reference is
+made elsewhere to the surpassing intelligence of the megapode in taking
+advantage of the heat caused by the fermentation of decaying vegetation
+to hatch out huge eggs. Long before the astute Chinese practised the
+artificial incubation of hens' and ducks' eggs, these sage birds of ours
+had mastered it. Several birds seem to co-operate in the building of a
+mound, which may contain many cartloads of material, but each bird
+appears to have a particular area in which to deposit her eggs. The
+chicks apparently earn their own living immediately they emerge fully
+fledged from the mound, and are so far independent of maternal care that
+they are sometimes found long distances from the nearest possible
+birthplace, scratching away vigorously and flying when frightened with
+remarkable vigour and speed, though but a few hours old. I come gladly to
+the conclusion that the megapode is a sagacious bird, not only in the
+avoidance of the dismal duty of incubation, but in respect of the making
+of those great mounds of decaying vegetable matter and earth which
+perform the function so effectively. In a particularly rugged part of the
+island is a mound almost completely walled in by immense boulders. In
+such a situation the birds could hardly have found it possible to
+accumulate by kicking and scratching so great a quantity of debris. The
+material was not available on the site, and as the makers do not carry
+their rubbish, it was puzzling to account for it all, until it was
+noticed that the junction of two boulders with an inclination towards
+each other formed a natural flume or shoot down which most of the
+material of the mound had been sent. As the rains and use flatten the
+apex fresh stuff is deposited with a trifling amount of labour, to afford
+an illustration of "purposive conscious action."
+
+The megapode seems to delight in flying in the face of laws to which
+ordinary fowls are obedient. While making a law unto herself for the
+incubation of eggs, she scandalously violates that which provides that
+the size of the egg shall be in proportion to the size of the bird.
+Though much less in weight than an average domestic fowl, the egg that
+she lays equals nearly three of the fowl's. Comparisons between the egg
+of the cassowary (one of the giants among birds) and of the common fowl
+with that of the megapode, are highly complimentary to the latter. A fair
+weight for a full-grown cassowary is 150 lb., and the egg weighs 1 lb. 6
+oz. A good-conditioned megapode weighs 3 lb., the egg 5 1/4 oz.; ordinary
+domestic fowl, 4 lb., egg 2 oz. The egg of the cassowary represents 1 per
+cent. of the weight of the bird, the domestic fowl's 3 1/8 per cent., and
+that of megapode no less than 11 1/2 per cent of its weight.
+
+When these facts are considered, we realise why the homey head of the
+great cassowary, the layer of the largest of Australian eggs, is carried
+so low as she bursts through the jungle; why the pair converse in such
+humble tones and why, on the other hand, the megapode exults so loudly so
+coarsely and in such shocking intervals, careless of the sentiments and
+of the sense of melody of every other bird.
+
+Though the powers of the flight of this bird are feeble it inhabits
+islands 3 and 4 miles further out to sea than their most adjacent
+neighbours. The laboured way in which a startled bird flies across the
+narrow expanse of my plantation proves that a long journey would never
+be undertaken voluntarily. Not many months ago some blacks walking on the
+beach on the mainland had their attention attracted by a bird flying low
+on the water from the direction of Dunk Island, 2 1/2 miles away. It was
+labouring heavily, and some little distance from land fell exhausted into
+the sea. When it drifted ashore--a godsend to the boys--it was found to be
+a megapode--and the feat was camp talk. None could credit that a
+"kee-rowan" could fly so far.
+
+SWAMP PHEASANT
+
+The swamp pheasant, or pheasant coucal (CENTROPUS PHASIANUS) is also an
+early bird, and a bird of varied linguistic capabilities. Folks are apt
+to associate with him but one note, and that resembling the mellow gurgle
+of cream from a bottle, "Glooc! glooc! glooc! glooc!" An intimate
+knowledge of his conversational powers leads one to conclude that there
+are few birds more widely accomplished in that direction. He does use the
+fluid phrase mentioned, but his notes and those of his consort cover
+quite a range of exclamations and calls. Just as I write a pair appeal
+for a just recognition of their accomplishments. That which I assume to
+be the lord and master utters a loud resonant "Toom! toom! toom! toom"
+a smooth trombonic sound, "hollow to the reverberate hills," which his
+consort answers with a series of "Tum! tum tum! tum!" on a higher but
+still harmonious key, and in accelerated tempo. This, I fancy, is the
+lover's serenade, and the soft assenting answer; almost invariably the
+loud hollow sound is the opening phrase of the duet. "Sole or responsive
+to each other's note," the birds make the forest resound again during the
+day, especially in the prime months, and even these notes find varied and
+pleasing expression. Free and joyous as a rule, occasionally they seem to
+indicate sadness and gloom. During and after a bush fire the birds give
+to the notes a mournful cadence like the memories of joy that are past, a
+lament for the destruction of the grass among which last year's
+dome-shaped nests were hidden. The swamp pheasant also utters a contented,
+self-complacent chuckle, that resembles the "Goo! goo! goo!" of a happy
+infant, and occasionally a succession of grating, discordant, mocking
+sounds, "Tcharn! tcharn! tcharn!" The chuckle may be an expression as if
+gloating over the detection and assimilation of some favourite dainty,
+and the harsh notes a demonstration of rivalry, anger and hostility. The
+more familiar and more frequent note is the "Toom," repeated about
+fourteen or sixteen times, and the thinner, softer response.
+
+The bird resembles in plumage a pheasant. Cumbersome and slow of flight,
+clumsy in alighting, he frequently loses his equilibrium, and is
+compelled to use his long tail as a counter-balance, as he jumps from
+branch to branch ascending a tree, in order to gain elevation, whence to
+swoop and flop across the intervening space to the next. When compelled to
+take wing from a low elevation, the flight is slow and laboured in the
+extreme. He is a handsome fellow, the ruling colours being glossy black,
+brown and reddish chestnut. One writer describes the bird as half hawk,
+half pheasant, another as a non-parasitic cuckoo; another "really a
+cuckoo"; another a swamp or tree parrot with the foot of a lark. Without
+daring to attempt to dispute any of these descriptions, I may say that
+the bird is a decided character and possesses the charm of originality.
+He has become so confiding that he will perch on the gatepost as one
+enters, assuming a fierce and resentful aspect, and he will play "hawk"
+to the startled fowls. He eats the eggs of other birds and kills chicks;
+but his murderous instincts are rarely exhibited, and then only, perhaps,
+when his passions are aroused. He does not (as far as my observation
+goes) kill for food, but merely because Nature gives him at certain times
+and seasons a fiery, jealous disposition, and a truculent determination
+to protect his family.
+
+"GO-BIDGER-ROO!"
+
+As the sun shines over the range, the plaintive cooing of the little blue
+dove, such as picked the rice grains from the bowl beside rapt Buddha's
+hands, comes up from among the scented wattles on the flat, the gentlest
+and meekest of all the converse of the birds. The nervous yet fluty tones
+are as an emphatic a contrast to the vehement interjections and commands
+of the varied honey-cater (PTILOTIS VERSICOLOR)--now at the first
+outburst--as is the swiftly foreshortening profile of the range to the
+glare in which all the foreground quivers.
+
+Once aroused, the varied honey-eater is wide awake. His restlessness is
+equalled only by his impertinent exclamations. He shouts his own
+aboriginal title, "Go-bidger-roo!" "Put on your boots!"
+"Which--which-which way-which way-which way you go!" "Get your whip!" "Get
+your whip!" "You go!" "You go!" "None of your cheek!" "None of your
+cheek!" "Here-here!" And darts out with a fluster from among the hibiscus
+bushes on the beach away up to the top of the melaleuca tree; pauses to
+sample the honey from the yellow flowers of the gin-gee, and down to the
+scarlet blooms of the flame tree, across the pandanus palms and to the
+shady creek for his morning bath and drink, shouting without ceasing his
+orders and observations. He is always with us, though not always as noisy
+as in the prime of the year--a cheerful, prying, frisky creature, always
+going somewhere or doing something in a red-hot hurry, and always making
+a song of it--a veritable babbler. His love-making is passionate and
+impulsive, joyous almost to rowdyism.
+
+BULLY, SWAGGERER, SWASHBUCKLER
+
+The drongo shrike is another permanent resident; glossy black, with a
+metallic shimmer on the shoulders, long-tailed, sharp of bill and
+masterful. He has a scolding tongue, and if a hawk hovers over the
+bloodwoods he tells without hesitation of the evil presence. He is the
+bully of the wilderness of leaves, bouncing birds vastly his superior in
+fighting weight and alertness of wing, and clattering his jurisdiction to
+everything that flies. When the nest on the nethermost branch of the
+Moreton Bay ash is packed with hungry brood, his industry is
+exhilarating. Ordinarily he gets all the food he wants by merely a
+superficial inspection; but with a family to provide for, he is compelled
+to fly around, shrewdly examining every likely looking locality. Clinging
+to the bark of the bloodwood, with tail spread out fan-wise as additional
+support, he searches every interstice, and ever and anon flies to the
+Moreton Bay ash, and tears off the curling fragments of crisp bark which
+afford concealment to the smaller beetles, grubs and spiders.
+
+With the loose end of bark in his bill, tugging and fluttering, using his
+tail as a lever with the tree as a fulcrum, and objurgating in unseemly
+tones, as the bark resists his efforts, the drongo assists the Moreton
+Bay ash in discarding worn-out epidermis, and the tree reciprocates by
+offering safe nesting-place on its most brittle branches.
+
+The drongo is a bird of many moods. Silent and inert for months together,
+during the nesting season he is noisy and alert, not only the first to
+give warning of the presence of a falcon, but the boldest in chiveying
+from tree to tree this universal enemy.
+
+He is then particularly partial to an aerial acrobatic performance,
+unsurpassed for gracefulness and skill, and significant of the joy of
+life and liberty and the delirious passion of the moment. With a mighty
+effort, a chattering scream and a preliminary downward cast, he impels
+himself with the ardour of flight--almost vertically--up above the level
+of the tree-tops. Then, after a momentary, thrilling pause, with a gush of
+twittering commotion and stiffened wings preternaturally extended over
+the back and flattened together into a single rigid fin, drops--a
+feathered black bolt from the blue--almost to the ground, swoops up to a
+resting-place, and with bowing head and jerking tail gloats over his
+splendid feat.
+
+Though denied fluency of utterance, the spangled drongo has no rival in
+the peculiar character of the notes and calls over which he has secure
+copyright. The shrill stuttering shriek which accompanies his aerial
+acrobatic performances, the subdued tinkling tones of pleasure, the
+jangle as of cracked china, the high-pitched tirade of jarring abuse and
+scolding at the presence of an enemy, the meek cheeps, the tremulous,
+coaxing whistles when the young first venture from the nest--each and
+every sound, unique and totally unlike that of any other bird, indicates
+the oddity of this sportful member of the crow family.
+
+EYES AFLAME
+
+Perhaps the most interesting and entertaining of all the birds of the
+island is that commonly known as the weaver or friendly bird, otherwise
+the metallic starling, the shining calornis of the ornithologist, the
+"Tee-algon" of the blacks. Throughout the coastal tract of North
+Queensland this bird is fairly familiar. In these days it could not
+escape notice and comment, for it is an avowed socialist establishing
+colonies every few miles. There are four on Dunk Island, and though not
+permanent residents, spending but little more than half the year with us,
+they are among the few birds who have permanent homes. In some lofty tree
+they build perhaps two hundred nests in groups of from two to six. With
+all these nests weighting its thinner branches the tree may look wearied
+and afflicted, but it obtains direct benefit from the presence of the
+birds. The nests, deftly built of tendrils and slender creepers and grass
+are domed, the entrance being at the side, and so hidden and overhung as
+almost to escape notice. Each August the birds appear, coming from the
+north. and until the middle of March, when they take their departure,
+they do not indulge in many leisure moments. There are the old nests to
+renovate and new ones to build in accordance with the demand of the
+increasing population, and loads of fruits and seeds and berries to be
+conveyed from the jungle to the colony. The shining calornis is a
+handsome fellow, gleaming black, with purple and green sheen. The live
+bird differs so greatly from the dull, stuffed specimen of the museum
+that one is tempted to endeavour to convey by similitude its wonderful
+radiance. A soap bubble, black yet retaining all its changing lights and
+flashing reflections, is the nearest approach to a just description, and
+then there are to specify the rich, red eyes, eyes gleaming like polished
+gems. Until after the first year of their existence the young are
+brown-backed, and mottled white and bluish-grey of breast, and would
+hardly be recognised as members of the colony, but for the shrill notes
+and restless activity and those flaming eyes--living gems of wondrous
+radiance, and the eyes epitomise the life of the bird which is all flame
+and fever.
+
+Twenty or thirty may be peering about in a bloodwood, and with a
+unanimous impulse and a call in unison they slip through the forest, and
+shoot into the jungle, flashing sun-glints. Eager, alert, always under
+high pressure, the business of the moment brooks of no delay. The flocks
+come and go between the home and the feeding-ground with noisy
+exclamations and impetuous haste. With whirr of wings and jeering notes
+they swoop close overhead, wheeling into the wilderness of leaves with
+the rapidity of thought, and with such graceful precision that the
+sunlight flashes from their shoulders as an arc of light. Work, hasty
+work, is a necessity, for their wastefulness is extreme, or, rather, do
+they not unconsciously perform a double duty, being chief among the
+distributing agents--industrious and trustworthy though unchartered
+carders for many helpless trees. When the company darts again out of the
+jungle, each with a berry in its bill and each shrilly exulting, many a
+load is dropped by the way, and many another falls to mother earth in the
+act of feeding the clamorous young. Berries and seeds having no means of
+self-transportation are thus borne far from parent trees to vegetate in
+sweet unencumbered soil. Other birds take part in this generous
+dispersal, but none engage in it so systematically or so openly.
+
+Beneath the tree which is the head centre of the colony is a carpet of
+debris several inches thick. Old and discarded nests, fragments of unused
+building materials, the nutmeg with its lacing of coral-red mace, the
+blue quandong, the remains of various species of figs, hard berries,
+chillies, degenerated tomatoes, the harsh seed-vessels of the
+umbrella-tree, samples of every fruit and berry of attractive appearance,
+however hot and acrid, all go to form a mulching of vegetable matter such
+as no other tree of forest or jungle gets. Prodigal and profuse as she
+may be, Nature is the rarest of economists. Out here in the forest is
+springing up an oasis of jungle, every plant of which owes its origin to
+the shining calornis.
+
+It must not be thought that all the notes of these most engaging birds,
+symbolic of light in plumage and in flight, are shrill and strident. When
+they feed--and they seem always to be feeding or carrying food--their
+chatter is perpetual and varied in tone. Occasionally a male bird sets
+himself to beguile the time with song. Then his flame-red eyes flash with
+ardour, his head is thrown back, a sparkling ruffle appears on his
+otherwise satiny smooth neck, and the tune resembles that of a well-taught
+canary--more fluty but briefer. But the song is only for the ears of those
+who know how to overcome timidity and shyness. Birds naturally so
+impetuous are restless and uneasy under observation. One must pose in
+silence until his presence is forgotten or ignored. Then the delicious
+melody, the approving comments of the songster's companions, and the
+efforts of ambitious youngsters to imitate and excel, are all part of a
+quaint entertainment.
+
+THE NESTFUL TREE
+
+All the forest brood do not plot mutual slaughter. Some live in strict
+amity. Here in the Moreton Bay ash, taken advantage of by the shining
+calornis, a white-headed, rufous-backed sea-eagle nests, and the
+graceful, fierce-looking pair come and go among the glittering noisy
+throng without exciting any special comment. Of course it would be
+impossible to detect any certain note of remonstrance, for the smaller
+birds are generally commenting on something or other in acidulous tones.
+
+Another occupant of this nestful tree is the sulphur-crested cockatoo,
+whose eggs are laid deep down in a hollow. Two or three hundred of the
+shining colonists, a brood of sea-eagles, white-headed, snowy-breasted and
+red-backed, and a couple, perhaps, three, screeching white cockatoos,
+represent the annual output of this single tree, in addition, of course,
+to its own crop of sweet savoured flowers (on which birds, bees, beetles
+and butterflies, and flying-foxes feast) and seeds in thousands in
+cunning cups.
+
+"STATELY FACE AND MAGNANIMOUS MINDE"
+
+How feeble and ludicrous are the voices of the fierce hawks and eagles.
+The white-headed sea-eagle's puking discordant twang, the feeble cheep of
+the grey falcon--the cry of a sick and scared chicken--the harsh protest
+of the osprey, are sounds distinctive but frail, conveying no notion
+whatever of the demeanour and characteristics of the birds.
+
+Now the white-headed sea-eagle, with its sharp incurved beak, terrible
+talons, and armour-plated legs, is a friend to all the little birds. He
+has the "stately face and magnanimous minde" that old writers were wont to
+ascribe to the Basilisk, the King of Serpents. They know and respect,
+almost venerate him. A horde of them never seeks to scare him away with
+angry scolding and feeble assaults, as it does the cruel falcon and the
+daring goshawk. Domestic fowls learn of his ways, and are wise in their
+fearlessness of him. But I was not well assured of the reasons for the
+trustfulness and admiration of the smaller birds for the fierce-looking
+fellow who spends most of his time fishing, until direct and conclusive
+evidence was forthcoming. Two days of rough weather, and the blue bay had
+become discoloured with mud churned up by the sea, and the eagle found
+fishing poor and unremunerative sport. Even his keen eyesight could not
+distinguish in the murky water the coming and going of the fish. just
+below the house is a small area of partly cleared flat, and there we saw
+the brave fellow roaming and scooping about with more than usual interest
+in the affairs of dry land. At this time of year green snakes are fairly
+plentiful. Harmless and handsome, they prey upon small birds and frogs,
+and the eagle had abandoned his patrol of the sad-hued water to take toll
+of the snakes. After a graceful swoop down to the tips of a low-growing
+bush, he alighted on the dead branch of a bloodwood 150 yards or so away,
+and, with the help of a telescope, his occupation was revealed--he was
+greedily tearing to pieces a wriggling snake, gulping it in
+three-quarter-yard lengths. Here was the reason for the trustfulness and
+respect of the little birds. The eagle was destroying the chief bugbear
+of their existence--the sneaking greeny-yellowy murderer of their kind and
+eater of their eggs, whose colour and form so harmonises with leaves and
+thin branches that he constantly evades the sharpest-eyed of them all,
+and squeezes out their lives and swallows them whole. But the big red
+detective could see the vile thing 50 and even 100 yards away, and once
+seen--well, one enemy the less. Briskly stropping his beak on the branch
+of the tree on which he rested, and setting his breast plumage in order,
+much as one might shake a crumb from his waistcoat, the eagle adjusted
+his searchlights and sat motionless. In five minutes a slight jerk of the
+neck indicated a successful observation, and he soared out, wheeled like
+a flash, and half turning on his side, hustled down in the foliage of a
+tall wattle and back again to his perch. Another snake was crumpled up in
+his talons, and he devoured it in writhing, twirling pieces. The
+telescope gave unique advantage during this entertainment, one of the
+tragedies of Nature, or rather the lawful execution of a designing and
+crafty criminal. Within ten minutes the performance was repeated for the
+third time, and then either the supply of snakes ran out or the bird was
+satisfied. He shrewdly glanced this way and that, craning and twisting
+his neck, and seeming to adjust the lenses of his eyes for near and
+distant observation. No movement among the leaves seemed to escape him.
+Two yards and a half or perhaps three yards of live snakes constituted a
+repast. At any rate, after twenty minutes' passive watchfulness, he
+sailed up over the trees and away in the direction of his home in the
+socialistic community of the shining calornis.
+
+The white-headed sea-eagle is a deadly foe to the pugnacious sea-serpent
+also. On the beach just above high water-mark was the headless carcase of
+one that must have been fully 5 feet long, and while it was under
+inspection an eagle circled about anxiously. Soon after the intruders
+disappeared the bird swooped down and resumed his feast, and presently
+his mate came sailing along to join him. The snake must have weighed
+several pounds, and apparently was not as dainty to the taste as the
+green arboreal variety, for after two days' occasional feasting there was
+still some of the flesh left.
+
+Shrewd as is the observation of the white-headed sea-eagle he is not
+exempt from blunders. Though he pounces with authoritative certainty and
+precision, he does not discriminate until the capture is complete,
+between the acceptable and the unacceptable. Generally whatsoever is
+seized is carried off, apparently without inspection. Perhaps the balloon
+fish is the only one that is promptly discarded. The sea porcupine
+(DIODON), which shares with that repugnant creature the habit of
+exemplifying the extent to which the skin of a fish is capable of
+distention without bursting, is frequently picked up from the shallow
+water it favours. Short sharp needles stand out rigidly from its skin,
+forming a complete armament against most foes. The sea-eagle does not
+always devour the sea porcupine, which at the very best is nothing more
+than a picking. Amongst such a complex labyrinth of keen bones a hasty
+meal is not to be found, and the sea-eagle is not a leisurely eater. He
+likes to gulp; and so when he has indiscreetly blundered on a porcupine
+he frequently unlocks his talons and shakes himself free, while the fish,
+inflated to the last gulp, floats away high and light, bearing on its
+tense silvery-white side the crimson stigmata of the sea-eagle.
+
+When misguided fish have blundered into the trap in the corner of the
+bay, the sea-eagle demands a share of the easily-gotten spoil. Perched on
+the tallest stake, he faithfully indicates the presence of food that he
+cannot obtain unless by goodwill; yet who would deny the bird of his
+right? Having fulfilled his duty as sentinel, he soars to an adjacent
+tree, uttering that sneering twang which is his one paltry attribute, and
+when a fish is thrown into the shallow water he swoops down and is away
+with it to his eyrie. If the sand is bare, however, he cannot, owing to
+his length of wing, pick up the fish in his flight. Unbecoming as it may
+be to tantalise by trickery so regal a bird, a series of trials was
+undertaken to ascertain the height from the surface whence a fish could
+be gripped. Twelve successive swoops for a mullet flopping on the sand
+failed, though it was touched at least six times with the tips of the
+eagle's outstretched talons. Consenting to failure, the bird was
+compelled to alight undignifiedly a few yards away, to awkwardly jump to
+the fish and to eat it on the spot, for however imperious the sea-eagle
+is in the air, and dexterous in the seizure of a fish from the water, he
+cannot rise from an unimpressionable plane with his talons full. On
+another occasion a fish was raised 4 inches on a slender stake. The
+sea-eagle dislodged it several times, but could not grasp it. Raised a
+further 4 inches the fish was seized without fumbling. Eight inches or
+so, therefore, seems to be about the minimum height from which a bird
+with 6 feet of red wing and a nice determination not to bruise or soil the
+tips, may grip with certainty.
+
+WHITE NUTMEG PIGEON
+
+No birds of the air which frequent these parts attract more attention
+than the white nutmeg or Torres Straits pigeons (MYRISTICIVORA
+SPILORRHOA), which resort to the islands during the incubating season.
+White with part of each flight feather black, and with down of pale buff,
+it is a handsome bird, strong and firm of flesh, and possesses remarkable
+powers on the wing. Half of the year is spent with us. They come from the
+north in their thousands during the first week of September, and depart
+during March. While in this quarter they seek rest and recreation, and
+increase and multiply on the islands, resorting to the mainland during
+the day for food. Their flights to and from are made in companies varying
+from four to five to as many as a hundred--but the average is between
+thirty and forty. Purpose and instinct guide them to certain islands, and
+to these the companies set flight. Towards the end of the breeding
+season, when the multitude has almost doubled its strength by lusty young
+recruits, for an hour and more before sunset until a few minutes after,
+there is a never-ending procession from the mainland to the favoured
+islands--a great, almost uncountable host. Soon some of the tree-tops are
+swaying under the weight of the masses of white birds, the whirr and rush
+of flight, the clacking and slapping of wings, the domineering
+"coo-hoo-oo" of the male birds and the responsive notes of the hens; the
+tumult when in alarm all take wing simultaneously and wheel and circle
+and settle again with rustling and creaking branches, the sudden swoop
+with whistling wings of single birds close overhead, create a perpetual
+din. Then as darkness follows hard upon the down-sinking of the sun, the
+birds hustle among the thick foliage of the jungle, with querulous,
+inquiring notes and much ado. Gradually the sounds subside, and the
+subdued monotonous rhythm of the sea alone is heard.
+
+An endeavour, from the outset destined to be futile, has been made each
+season in succession, to estimate the number of nutmeg pigeons passing a
+given point per minute on their evening flight. With so methodical a
+bird, it was to be expected that the companies would have favoured points
+of departure from the mainland, and would fly along precise routes to a
+common destination. There are thousands of stragglers all along the
+coast, but the main bodies keep to particular routes. Most of those which
+rest on the islands in this neighbourhood quit the mainland between Clump
+Point and Tam o' Shanter, the trend of numbers being toward the latter
+point. Six miles separate these headlands, but the channel between Tam o'
+Shanter and Dunk Island is little more than 2 1/2 miles, so that the
+pigeons here become concentrated to a certain extent. Early in the season
+they pass Dunk Island at the rate of about 300 per minute, during the hour
+and a half preceding sunset. To speak more definitely, but well within the
+mark, those flying south, easily within range of sight from the sand spit
+here, may be calculated at something like 27,000. But in reality the
+procession of birds may cover a breadth of 2 miles, while only those
+flocks nearest to the observer are included in the estimate. No doubt,
+fully 100,000 come and go evening and morning. When the incubating season
+is at its height the number lessens; when all the young are hatched the
+unmarshalled procession trails along with but brief intervals between the
+companies--some flying low over the water, others high and wide.
+
+Great as the company of birds seems, it is small compared with the
+myriads that favoured the islands in years gone by. Pioneers tell of the
+days when blacks were wont to make regular expeditions, returning to the
+mainland with canoes ladened with fledglings and eggs, which in
+accordance with tradition were devoured by the older men and women. The
+youngsters of the tribes were nurtured in the belief that if they partook
+of such luxuries all the pigeons would fly away never to re-visit their
+haunts. Strange as it may seem, the vast quantities eaten by the blacks
+did not seem to decrease the numbers. But since the advent of the white
+man, with his nerve-shattering gun, a remarkable diminution has been
+observed in some localities. No doubt it could be successfully maintained
+that the gun is responsible for an insignificant toll compared with that
+taken by the blacks of the past. But the birds were then deprived of
+their nestlings and eggs quietly, if remorselessly, while the noise of
+the gun is more demoralising to the species as a whole than the numbers
+actually killed.
+
+Nutmeg pigeons are frequently shot by the hundred as they reach their
+nesting-place and mass themselves on the trees. Some of their nurseries
+lie far away from the usual tracks of the sportsman. Yet a single
+expedition during the breeding season to one of the islands may cause
+immense destruction and unprofitable loss of life. Though in lessening
+numbers they venture much further along the coast to the south, they keep
+well within the tropical zone. The most favoured resorts within many
+miles are the Barnard Islands, 14 miles to the north of Dunk Island. The
+whole of the tribes, therefore, though scattered for feeding over an
+immense area of the coast congregate on four or five islands--miles
+apart--to rest and breed. The assemblages are indeed prodigious; but they
+represent the gathering together of clans which have a very wide
+dispersal. Crowded together the host appears innumerable, but on the
+mainland during the day (when only the hen birds stay at home) the
+pigeons seem scarce. An occasional group may be met with, and they may be
+heard fluttering and flapping on the tree-tops (they are generally silent
+when feeding), but they are too thinly distributed to afford sport. Any
+other species of native bird which took to gregarious habits might seem
+as numerous as this. If all the sulphur-crested cockatoos, scrub turkeys,
+and scrub fowls scattered over an area of the mainland corresponding in
+extent with the feeding-ground of the nutmeg pigeons were massed each
+night in four or five communities, the numbers would seem startling; but
+because the poor pigeon, conspicuous and heedless, has the instinct or
+habit of association, it is argued that they outnumber all the other
+birds, that their legions are infinite, and that that fact is sufficient
+licence for the destruction of thousands during the breeding season.
+Compared with some species, nutmeg pigeons may be considered scarce,
+although their breeding establishments extend over hundreds of miles of
+the eastern coast of North Queensland. But it must be remembered that the
+birds breed only on the islands. To preserve them effectually certain
+islands should be proclaimed sanctuaries, and genuine sportsmen will
+never indulge their propensities when haunted by the thoughts of the
+consequent cruelty.
+
+There are many contradictory statements in popular natural history works
+with reference to the habits of this bird, and it may not be out of place
+to quote what one authority says:--
+
+"This singularly shy bird has acquired its popular name from the
+well-remarked habit it has of exclusively frequenting the wild nutmeg tree
+(MYRISTICA), in the tops of which it may be said to pass its life, except
+during the brief pairing season. Then it commonly selects the denser
+scrub or the mangroves, most probably guided by their contiguity to fresh
+water. Here it makes its nest, a more than ordinarily careless structure,
+the few crossed sticks barely sufficing to prevent the single egg it is
+destined to receive, from falling through to the ground. The fruit of the
+nutmeg is undoubtedly swallowed whole by the bird, and to the powers of
+deglutition is left the separation of the nutritive portion which we
+know as mace, from the hard and indigestible nut which is voided in
+flight. Thus this elegant little creature becomes the useful means of
+disseminating the remarkable nutmeg-tree, and it is found that some
+chemical treatment corresponding to that which it undergoes during
+sojourn within the body of the bird, is actually necessary before the nut
+can be fertilised and induced to take root. So strictly arboreal is this
+pigeon in its habits that it is questionable if it ever alights upon the
+ground, and so timid that it is impossible to procure specimens unless
+stratagem is resorted to."
+
+Some years of repeated observation enable me to offer certain amendments
+to this narrative, evidently written by one who has been impressed by
+half the life-history of the bird--the half spent on the mainland. The
+food of the nutmeg pigeon is multifarious. All sorts of nuts and seeds,
+and even fruits are consumed--quandongs, various palm seeds (including
+those of the creeping palm or lawyer vine, CALAMUS), nutmeg (MYRISTICA
+INSIPIDA, not the nutmeg of commerce, though resembling it), the white
+hard seeds of the native cabbage (SCOEVOLA KOENIGII), the Burdekin plum
+(PLEIOGYNIUM SOLANDRI), and all sorts of unpromisingly tough and
+apparently indigestible, innutritious woodeny nuts and drupes. Moreover,
+it fattens on such diet, but still the wonder grows at the happy
+provision which enables nuts proportionately of such enormous size to be
+swallowed by the bird, and ejected with ease after the pulp or flesh has
+been assimilated. As the birds alight on the island after their flight
+from the mainland, a portion of the contents of the crop seems to be
+expelled. A shower of nuts and seeds comes pattering down through the
+leaves to the ground as each company finds resting-place. Perhaps those
+only who are suffering from uncomfortable distention so relieve
+themselves. The balance of the contents of the crops seem to go through
+the ordinary process of digestion. Thus, by the medium of the pigeons,
+there is a systematic traffic in and interchange of seeds between the
+mainland and the islands. The nutmeg pigeon resorts to islands where
+there is no fresh water, and builds a rude platform of twigs, and
+occasionally of leaves, on all sorts of trees, in all sorts of
+localities. Palms and mangroves, low bushes, rocky ledges, saplings, are
+all favoured, no particular preference being shown. It rears generally
+two, but sometimes three young, one at a time, during the long breeding
+season, which continues from the end of September until the end of
+January, and for each successive egg a fresh carpet of twig or leaves is
+spread. A rare nest was composed of fresh leaves of the Moreton Bay ash,
+with the petioles towards the centre, forming a complex green star. No
+doubt the arrangement of the leaves was accidental, but the white dumpy
+egg as a pearl-like focus completed a quaint device. Another egg reposed
+carelessly at the base of a vigorous plant of DENDOBRIUM UNDULATUM, the
+old-gold plumes of the orchid fantastically shading it.
+
+Those pigeons who elect to incubate on the ground discard even the rude
+platform of twigs, which generally represents the nest of those who
+prefer bushes and trees, but gradually encircle themselves with tiny
+mounds of ejected seeds, until the appearance of a nest is presented. At
+the termination of the breeding season these birthplaces of the young are
+indicated by circular ramparts, in the composition of which the aromatic
+nutmeg predominates. Personal experiments on the spot prove that these
+nutmegs germinate less readily than those taken direct from the tree.
+Planted with the red mace still adherent the nuts are quite reliable;
+others which have been swallowed by the pigeon and ejected, though
+submitted to like conditions, fail in considerable proportion. So that
+the oft-repeated theory that the Queensland nutmeg requires primarily to
+undergo some chemical process similar to that which takes place in the
+crop of the pigeon to ensure germination, has no foundation whatever in
+fact. The part the pigeon performs is to transport the nut to free,
+unstifled soil.
+
+No bird is more precise and punctual in its visits. It comes to its
+nesting-places and departs with almost almanac-like regularity. It is a
+large bird as pigeons go, and becomes wonderfully tame and trustful when
+undisturbed. Specimens may be procured in thousands. Blacks,
+understanding their habits, climb particular trees known to be well
+patronised, and as the birds swoop down to rest, kill them easily with a
+swoop of a long slender stick, or hurl nulla-nullas into the home-coming
+flocks, just as they alight. It is not a good table bird, the flesh being
+dark, tough, and of an earthy flavour--far inferior to the generality of
+pigeons, and not to be compared with ground or aquatic game.
+
+FRUIT-EATERS
+
+The tyrannical fig-tree of the species referred to elsewhere, in full
+fruit--pink in colouring until it attains purple ripeness--attracts birds
+from all parts, and for nearly a quarter of the year is as gay as a
+theatre. From sunset to sunrise birds feast and flirt with but brief
+interludes. A general dispersal of the assemblage occurs only in the
+tragic presence of a falcon, whose murderous deeds are transiently
+recorded by stray painted feathers. But the fright soon passes, and the
+magnificent fruit pigeon--green, golden-yellow, purplish-maroon, rich
+orange, bluish-grey, and greenish-yellow, are his predominant
+colours--resumes his love-plaint in bubbling bass. "Bub-loo, bub-loo
+maroo," he says over and over again in unbirdlike tone, without emphasis
+or lilt. "Bub-loo, bub-loo maroo," a grievance, a remonstrance and a
+threat in one doleful phrase; but to the flattered female it is all
+compliment and gallantry. That other, known as the allied--so like his
+cousin that his dissonant accents, "quok--quok--quoo," are more to be
+relied upon as ready means of identification than any striking difference
+in plumage; the white-headed, the pheasant-tail, the gorgeous "superb,"
+the tranquil dove, Ewing's fruit pigeon--most timorous of the order--are
+regular patrons, and each of the family has the distinctive demeanour and
+note. All save the allied--which is too full of assurance and fruit to be
+disconcerted by the presence of man--may flutter into the jungle, and
+then, as the momentary disturbance subsides, a study, whimsical and rich,
+begins.
+
+With one exception the fruit pigeons, however gay the colouring of the
+throat and breast and under parts generally, are green of back, that
+passing falcons may be deceived by resemblance to leafy environment. Yet
+the "superb" and Ewing's and Swainson's have the richest of crowns--crowns
+pink, or shimmering rosy purple. Why this fanciful decoration if not to
+carry the delusion further by resemblance to a flower?
+
+These glorious pigeons are but a few of the many birds that come to the
+tree with its millions of pink figs, and enliven the scene with soft
+notes and eager whistles. Varied and fasciated honey-eaters, black and
+white, and Jardine's caterpillar-eaters, the tiny swallow dicaeum, in a
+tight-fitting costume of blue-black and red (who must bruise and batter
+the fruit to reduce it to gobbling dimensions), the yellow white-eye (who
+pecks it to pieces), the white-bellied and the varied graucalus, the
+drongo, the shining calornis--these and others have been included time
+after time in the one enumeration.
+
+Cockatoos do not visit the fig-trees as systematically as might be
+expected. When they come they waste almost as lavishly as the flying
+foxes at night, nipping off branchlets and dropping them after eating but
+two or three of the figs.
+
+When the grey falcon soars overhead the birds display varied forms of
+strategy. The inconspicuous pigeons crouch motionless but alert, their
+eyes fixedly following the circles of the enemy; the readily detected
+graucalus fly straight to a forest tree, whence there is a clear
+get-away; the companies of yellow white-eyes, with a unanimous note of
+alarm, dart into the jungle; the caterpillar-eaters and the honey-eaters,
+peering about, drop discreetly down among the lower branches, and silence
+prevails.
+
+No serious heed is taken of the white-headed sea-eagle. Though the
+fruit-eaters do not recognise the lordly fellow on the instant of his
+appearance, he may perch on the topmost branches of the tree to
+scrutinise the shallows, and they will resume their feasting and noise.
+But a falcon is as a death's-head, and alas! too often a sanguinary
+disturber of the peace, as the tufts of painted feathers tell.
+
+AUSTRALIA'S HUMMING-BIRD
+
+One of the most self-assertive of birds of the island is also one of the
+least--the sun-bird (CINNYRIS FRENATA). Garbed in rich olive green, royal
+blue, and bright yellow, and of a quick and lively disposition, small as
+he is, he is always before his public, never forgetful of his appearance,
+or regardless of his rights. Feeding on honey and on insects which
+frequent honey-supplying flowers, the sun-bird is generally seen amid
+surroundings quite in keeping with the splendour of his plumage. The best
+part of his life is passed among blossoms, and he seems to partake of
+their beauty and frailness. The gold of the gin-gee, the reds of the
+flame-tree, the umbrella-tree, and of the single and double hibiscus are
+reflected from his shining feathers, as he flutters and darts among the
+blooms, often sipping on the wing after the habit of the
+humming-bird--which he resembles even to the characteristic expansion of
+the tail feathers. When in September the flame-tree is a dome of red,
+sun-birds gather by the score--the gayest of all the revellers. Uncommon
+length of bill enables them to probe recesses of flowers forbidden
+others, and they seem proud of the superiority. The varied-honey-eater
+visits flower after flower with something of method. The sun-bird flashes
+from raceme to raceme, sampling a dozen blooms, while his noisy rival
+sips with the air of a connoisseur at one. There is a spell in the nectar
+of the flame-tree as irresistibly attractive to taste of birds as the
+colour is to the sight of man. Although the tree bursts into bloom with
+truly tropical ardour, they await the coming banquet with unaffected
+impatience. Then one of the prettiest frolics of the sun-bird is
+revealed. Time cannot lag with such gay, saucy creatures, so while they
+wait half a dozen or more congregate in a circle and with uplifted heads
+directed towards a common centre sing their song in unison. Whether the
+theme of the song is of protest against the tardiness of the tree, or of
+thanks in anticipation, or of exultation in race, or of rivalry, matters
+not; but one is inclined to the last theory, for none but males take part
+in it. The sun glints on their burnished breasts, their throats throb,
+their long bills quaver with enthusiastic effort, and the song still
+matters not, for it is but a thin twittering, so feeble and faint as to
+be inaudible a few yards off. Patience and stillness are the price of it.
+And with a squeak in chorus the choir disperses, to meet and sing again
+in a few minutes in another part of the reddening tree.
+
+"MOOR-GOODY"
+
+Aptly imitating its most frequent note, blacks have given the name of
+"Moor-goody," to a sedate little bird rarely seen away from the jungle,
+and then only in the shadiest of bushes. Many of the birds are
+distinguished and named in accordance with their notes. "Wung-go-bah"
+describes the noisy pitta; "Wee-loo" the stone plover; "Coo-roo" the
+tranquil dove; "Piln-piln" the large-billed shore plover; "Kim-bum-broo"
+the fasciated honey-eater; "Calloo-calloo" the manucode; "Go-bidger-roo"
+the varied honey-eater, and so on.
+
+"Moor-goody" (shrike thrush) has the most tuneful and mellow call of all,
+and in obedience to the general law which forbids beauty to sweet-voiced
+birds, is soberly clad in two shades of brown, cinnamon the breast, dust
+the back. But it is of graceful form, and soft of flight as a falling
+leaf; the eyes are large and singularly tender and expressive. Often
+terminating in a silvery chirrup, the note, varied with melodious
+chuckles and gurgles of lulling softness, is exceedingly pleasing, the
+expression of a bird of refinement, content and sweet temper. Coming at
+frequent intervals from the jungle or the heart of the mango trees or
+acalypha bushes, and wheresoever foliage is thickest, the sound is always
+welcome, as it tells of some of the most desirable features of the
+tropics--quiet, coolness, and the sweet security of shade. It tells, too,
+of the simple life spent in seclusion in contradistinction to the
+"envious court" of the roysterers in the glare of the leafless
+flame-tree.
+
+THE FLAME-TREE'S VISITORS
+
+A final note in reference to the flame-tree may be permitted. As it is
+the popular rendezvous during September, pleasure was taken in
+cataloguing the greatest variety and number of birds congregated there at
+one and the same time. Several lists were compiled, the most
+comprehensive being:--
+
+Sulphur-crested Cockatoo,
+Honey-eaters (varied, fasciated and obscure),
+Friar Bird (two species),
+Shining Calornis,
+Drongo Shrike,
+White-rumped Wood Swallow,
+Australian Bee-eater,
+Black-headed Diamond Bird,
+Sun-bird,
+Pied Caterpillar-eater.
+
+Honey-eaters were represented by a dozen or more; but were not so
+numerous as the sun-birds, which were difficult to accurately enumerate,
+owing to their sprightly behaviour. Next came the shining calornis (about
+ten), friar birds (about eight), wood swallows (six, all in a row--a band
+of white among the red flowers); bee-eaters (about the same number), and
+so on down the list in ever-shifting places and varying numbers.
+
+The birds were more numerous about eight a.m. This hour may seem late,
+in consideration of familiar habits, but the flame-tree is in the shadow
+of the highest peak of the island, and consequently does not receive the
+earliest of the benedictions of the sun. Birds come and go to it in
+irregular pulsations. Their presence is constant, but their number
+variable. Comparative silence may exist for an hour or so after the first
+joyful feast of the day, to be broken by quite a gush of the sounds of
+revelry, and then the tree becomes again for a space as noisy as a
+merry-go-round.
+
+RED-LETTER BIRDS
+
+To the manucode is ascribed practical interference with the laws of
+Nature. This handsome bird, of jet black glossy plumage, comes hither in
+September, adding to the pleasant sounds of the jungle a loud rich note,
+which closely resembles the frequent repetition of the name bestowed upon
+it by the blacks, "Calloo-calloo." As are its visits so are its
+notes--casual, coming in erratic bursts and sudden sallies of whirling
+spiral sound. Its advent is hailed with satisfaction, for the belief
+exists that it causes the bean-tree--the source of a much-esteemed
+food--togrow more quickly. This faith has a substantial origin, for
+shortly after the bird's first fluty notes are heard the bean tree
+blossoms, renewing the promise of plenty. While here, the "Calloo-calloo,"
+is remarkably shy, very rarely venturing out of the seclusion of the
+thickest jungle, and warning off intruders with a curious note of alarm,
+half purr, half hiss.
+
+When the clattering corcorax puts in an appearance the blacks lift up
+their eyes unto the hills, firm in the faith that the birds cause in them
+an increase in height, or to put it in the vernacular--"Look out.
+Mountain jump up little bit!" When the flame-tree flowers, it is to tell
+of the coming of the nutmeg pigeon, when eggs and dainty young are to be
+obtained with little trouble.
+
+Yet another red-letter time on the calendar is the laying season of the
+terns. Then the fancies of the blacks lightly turn to thoughts of
+"Tan-goorah" (bonito) and other strong-flavoured fish. So that the young
+shall not lack, nor suffer hunger, the hatching is coincident with the
+appearance of immense shoals of young fish which the bonito perpetually
+harass, driving them to the surface for the terns, with sharp screams of
+satisfaction, to dart upon. What with the strong, far-leaping fish, and
+the agile, acrobatic birds, the existence of the small fry is one of
+perplexity and terror.
+
+Six species of tern take part in these gyrating, foraging campaigns.
+Three show almost purely white as they fly; the others, less numerous, as
+dark flakes in the living whirlwind. Ever changing in position and in
+poise--some on the swift seaward cast, some balancing for it with every
+fraction of brake power exerted in beating wings and expanded tail, some
+recovering equilibrium lost through a fluky start, some dashing deep,
+some hurrying away (after a spasmodic flutter of dripping feathers) with
+quivering slips of silver--the perpetual whirl keeps pace with the
+splashes of the bonito and the ripples of the worried small fry.
+
+Could they enjoy the satisfaction of the fact the little fish might
+snigger when the terns are called upon to exert all their agility and
+tricks, vainly endeavouring to elude the long slim-winged frigate bird.
+This tyrant of the upper air observes, as it glides in steady, stately
+circles, the noisy unreflecting terns, and with arrow-like swiftness
+pursues those which have been successful. Dodge and twist and double as
+it may--and no hare upon land is half so quick or resourceful as the wily
+tern in the air--the frigate bird follows with the audacity and certainty
+of fate, until flustered and frightened the little fish is abandoned, to
+be snapped up by the air-ranger before it reaches the sea. As an
+exhibition of fierce and relentless purpose, combined with sprightliness
+and activity, the pursuit of a tern by the fearless frigate bird, and the
+impetuous swoop after and seizure of the falling fish, cannot be matched
+in Nature.
+
+As the cries of the circling tern mark the movements of the distracted
+shoals, the blacks in canoes fit in to the scheme of destruction, taking
+a general toll. So preoccupied are the bonito, that they fall a
+comparatively easy prey to the skilled user of the harpoon. Sharks
+continue the chain of destruction by dashing forays on the bonito, and
+occasionally man harpoons a shark. With his frail bark canoe tugged
+hither and thither by the frightened but still vicious fish, the black,
+endowed with nerve, then enjoys real sport. Not the least in dread of the
+shark, his only fear being for the safety of his harpoon and line as the
+lithe fish leaps and snaps, the black plays with it until it submits to
+be towed ashore.
+
+The birds' eggs on the coral banks also make an item in the blacks' bill
+of fare; while the frantic little fish hustled towards the shore are
+captured by the million in coffer-dams made of loosely twisted grass and
+beach trailers.
+
+CASUAL AND UNPRECISE
+
+These observations of mine are admittedly casual and unprecise. Not the
+life of a single bird or insect has been sacrificed to prove "facts" for
+personal edification or entertainment. Cases in which points were
+inconclusive have been allowed to remain undecided. The face of the
+administrator of the law here is rigidly set against the enforcement of
+the death penalty, simply because the subject is beautiful, or rare, or
+"not understood." With the aid of a good telescope and a compact pair of
+field-glasses, birds may be studied and known far more pleasurably than
+as stark cabinet specimens, and, perhaps, with all the certainty that the
+ordinary observer needs. Patience and a magnifying glass put less
+constraint on insects than lethal bottles and pins.
+
+An observer who was prepared to satisfy doubts with the gun might,
+possibly with ease, bring up the Bird Census of the island to one hundred
+and fifty. Such a one may find pleasure in the future in demonstrating
+how much more than a seventh of the birds of Australia dwell upon or
+visit the spot. The present era of strict non-interference has resulted
+in an increase, however small, in the species represented. Whereas in
+years gone by but two species of sea-birds nested on Purtaboi, now at
+least six avail themselves of that refuge.
+
+Birds that were driven to remote reefs and banks of the Barrier now make
+themselves at home for three months of the year within hailing distance.
+Tidings of goodwill towards the race generally are beginning to spread.
+Gladness compels me to record a recent development of the protective
+laws. Space for the rearing of families at the headquarters of the
+terns--Purtaboi--having been gradually absorbed during recent years, the
+overflow--comprising perhaps a thousand amorous birds--has taken
+possession of the sand spit of Dunk Island. So calm are they in the
+presence of man, so sure of goodwill, that when temporarily disturbed,
+they merely wheel about close overhead, remonstrating against intrusion in
+thin tinny screams, and settle again on their eggs before the friendly
+visit is well over. Not for ten years at the least have sea-birds utilised
+this spot. Realising their privileges elsewhere in the immediate
+neighbourhood, they have thrust themselves under official protection.
+They crowd me off a favourite promenade, mine by right of ten years'
+usage. They scold every boat, affront passing steamers, and comport
+themselves generally as if on the assurance of counsel's opinion on the
+legality of their trespass.
+
+
+And so it has come to pass, that the example of the uninfluential
+Beachcomber, in the establishment of an informal and unofficial refuge
+for birds, has been warranted and confirmed by the laws of the country. A
+proclamation in those terms, those good set terms, which time and custom
+approve, forbids shooting on this and two neighbouring groups of islands.
+Is there not excuse in this flattery for just a little vainglory?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+GARDEN OF  CORAL
+
+Brammo Bay has its garden of coral--a border of pretty, quaint and varied
+growth springing up along the verge of deep water. It is not as it used
+to be--no less lovely than a flower-garden of the land. Terrestrial storms
+work as much if not greater havoc in the shallow places of the sea as on
+the land. Pearl-shell divers assert that ordinary "rough weather" is
+imperceptible at a depth of two fathoms; while ten fathoms are generally
+accepted as the extreme limit of wave action, however violent the surface
+commotion. Yet in the shallow sea, within the Barrier Reef in times of
+storm and stress, not only are groves of marine plants torn and wrenched
+up, but huge lumps of coral rock are shattered or thrown bodily out of
+place and piled up on "uproarious beaches."
+
+A storm in March, 1903, which did scarcely any damage to vegetation
+ashore, destroyed most of the fantastic forms which made the coral garden
+enchanting. In its commotion, too, the sea lost its purity. The sediment
+and ooze of decades were churned up, and, as the agitation ceased, were
+precipitated--a brown furry, slimy mud, all over the garden--smothering
+the industrious polyps to whom all its prettiness was due. Order is being
+restored, fresh and vigorous shoots sprouting up from the fulvid basis;
+but it may be many years before the damage is wholly repaired and the
+original beauty of the garden restored, for the "growth" of coral--the
+skeletons of the polyps--is methodical and very slow. We speak of coral as
+if it were a plant, yet the reproduction is by means of eggs, and the
+polyp is as much an animal as a horse or an elephant.
+
+In times past the marine garden comprised several acres in which were
+plants of almost every conceivable shape and form, and more or less
+bright and delicate in colour. Fancy may feign shrubs, standard and
+clipped; elaborate bouquets, bunches of grapes, compact cauliflowers,
+frail red fans. Rounded, skull-like protuberances with the convolutions
+of the brain exposed, stag-horns, whip-thongs yards long, masses of pink
+and white resembling fanciful confectionery, intricate lace-work in the
+deepest indigo blue, have their appointed places. Some of the spreading
+plant-like growths are snow-white, tipped with mauve, lemon-coloured
+tipped with white, white tipped with lemon and pale blue.
+
+On the rocks rest stalkless mushrooms, gills uppermost, which blossom as
+pom-pom chrysanthemums; rough nodules, boat- and canoe-shaped dishes of
+coral. Adhering to the rocks are thin, flaky, brittle growths resembling
+vine-leaves, brown and golden-yellow; goblets and cups, tiered epergnes,
+distorted saucers, eccentric vases, crazily-shaped dishes. Clams and
+cowries and other molluscs people the cracks and crevices of coral
+blocks, and congregate beneath detached masses and loose stones. In these
+fervid and fecund waters life is real, life is earnest. Here, are
+elaborately armoured crayfish (PALINURUS ORNATUS), upon which the most
+gaudy colours are lavished; grotesque crabs, fish brilliant in hue as
+humming-birds. Life, darting and dashing, active and alert, crawling and
+slithering, slow and stationary, swarms in these marine groves.
+
+A coral reef is gorged with a population of varied elements viciously
+disposed towards each other. It is one of Nature's most cruel
+battlefields, for it is the brood of the sea that "plots mutual
+slaughter, hungering to live." Molluscs are murderers and the most
+shameless of cannibals. No creature at all conspicuous is safe, unless it
+is agile and alert, or of horrific aspect, or endowed with giant's
+strength, or is encased in armour. A perfectly inoffensive crab,
+incapable of inflicting injury to anything save creatures of almost
+microscopic dimensions, assumes the style and demeanour of a ferocious
+monster, ready at a moment's notice to cry havoc, and let loose the dogs
+of war. Another hides itself as a rugged nodule of moss-covered stone;
+its limbs so artfully stowed away that detection would be impossible did
+it not occasionally betray itself by a stealthy movement. The pretty
+cowrie, lemon-coloured and grey and brown, throws over its shining
+shoulders a shawl of the hue of the rock on which it crawls about, grey
+or brown or tawny, with white specks and dots which make for
+invisibility--a thin filmy shawl of exquisite sensitiveness. Touch it
+ever so lightly, and the helpless creature, discerning that its disguise
+has been penetrated, withdraws it, folding it into its shell, and closes
+its door against expected attack. It may feebly fall off the rock, and
+simulating a dead and empty shell, lie motionless until danger is past.
+Then again it will drape itself in its garment of invisibility and slide
+cautiously along in search of its prey. Under the loose rocks and
+detached lumps of coral for one live there will be scores of dead shells.
+The whole field is strewn with the relics of perpetual conflict,
+resolving and being resolved into original elements. We talk of the
+strenuous life of men in cities. Go to a coral reef and see what the
+struggle for existence really means. The very bulwarks of limestone are
+honeycombed by tunnelling shells. A glossy black, torpedo-shaped creature
+cuts a tomb for itself in the hard lime. Though it may burrow inches deep
+with no readily visible inlet, cutting and grinding its cavity as it
+develops in size and strength, yet it is not safe. Fate follows in
+insignificant guise, drills a tiny hole through its shell, and the
+toilsomely excavated refuge becomes a sepulchre. Even in the fastness of
+the coral "that grim sergeant death is strict in his arrest." All is
+strife--war to the death. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
+among men, what quality shall avert destruction where insatiable
+cannibalism is the rule. There is but one creature that seems to make use
+of the debris of the battlefield--the hermit crab (CAENOBITA), which but
+half armoured must to avert extermination fit itself into an empty shell,
+discarding as it grows each narrow habitation for a size larger.
+Disconsolate is the condition of the hermit crab who has outgrown his
+quarters, or has been enticed from them or "drawn" by a cousin stronger
+than he, or who has had the fortune to be ejected without dismemberment.
+The full face of the red blue-spotted variety (PAGURUS PUNCTULATUS) is an
+effective menace to any ordinary foe, and that honourable part is
+presented at the front door when the tenant is at home. For safety's sake
+the flabby gelatinous, inert rear end must be tucked and hooked into the
+convolutions of the shell, deprived of which he is at the mercy of foes
+very much his inferior in fighting weight and truculent appearance. The
+disinterested spectator may smile at the vain, yet frantically serious
+efforts of the hermit to coax his flabby rear into a shell obviously a
+flattering misfit. But it is not a smiling matter to him. Not until he
+has exhausted a programme of ingenious attitudes and comic contortions is
+the attempt to stow away a No. 8 tail into a No. 5 shell abandoned. When
+a shell of respectable dimensions is presented, and the grateful hermit
+backs in, settles comfortably, arrays all his weapons against intruders,
+and peers out with an expression of ferocious content, smiles may come,
+and will be out of place only when the aches of still increasing bulk
+force him to hustle again for still more commodious lodgings.
+
+A frilled clam (TRIDACNA COMPRESSA) in its infancy seals or anchors
+itself in a tiny crack or crevice, and apparently by a continuous but
+imperceptible movement analogous to elbow-rooming, deepens and enlarges
+its cavity as it develops. Should it survive in defiance of all its foes,
+just taking from the sea the sustenance for which it craves with gaping
+valves, it may increase in bulk, but its apartment in the limestone never
+seems too large--just a neat fit In its abiding-place it presents an
+irregular strip of silk, green as polished malachite, or dark green and
+grey, or blue and slaty green, mottled and marbled, with crimped edges
+and graceful folds--an attractive ornament in the drab rock. Touch any
+part--there is a slow suspensory withdrawal, and then a snap and spurt of
+water as the last remnant of the living mantle disappears between the
+interlocking valves of porcelain white.
+
+Apart from the bulk and the fantastic shapes of coral structures, there
+is the beauty of the living polyps. That which when dry may have the
+superficial appearance of stone plentifully pitted--a heavy dull
+mass--blossoms with wondrous gaiety as the revivifying water covers it.
+The time to admire these frail marine flowers is on an absolutely calm
+day. All the sediment of the sea has been precipitated. The water is as
+transparent as rock crystal, but like that mineral slightly distorts the
+object unless the view is absolutely vertical. It is a lens perfect in
+its limpidity. Here is a buff-coloured block roughly in the shape of a
+mushroom with a flat top, irregular edges, and a bulbous stalk. Rich
+brown alga hangs from its edges in frills and flounces. Little cones stud
+its surface, each of which is the home of a living, star-like flower, a
+flower which has the power of displaying and withdrawing itself, and of
+waving its fringed rays. Each flower is self-coloured, and may represent
+a group of animals. There are blues of various depths and shades from
+cobalt to lavender, reds, orange and pinks, greens, browns and greys,
+each springing from a separate receptacle. All are alike in shape--viewed
+vertically, many-rayed stars; horizontally, fir-trees faultlessly
+symmetrical in form and proportion. These flowers all blossom, or trees,
+or stars, are shy and timorous. A splash and they shrink away. The hope
+of such wilderness--as barren-looking as desert sandstone--ever
+blossoming again seems forbidden. Quietude for a few moments, and one
+after another the flowers emerge, at first furtively but gathering
+courage in full vanity, until the buff rock becomes as radiant as a
+garden bed.
+
+Upon coral blocks, which represent the skeletons of polyps in orderly and
+systematic profusion, other creatures more highly organised appear,
+having in one feature a family likeness to the polyps, upon whose
+hospitality they impose, that is, if the setting up of an establishment
+on the remains of innumerable ancestors of its host may be said to be
+merely an imposition. One is a species of mollusc which resembles, in
+some respects, that to which has been given the name of SURPULA. In its
+babyhood it attaches itself to the coral, and forthwith begins to build a
+home, which is nothing more than a calcareous tube, superficially
+resembling a corpulent worm, instantaneously petrified while in the act
+of a more or less elaborate wriggle or fantastic contortion. In this
+complicated tunnel the creature resides, presenting a lovely circular
+disc of glowing pink as its front door. A few inches beneath the water
+this operculum or lid is not unlike a pearl, but as you gaze upon it, it
+slips on one side, and five animated red rays appear, waving like
+automatic flag signals. Though well housed, it is almost as timorous as
+the coral polyps. Upon the least alarm the rays disappear in a twinkle,
+and the pink pearl trap-door glows again. Break off the end of the shelly
+tunnel in an attempt to secure the pearl, and it is as elusive as a
+sunbeam. It recedes as piece by piece is broken away, until the edge of
+the cylinder is flush with the surface of the coral in which the shell is
+embedded. There the pearly operculum glows in safety.
+
+The living rays or flower-like face are the features in which this
+encased worm resembles the coral polyps on the one hand and the houseless
+beche-de-mer on the other. Some of the numerous inhabitants of the reef,
+struggling to keep in the fashion, make the very best of five simple
+points. Others flaunt with no apparent vanity or pride quite a plume, of
+complex rays more or less beautifully coloured. A worm which occasionally
+swims like a water snake, and again reposes inertly on the sand, as does
+the beche-de-mer, sets off its brown naked body with a red nimbus--a
+flexible living nimbus, ruby red.
+
+The visible part of the organism of the coral polyps is composed of
+rays, from the sides of which spring secondary rays, the combination
+producing complex stars of great beauty and which call to mind the frost
+flowers, and the flowers into which some inorganic substances bloom as
+they crystallise.
+
+The congested state of a coral reef, and the inevitable result
+thereof--perpetual war of species and shocking cannibalism--have been
+referred to. Another result of the overcrowding has yet to be mentioned.
+Possibly there may be those who are disinclined to credit the statement
+that some of the denizens take in lodgers. But the fact remains. Having
+ample room and to spare within their own walls, they offer hospitality to
+homeless and unprotected strangers, whom graceless Nature has not
+equipped to take part in the rough-and-tumble struggle for existence
+outside. A tender-hearted mollusc (PINNA) accepts the company of a
+beautiful form of mantis-shrimp--tender, delicate and affectionate--which
+dies quickly when removed from its asylum, as well as a singular creature
+which has no charm of character, and must be the dullest sort of lodger
+possible to imagine. It is a miniature eel, which looks as if it had been
+drawn out of rock crystal or perfectly clear glass. There is no apparent
+difference between the head and the tail, save that one end tapers more
+gradually than the other. Very limited power of motion has been bestowed
+upon it. It cannot wriggle. It merely squirms in the extremity of
+laziness or lassitude. These two keep the PINNA company--the lively
+shrimp, pinkish brown and green with pin-point black eyes, and the little
+eel as bright and as transparent yet as dull and insipid as glass. One of
+the oysters attracts the patronage of a rotund crab, which in some
+respects resembles a tick, and a great anemone a brilliant fish--scarlet
+and silver defined with purple hair lines--which on alarm retires within
+the ample folds of its host.
+
+The flowers of a coral reef live. A bouquet of lavender-coloured, tender,
+orderly spikes has a gentle rhythmical, swaying movement. A touch, and by
+magic the colour is gone--naught remains but a dingy brown lump on the
+rock, whence water oozes. Another form of plant-like life takes the colour
+of rich green--the green of parsley, and faints at the touch, as does the
+sensitive plant of the land. Another strange creature, roughly
+saucer-shaped, but deep grey mottled with white and brown, continuously
+waves its serrated edges and pulsates at the centre. It starts and stops,
+contracts and withdraws steadily into the sand upon interference.
+
+One of the shrimps (GONODACTYLUS CHIRAGRA) in my experience found only
+far out on the reef at dead low-water winter spring-tides, might be
+taken as a display collection in miniature of those gems of purest ray
+serene which the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear. The emerald-green
+tail is fringed with transparent golden lace; the malachite body has the
+sheen of gold; the chief legs are of emerald with ruby joints, and
+silvery claws; the minor as of amber, while over all is a general sheen
+of ornamentation of points and blotches of sapphire blue. Long white
+antennae, delicate and opaque, spring from the head. The decorative hues
+are not laid on flat, but are coarsely powdered and sprinkled as in the
+case of one of the rarest of Brazilian butterflies, and they live.
+Picture a moss-rose with the "moss" all the colours of the rainbow, on
+which the light plays and sparkles, and you have an idea of the effect
+of the jewellery of this lustrous crustacean. Yet it is not for human
+admiration. Its glints speedily dim in the air. To be gobbled up by some
+hungry fish is the ordinary fate of the species. Possibly splendour is
+bestowed upon the shrimp as a means by which certain fish distinguish a
+particularly choice dainty, and the fish show the very acme of
+admiration by "wolfing" it. Thus are the examples of high art in
+Nature remorselessly lavished.
+
+Quite distinct is the unconscious genius which now demands brief
+reference to its perfections. Though a brilliant example of the
+employment of unattractive deceptive features, it has no individual
+comeliness--not an atom of grace, no style of its own. Every feature,
+attitude and movement is subordinate to the part it plays. Death being
+the penalty, it may not blunder. Behold, among acres of similar growth,
+a trivial collection of rough, short weeds of the sea--grey, green and
+mud-coloured. This microcosm glides and stops. The movement is barely
+perceptible; the intervals of rest long and frequent. An untimely slide
+as the chance gaze of the observer is directed to the spot, betrays
+that here is the centre of independent life and motive. The dwarf,
+unkempt weeds cloak a meek, weak, shrinking crab, whose frail claws
+and tufted legs are breeched with muddy moss, and whose oddly-shaped
+body is obscured by parasitic vegetation and realistic counterfeits
+thereof. Inspection, however critical, makes no satisfactory definition
+between the real and the artificial algae, so perfectly do the
+details of the moving marine garden blend with the fringes and
+fur of the animal's rugged and misshapen figure and deformed limbs.
+As an artistic finish to a marvellous piece of mummery, in one of
+the crude green claws is carried a fragment of coral, green with the
+mould of the sea. It and the claw are indistinguishable until, in the
+faintest spasm of fright, the crab abandons the coral, and shrinking
+within itself becomes inanimate--as steadfast a patch of weeds as any
+other of the reef. Recovering slowly from its fright, and conscious of
+the necessity for each detail of its equipment and insignia, the lowly
+crustacean timidly re-grips the coral, and holding it aloft, glides
+discreetly on its way, invisible when stationary, most difficult to
+detect when it moves.
+
+To see the coral garden to advantage you must pass over it--not through
+it. Drifting idly in a boat in a calm clear day, when the tips of the
+tallest shrubs are submerged but a foot or so, and all the delicate
+filaments, which are invisible or lie flat and flaccid when the tide is
+out, are waving, twisting and twining, then the spectacle is at its
+best. Tiny fish, glowing like jewels, flash and dart among the
+intricate, interlacing branches, or quiveringly poise about some slender
+point--humming-birds of the sea, sipping their nectar. A pink
+translucent fish no greater than a lead-pencil wriggles in and out of the
+lemon-coloured coral. Another of the John Dory shape, but scarcely an
+inch long, blue as a sapphire with gold fins and gold-tipped tail,
+hovers over a miniature blue-black cave. A shoal darts out, some all
+old-gold, some green with yellow damascene tracery and long yellow
+filaments floating from the lower lip. A slender form, half coral pink,
+half grey, that might swim in a walnut shell, displays its transparent
+charms. Conspicuous, daring colours here are as common as on the lawn of a
+race course. Occasionally on the edge of a reef there comes the fish of
+frosted silver, with hair like purple streamers floating from the dorsal
+fin a foot and more behind. Some call it the "lady" fish, because of its
+beauty and grace, and others the diamond trevally (ALECTIS CILIARIS).
+More frequently is seen "the sleepy fish," salmon-shaped, of resplendent
+copper, with bright blue blotches and markings, which remains motionless
+in the water, and so often awakens not until the spear of the hungry
+black is fast in its shoulders.
+
+Another handsome creature of olive green with blue wavy stripes and
+spots (FISTULARIS SERRATUS) has the shape of a gar-fish, and to
+counterbalance a long tubular snout, a slender filament resembling the
+bare feather shaft of some bird of paradise extending from the tail.
+
+With all its fantastic beauty a coral reef is cruel. Nearer the shore
+the stony blocks are overspread by masses of that singular skeleton-less
+coral, known as alcyonaria--partaking of the nature of rubber and of
+leather--an ugly, repulsive, tyrannous growth, over-running and killing
+other and more delicate corals, as undesirable pests crowd out useful
+and becoming vegetation. It occurs in varying colours and forms--sickly
+green and grey, bronze and yellow, brown and pink. Loathsome, resembling
+offal in some aspects as the receding tide lays it bare, it becomes
+pretty and interesting when covered with calm, limpid water, and its
+dull life flourishes with star-like, living flowers.
+
+Before our coral garden was as familiar as it is, it was said that on
+one of the reefs of Dunk Island there reposed a colossal clam--one of
+the giants of the variety known to science as TRIDACNA GIGAS. So
+prodigious was the alleged specimen, that no one had been able to remove
+it, and it was dimly suggested that the occupant of the island would
+easily become possessed of a very marvel among molluscs. So far, its
+resting-place has not been discovered, though all the reefs have been
+explored many times, nor do any of the natives know of its existence.
+Very few reefs, if all reports are to be credited, are without
+monstrous clams, but they seem to acquire the habit of suddenly
+disappearing--quite foreign to their bulk and stay-at-home character--when
+the time of anticipated capture approaches. One up a little north was
+stated to be over 10 feet long, and to weigh at least a ton, and 14 feet
+was alleged to be the size of another. But all disappear like
+will-o'-the-wisps when the search-party arrives on the scene, and none
+but ordinary specimens, that have no reputation to maintain, are there
+to flout the ardour of the collector.
+
+Circumscribed as it is, the garden of coral in Brammo Bay, now slowly
+recovering its lost loveliness, supplies an excellent field for the
+observation of some of the most wonderful of the processes of Nature. In
+many respects it is a miniature, as most fringing reefs seem to be, of
+the Great Barrier.
+
+It would be an exhibition of hopeless vanity to attempt to describe the
+many varieties of coral and fish and crabs and strange grotesque
+creatures low in the scale of life which are unceasingly at work within
+"coo-ee." The complexity of the subject from a scientific aspect is
+sufficient justification for reluctance to set down anything beyond
+casual experiences and personal observation, and the record of
+ever-recurring pleasure obtained from the delights of the marine garden.
+Special attainments and varied lore must be at the command of the
+student who would attempt to classify the marvels of a coral reef of
+even limited scope. When it is remembered that the Great Barrier Reef of
+Queensland--"one of the most valuable possessions of the state"--has a
+length of 1,250 miles; that some of its outlying reefs extend as far
+from the coast as 150 miles; that some approach as close as 10 or 12
+miles; that the average distance of the outer edge from the coast-line
+is 30 miles; that it embraces an area of 80,000 geographical square
+miles, and that its corals, continuous and detached and isolated, teem
+with life, it is impossible to repress feelings of astonishment, wonder,
+and admiration.
+
+Subdued before such a vast phenomenon, the commonplace man calms his
+aspirations for knowledge by the reflection that industrious and skilled
+observers have years of study before them ere they come to know all the
+secrets of the Great Barrier.
+
+QUEER FISH
+
+"A strange fish! Were I in England now (as once I was), and had but this
+fish painted, not a holiday fool but would give a piece of silver."
+
+
+Of curious and pretty shells there are so many varieties in these warm
+waters, that one must be well versed in conchology before daring to
+attempt an enumeration even of the commonest. I frankly admit "a little
+learning is a dangerous thing" in this interesting branch of natural
+science, and therefore cannot pledge myself to give details, while eager
+to set forth a few of the objects of interest, which present themselves
+to the open-minded though uninformed observer of sea-beaten rocks, mud
+flats, coral reefs, and the open sea.
+
+Well may the dabbler despair when nine titles are necessary to catalogue
+the oysters alone--oysters which vary from the size and
+independence--and the toughness (be it said) of the clam, to delicate
+morsels, so crowded and cemented in communities together, that they form
+bridges between severed rocks and shelves and cornices broad and
+massive; oysters flatter than plates, oysters tubular as service
+gas-pipes; the gold-lipped mother of pearl, the black-lipped mother of
+pearl, the cockscomb, the coral rock oyster, the small but sweet rock
+oyster, two varieties of the common rock oyster, besides the trap-door,
+the hammer, and another of somewhat similar shape whose official and
+courtesy title are both alike unknown, but which furnished knives and
+sharp-edged tools of various shapes to the original inhabitants of the
+island. The gold-lipped mother of pearl is rarely found, favourable
+conditions for it--deep water and strong currents--not being general. An
+occasional stray shell is picked up, and so far none has betrayed the
+presence of a valuable pearl. The black-lip occurs on the reefs, but not
+in any great quantity, and the most plentiful variety of the edible oyster
+is bulky in size and somewhat coarse in flavour.
+
+Apart from the rarity and beauty of some of the denizens of the reefs,
+there are others that are singular and interesting, and some whose
+intimate acquaintance is quite undesirable, save from a scientific and
+safe standpoint. A miniature marine porcupine decorates its slender
+spines of white with lilac tips, sharp as needles, brittle as spun
+glass, and charged with an irritant which sets all the nerves tingling.
+On the reefs uncouth fish pass solitary, isolated lives, in hollows and
+crevices of the coral, sealed up as are the malodorous hermits in rocky
+cells at Lhassa, and dependent for doles upon the profuse and kindly
+sea. Their bodies seem to mould themselves roughly to the shape of the
+hollows to which each has grown accustomed as crude but almost inanimate
+castings. To obtain perfect specimens the mould must be shattered. If
+the body does not yet fill the hollow, the inhabitant clings desperately
+to it, wedging itself with wonderful plasticity into odd corners and
+against niches, resisting to the last efforts at eviction. Torn from its
+home the fish is a feeble, helpless creature, incapable of taking care
+of itself, quite unfit to be at large, though apparently belonging to
+the self-reliant shark family.
+
+More than one species of fish, it is said, inhabit these coral grottoes.
+A compact creature with prominent rodent teeth ejects a spurt of water
+when its retreat is approached at low tide, while about its front and
+only door are strewn (after the manner of the "bones, blood and ashes"
+of the two giants in the valley through which Christian of THE PILGRIM'S
+PROGRESS passed) the shells of the crustaceans and molluscs it has
+devoured.
+
+Stones hide creatures of forbidding but varying shape and
+colour--diminutive bodies ovate and round--brown, grey, glossy black with
+brown edgings, pink with grey quarterings and grey fringe, whence
+radiate five sprawling slender "legs," a foot or so long. Though doubtful
+in appearance, more in consonance with the creepy imagery of a nightmare
+than a reality of the better day, these are merely the shy and innocent
+brittle stars. They are endowed with such exquisitive sensitiveness that
+to evade capture they sacrifice, apparently without a pang, their
+wriggling legs piece by piece, and each piece, large or small, squirms and
+wriggles. The poet says that when the legs of one of the heroes of
+"The Chevy Chase" were smitten off, "he fought upon their stumps!"
+The voluntary dismemberment of the brittle star may be even more
+pitiful--in fact almost complete, yet it still strives to pack away
+its forlorn body in some crevice or hollow of the coral rock. It has
+been asserted that no one has ever captured by hand a brittle star
+perfect in all its members. "One baffled collector," said a highly
+entertaining London journal recently, "who thought that he had
+succeeded in coaxing a specimen into a pail, had the mortification of
+seeing it dismember itself at the last moment, and asserts that the eye
+which is placed at the end of a limb gave a perceptible wink as he
+picked up the fragment!"
+
+Here too, most of the "brittle stars" are self-conscious to the point
+of self-obliteration. But some, though still quite worthy the specific
+title FRAGILISSMA, which science has bestowed upon the tribe, may, if
+taken up tenderly, be handled without the loss of a single limb, and a
+limb more or less can hardly be of consequence to a creature which, no
+greater than half a walnut shell, possesses five, each 12 or 14 inches
+long, and supplied with innumerable feet. Further, so far, none of the
+vestiges of those that have committed the form of hari-kari, fashionable
+among the species, has been observed to behave in any way unbecoming the
+shyest, most retiring and most sensitive of creatures. The brittle star
+discards its limbs, or the best part of them, in the meekest manner
+possible.
+
+To enumerate the smaller and lowlier of the many creatures that live on
+the coral reef would be a task utterly beyond ordinary capability. The
+reader must be content with reference to a few of the more conspicuous
+of the denizens.
+
+THE WARTY GHOUL
+
+Beware of the stone fish (SYNANCEIA HORRIDA), the death adder of the
+sea, called also the sea-devil, because of its malice; the warty ghoul
+because, perhaps, of its repulsiveness; the lion fish, because of its
+habit of lurking in secret places; the sea scorpion for its venom; and
+by the blacks "Mee-hee." Loathsome, secretive, inert, rough and jagged
+in outline, wearing tufts and sprays of seaweed on its back, scarcely to
+be distinguished from the rocks among which it lurks, it is armed with
+spines steeped in the cruelest venom. Many fish are capable of
+inflicting painful and even dangerous wounds, but none is to be more
+dreaded than the ugly and repulsive "stone fish." Haply, it is
+comparatively rare. Conceal itself as it may among the swaying seaweed
+as it lies in ambush ready to seize its prey, or partially bury itself
+in the mud, it seldom eludes the shrewd observation of the blacks. With
+a grunt of satisfaction it is impaled with a fish-spear and placed
+squirming on a rock to be battered to pulp with its prototype--a stone.
+Utter destruction is the invariable fate of any stone fish detected in
+these waters, the belief of the blacks being that in default fatal
+effects follow a wound. But a black who suffers the rare chance of
+contact fortifies his theoretical cure of pulverising the offending fish
+by immersing the injured foot or hand in running water for a whole day,
+the popular treatment for all venomous wounds. As to the effect of the
+wound they say, "Suppose that fella nail go along your foot, you sing
+out all a same bullocky all night. Leg belonga you swell up and jump
+about? Bingie (belly) belonga you, sore fella. Might you die." One boy
+described the detested creature--"That fella like stone. Head belonga
+him no good--all hole." A graphic way of detailing a rugged depression in
+the head, which conveys the idea that the bones have been staved in by a
+blow with a hammer.
+
+The stone fish resembles in character and habits the death adder. Its
+disposition is pacific, it has no forwardness of temper; is never
+willing to obtrude itself on notice, trusting to immobility and to its
+similitude to the grey rocks and mud and brown alga to escape detection.
+Unless it is actually handled or inadvertently trodden upon, it is as
+innocent and as harmless as a canary. Why then should it be furnished
+with such dreadful weapons of offence? A full dozen of the keenest of
+spines, all in a row, extend from the depression at the back of the head
+towards the tail, each spine hidden in a jagged and uneven fringe,
+which, when the fish is in its natural element, can scarcely be
+distinguished from seaweed. Not until the warty ghoul acquires the
+sagacity which accompanies ripe age and experience, does it encourage
+deceptive plumes of innocent algae to anchor themselves to its back.
+Then it is that detection is beyond ordinary skill, and its presence
+fraught with danger. In a specimen 8 inches long, the first spine,
+counting from the head, can be exposed half an inch, the second and
+chief fully three-quarters, and the remainder graduate from half to a
+quarter of an inch. Each spine--clear opal blue--is surrounded by a sac of
+colourless liquid (presumed to contain the poisonous element), which
+squirts out as the spine is unsheathed. On the sides, and in lesser
+numbers on the belly, are irregular rows of miniature craters which on
+being depressed eject, to a distance of a foot or more, a liquid
+resembling in colour milk with a tinge of lavender. Fast on the points
+of a spear the fish gives an occasional and violent spasmodic jerk, when
+the prettily tinted liquid is ejected from all the little cones. After a
+pause, during which it seems to concentrate its energies, there is
+another and another twitch, each the means of sprinkling broadcast what
+is said to be a corrosive liquid, almost as virulent as vitriol. From
+almost any part of the body this liquid exudes or can be expelled.
+
+With its upturned cavernous mouth (interiorly a forbidding sickly
+green), its spines, its cones, its eruptions, its ejecta, its great
+fan-shaped pectoral fins, and its deformities generally, the stone
+fish well deserves the specific title of HORRIDA. Moreover, has it
+not a gift which would have brought it to the stake a few score
+years ago, as a sinful, presumptuous and sacrilegious witch--that
+of living for an hour or two out of its natural element. It deserves
+the bad eminence to which it has been raised by the blacks on accounts
+of looks alone, and if the poisonous qualities are in line with its
+hideousness, one can but pause and ponder why and wherefore such a
+creature has existence in "this best of all possible worlds." But it is
+known that to the Chinese it is dainty. They pay for it with good grace
+as much as 2s. 6d. per lb., and the flavour is said to resemble crab.
+
+BURRA-REE
+
+Another inhabitant of the coral garden to be avoided is the balloon fish
+(TETRAODON OCELLATUS), which distends itself to the utmost capacity of
+its oval body when lifted from the water. The flesh is generally
+believed to be poisonous, though of tempting appearance. Authorities
+assert that the pernicious principle is confined to the liver and
+ovaries, and that if these are removed as soon as the fish is captured
+the flesh may be eaten with impunity. Let others careless of pain and
+tired of life, experiment. Middle-aged blacks tell that when a monstrous
+"Burra-ree" was speared here, notwithstanding its evil repute, some of
+the hungry ones cooked and ate of it. All who did so died or were sick
+unto death. Some years ago two Malays in the vicinity of Cairns partook
+of the flesh and died in consequence. No black will handle the fish, and
+a dog which may hunt one in shallow water and mouth it, partakes of a
+prompt and violent emetic. Blacks are very careful to avoid touching it
+with anything shorter than a fish-spear, being of opinion that the
+poison resides in or on the skin, and that the flesh becomes impregnated
+when the skin is broken.
+
+The balloon fish is toothless, the jaws resembling the beak of a turtle,
+and in some species both the upper and the lower jaws have medial
+sutures like those of a snake. Was there not a Roman statesman or
+warrior whose jaws were fitted with a consolidated and continuous
+structure of ivory instead of the ordinary separate teeth?
+
+The balloon fish depends upon its inconspicuousness and harmony with its
+environment in the struggle for existence, for, no doubt, there are in
+the sea fish so strong of stomach as to accept it without a spasm. It
+will allow a boat to be paddled over it as it floats--a brown
+balloon--almost motionless in the water without evincing alarm, but it
+makes a commotion enough for a dozen when a spear is fast in its back.
+
+FOUR THOUSAND LIKE ONE
+
+Among the more remarkable fish that people these waters is a species
+that does not come within the limits of my limited reading on the
+curious things of Nature. No doubt, it is well known to the initiated,
+but I take the opportunity of saying that these notes are not penned
+with the presumptuous notion of enlightening the learned and the wise,
+but for the edification, mayhap, of those who do not know, who have no
+means of acquiring information first hand, to whom text-books are
+unavailable, and who are not above sharing the pleasures of one whose
+observations are superficial, and to whom hosts of common things in
+Nature are rare and entertaining.
+
+In the clear water of Brammo Bay, a greenish black object, a yard across
+by about a yard and a half long, moved slowly along, swaying this way
+and that, but maintaining a fairly accurate course consistent with the
+shore. As the boat drifted, it seemed as if an unsophisticated sting-ray
+had lapsed into the blissfulness of ease, careless alike of mankind and of
+its enemies in the water. When within reach the boat-hook was used as a
+spear more to startle the indolent fish than in the vain hope of
+effecting its capture. The boat-hook passed through what appeared to be
+the middle of the creature with a splash, and four or five fish, about 8
+inches long, and of narrow girth, floated away, stunned, killed by the
+shock. Then it was realised that the apparently solid fish was really a
+compact mass of little fish, moving along with common impulse and
+volition, each fish having a sinuous, wriggling motion. So closely were
+they packed that it was impossible without careful scrutiny to discern
+individual members of the group, and so intimate their association and
+so remarkable their mutual sympathy, that they seemed to possess minds
+with but a single thought, hearts that beat as one. Here were not forty,
+not four hundred, but more likely four thousand living, moving, and
+having their being as a single individual. Dispersed for an instant as
+the boat-hook or paddle was driven through it, the mass coalesced
+automatically and instantly as if controlled by mechanical force, or
+composed of some resilient substance, and swayed again on its course,
+while the dead and stunned drifted away.
+
+Examining the specimens procured, it was found that they resembled
+lampreys in shape, olive green in colour, with pale lemon-coloured
+streaks and marks. Each of the gill cases terminated in a two-edged spur,
+transparent as glass, and keen as only Nature knows how to make her
+weapons of defence.
+
+Presently in obedience to some instinct the shoal left the shallow water
+inshore, and we watched it glide among the brown waving seaweed to the
+line of dull red, which indicated the outer edge of the coral reef and
+saw it no more. This, my piscatorial pastor and master says, was no
+doubt a community of striped cat-fish, (PLOTOSUS ANGUILLARIS).
+
+THE BAILER SHELL
+
+Adhering to a rock by a short stumpy stalk, sometimes sealed firmly to a
+loose stone, you may find an object in form and structure resembling an
+elongated, coreless pineapple, composed of a leathery semi-gelatinous,
+semi-transparent substance, dirty yellow in colour. It is the spawn case
+or the receptacle of the ova (if that term be allowable), and the cradle
+of what is commonly known as the bailer shell (CYMBIUM AETHIOPICUM) the
+"Ping-ah" of the blacks, one of the most singular and interesting
+features that these reefs have for the sight-seer. In its composition
+there may be fifty, more or less cohering, conic sections, each
+containing an unborn shell in a distinct and separate stage of
+development. At the base, the shells are, perhaps, just emerging each
+from its special compartment, as a young bee emerges from its cell--each
+a thin frail shell, about half an inch long, white with pale yellow and
+light brown markings. In time, should it survive all the accidents and
+assaults to which on entering the world it is beset, the tiny shell will
+develop into an expansively-mouthed vessel. The next succeeding row will
+be in a less matured state, and so the development diminishes towards
+the apex. Some of the compartments are occupied by shells transparent,
+colourless and fragile in the extreme, some by shells having merely the
+rudiment of form, until at the apex the cells contain but a drop or so
+of sparkling, quivering jelly.
+
+The bailer shell alive is like an egg, in the fact that it is full of
+meat. Many marine shells have surprisingly diminutive fleshy occupants,
+however great their tenacity and strength. The animal inhabiting a
+large-sized bailer weighs several pounds, the flesh being tough,
+leathery and of unwholesome appearance. When it has decayed, the shell
+being thin, the cavity is phenomenally capacious. Large specimens
+contain a couple of gallons of water, and as the shape is most
+convenient, and there is neither rust nor moth to corrupt, their
+aptitude as effective and durable bailers for boats is apparent. Some
+name them the boxer shell, tracing resemblance to a boxing-glove,
+others the "boat," and again the melon shell. Blacks use them for a variety
+of purposes--bailers, buckets, saucepans, drinking vessels, baskets, and
+even  wardrobes. They represent, perhaps, the only utensil in which a
+black can boil food, and it is an astonishing though not edifying
+spectacle when the fat-layered intestine of a turtle, sodden in salt water
+just brought to a boil in a bailer shell, is eagerly devoured by hungry
+blacks.
+
+A RIVAL TO THE OYSTER
+
+Down the caverns of the submerged rocks and blocks of coral are two or
+three species of ECHINUS (sea-urchins), with long and slender spines
+radiating from their spheroid bodies. One (DIADERNA SETOSA) is
+distinguished by what appears to be precious jewels of sparkling
+blue--believed to be visual organs--which lose their brilliancy
+immediately on removal from the water. Another has a centre of coral
+pink. The black spines, 10 inches or so long, are exquisitely sharp, and
+brittle in the extreme. Some believe that the animals are endowed with
+the power of thrusting these weapons forward to meet the intrusive hand,
+for unless approached with caution they prick the fingers while yet
+seemingly out of reach. Admitting that I have never yet attempted rudely
+to grasp this creature (which certainly is capable of presenting its
+array of spines whither it wills) while submerged, for the mere purpose
+of testing its ability to defend itself--my enthusiasm being tempered by
+the caution of the mere amateur--it may be said that some of the spines
+appear to be blunt. All could hardly be "sharper than needles," for
+being used as a means of locomotion among and over and in the crevices
+of the coral and rocks, some are necessarily worn at the points. With
+care they may be handled without injury, though at first glance it
+would seem impossible to avoid the numerous weapons. Imagine a brittle
+tennis ball stuck full of long slender needles, many tapering to
+microscopic keenness at the points, climbing stiffly along the
+edges of rocks by a few of the stilt-like needles, and a very fair
+figure of the ECHINUS is presented. As a curious and beautiful creature
+he is full of interest, and as an adjunct to one's diet he is, in due
+season, full of excellent meat. We take the ugly and forbidding oyster
+with words of gratitude and flattery on our lips, and why pass with
+disrespect the creature that is beautiful and wonderful as well as
+savoury? To enjoy it to perfection, extricate the creature from his
+lurking place far down in the blue crevice of the coral, with a
+fish-spear. Don't experiment with your fingers. On the gunwale of your
+boat divest it of its slender black spines, and with a knife fairly
+divide the spheroid body, and a somewhat nauseous-looking meat is
+disclosed; but no more objectionable in appearance than the substance of
+a fully ripe passion fruit. The flavour! Ah, the flavour! It surpasseth
+the delectable oyster. It hath more of the savour and piquancy of the
+ocean. It clingeth to the palate and purgeth it of grosser tastes. It
+recalleth the clean and marvellous creature, whose life has been spent
+in cool coral grottoes, among limestone and the salty essences of the
+pure and sparkling sea, and if you be wise and devout and grateful, you
+forthwith give praise for the enjoyment of a new and rare sensation.
+
+The ECHINUS is said to be essentially herbivorous, but my cursory
+observation leads me to the opinion (very humbly proffered) that it
+fulfils a definite purpose in the order of Nature, too, and depends for
+sustenance, or for the building up of its structure, upon certain
+constituents of the coral. Does it not break and grind down to powder
+the ramparts of coral? Clumsy and ill-shaped as it appears to be in
+other respects, it has jaws of wonderful design, and known to the
+ancients as "Aristotle's lantern." They are composed of five strips of
+bony substance, with enamel-like tips overlying each other in the centre
+of the disc-shaped mouth. With this splendid instrument the creature grips
+and breaks off or gnaws off, or bores out crumbs of coral which you find,
+apparently in process of digestion, as you render him an acceptable
+morsel. Scientific observers affirm that by means of an acid which the
+ECHINUS secretes, it disintegrates the rock, and that the jaws are used
+merely to clear away the softened rubbish. How is it then that the
+globular cavity is often well-ballasted with tiny crisp chunks of coral
+rock? Possibly to the assimilation of the lime is due, in some
+measure, the singularly sweet and expressive savour. So we see the
+coral-reef-building polyps toiling with but little rest, almost
+incessantly labouring to raise architectural devices of infinite design,
+and other creatures as industriously tearing them down to form the solid
+foundation of continents.
+
+Another species of ECHINUS eludes its enemies by the adoption of a
+cumbersome and forbidding mask. Ineffectively armed, the spines though
+numerous being short and frail, it holds empty bivalve shells on its
+uppermost part, The unstudied accumulation of debris--a fair sample of
+the surrounding ocean floor--would fail to fix notice, but that it moves
+bodily and without apparent cause. Inspection penetrates the disguise.
+Wheresoever the ECHINUS goes--its progress is infinitely slow--it
+carries a self-imposed burden--the refuse of dead and inanimate
+things--that it may, by imposition upon its foes, continue in the
+way of life.
+
+SHARKS AND SKIPPERS
+
+Local blacks have no fear of sharks. They take every care to avoid
+crocodiles, exercising great caution and circumspection when crossing
+inlets and tidal creeks. So shrewd are their observations that they will
+describe distinctive marks of particular crocodiles and indicate their
+favourite resorts. Their indifference to sharks is founded on the belief
+that those which inhabit shallow water among the islands never attack a
+living man. Blacks remain for hours together in the water on the reefs
+when beche-de-mer fishing, and the record of an attack is rare indeed.
+They are far more fearful of the monstrous groper (PROMICROPS ITAIARA),
+which lying inert among the coral blocks and boulders of the Barrier Reef,
+bolts anything and everything which comes its way, and which will follow
+a man in the water with dogged determination, foreign to the nervous,
+suspicious shark. Recently a vigorous young black boy was attacked by a
+groper while diving for beche-de-mer. The fish took the boy's head into
+its capacious mouth, mauling him severely about the head and shoulders,
+and but for his valiant and determined struggles would doubtless have
+succeeded in killing him.
+
+Such an incident as the following does not convince blacks that the
+sharks of the Barrier Reef are dangerous. The captain of a beche-de-mer
+cutter was paddling in a dinghy along the edge of a detached reef not
+many miles from Dunk Island, while several of his boys were swimming and
+diving. Suddenly one of them was seized and so terribly mutilated that
+he died in a few minutes. Although the captain was within 8 or 10 feet
+of the boy, and three of his mates not more than a few yards off, though
+all were wearing swimming goggles which enable them when diving to
+distinguish objects at a considerable range, though the sea was calm and
+clear and the water barely 10 feet deep, no one saw a shark or any other
+fish capable of inflicting such injuries as had caused the death of
+"Jimmy," nor was there any disturbance of the surface of the water. Years
+before a countryman of the unfortunate "Jimmy" was mauled by a small
+shark, but got away, though crippled for life. By some quaint process of
+reasoning the companions of the boy who was killed connected his death
+with the attack upon the other, the scene of which was 200 miles
+distant, and became convinced that he had been the victim of another kind
+altogether "--a sort of mysterious marine debil-debil," not known to
+entire satisfaction by the best-informed black boy, and quite beyond the
+comprehension of the dull-witted white man. Having thus conclusively to
+their minds set at naught the theory that a shark was responsible, it was
+absolutely unreasonable to fear sharks generally. Why should they blame
+a shark when it was established beyond doubt that nothing but a
+"debil-debil" could have killed "Jimmy"? Their opinion was founded on this
+invincible array of logic: If a shark had killed "Jimmy," it must have
+been seen. Nothing was seen, therefore it must have been a "debil-debil."
+And the incident was accepted as a further and most emphatic proof of the
+contention that sharks do not "fight" live black boys. The single instance
+at Princess Charlotte Bay was an exception.
+
+Our tame sharks seem to have no fear of animals larger even than man. A
+shallow stretch of water half a mile broad separates the islets of
+Mung-un-gnackum and Kumboola from Dunk Island. At low-water spring-tides
+two connecting bands are exposed--a sand-bank and a broad, flat coral
+reef, between which is a lagoon, in which the water may be 6 or 7 feet
+deep. The horses of the estate are in the habit of making excursions to
+Kumboola, the desire for change being manifested so strongly that
+occasionally they will swim across when the tide is full. One of the
+horses was returning from an outing when there was a depth of about 3
+feet on the sand-bank. As it approached the beach a shark, apparently
+making out from the lagoon, was seen suddenly to change its course, and
+follow the horse at a discreet distance. When only 50 yards from the
+beach the shark made an impetuous rush, and snapped at one of the
+horse's forefeet. The horse swerved, plunged and lashed out vigorously
+and with such excellent precision that the shark was kicked like a
+football out of the water. It appeared to be 5 or 6 feet long, and to be
+quite satisfied that the horse, like a black, was not to be molested
+until it was past resistance. The horse bore the marks of the affray on
+the pastern for weeks.
+
+Again when a favourite dog jumped overboard from the boat in an eager
+but ridiculous venture after a "skipper," a shark detected the dog and
+shadowed it. As we went about to pick up the dog the dorsal fin of the
+shark indicated the wily, leisurely way in which it was keeping pace,
+reconnoitring and waiting until its prey was exhausted, while the dog did
+not appear to realise that a "frightful fiend" did close behind him swim.
+As the boat approached, the shark swerved off flippantly, but hovered in
+the vicinity, unsatisfied as to the identity of the new and strange animal
+that had so unaccountably appeared in its natural element and as
+suddenly disappeared. A rifle bullet, a little to the rear of the base
+of the dorsal fin, however, made it wobble and bustle away on a most
+eccentric route.
+
+The term "skipper," purely local, is intended to distinguish that
+singular fish, of the "long tom" (ZYLOSURUS, sp.) or alligator-pike,
+which shoots from the water and skips along by striking and flipping the
+surface with its tail, while keeping the rest of its pike-like body
+rigid and almost perpendicular. Each stroke is accomplished by a
+ludicrous wriggling movement. It would seem that by the impact of the
+tail upon the water the fish maintains its abnormal position and also
+sustains for a time its initial velocity. For a hundred yards or so its
+speed is considerable, equal to the flight of a bird, but the length of
+each successive skip rapidly diminishes, as the original impulse is
+exhausted, and then the fish disappears as suddenly as it shot into
+view. The "skipper" is an exceptionally supple fish. It is excellent
+eating, probably the sweetest fish of these waters, and it is much
+appreciated by blacks, who call it by the pretty name of "Curram-ill,"
+and spear it whensoever chance affords.
+
+GORGEOUS AND CURIOUS
+
+The most gorgeous denizen of these waters is likewise one of the most
+curious--a fish resembling the surf parrot fish (PSEUDOSCARUS
+RIVULATUS), but seeming to surpass even that brilliant creature in
+colouring. It subsists on limpets and may be seen, a lustrous blue,
+at half tide feeding in favourite localities. The shape of the head
+and shoulders reveals something of the character of the fish, though
+the purpose of its resplendent appearance may not be obvious. Both
+head and jaws typify strength and leverage power. The mouth resembles
+the beak of a turtle or rather that of a balloon fish (TETRAODON).
+The under jaw protrudes slightly, and is fitted (in the case of the
+male) with two prominent canine teeth; the upper jaw has also a pair
+of projecting teeth of similar character. Each of the jaws consists
+of two loosely sutured segments, the articulation of the lower being
+much the freer. The gullet is horny and rasp-like, and in its exterior
+opening is an auxiliary set of teeth of most remarkable formation.
+The upper part of this interior set in some respect resembles the
+under jaws of a land animal, but there are marked distinctions.
+It consists of two bony structures, slightly curved outwards,
+lying parallel to each other and bound together by tough ligaments
+which not only permit a certain amount of independent lateral
+movement, but also independent action forwards and backwards. Each of
+the structures is fitted with a dozen to sixteen closely packed teeth,
+and at the rear of each is a magazine charged with five or six more,
+ready to move up and forward into position for active service as those
+ahead are worn away. The principle of modern magazine rifles is
+surprisingly exemplified by these reserve teeth. The lower jaw or rather
+dental plate resembles a flattened palate; the whole surface being
+studded with teeth, the edges of which overlap. It may be described as a
+piece of mosaic work in white and ivory. There are between sixty and
+seventy teeth resembling incisors on the dental plate. The whole seem to
+be in a state of perennial renewal to compensate for wear and tear. As
+those of the front row are broken or worn down, the next succeeding row
+occupies the frontal position. The teeth are deeply set in the bony base
+of the inverted palate, or rather obtrude but slightly above the
+surface, their office being to break down and grind to powder flinty
+food.
+
+The outward and visible teeth of the male are apparently given as
+weapons of defence, since they do not occur in the female, which has
+four back teeth. From their prominent position the teeth of the male
+must also be used for grasping and levering or pulling steadfast
+limpets from rocks. They needs must be hard and have strength as well
+as science at the back of them, for a limpet can resist a pulling
+force of nearly 2000 times its own weight. The sutures of the jaws
+of the fish enable it to accommodate its grip to the various sizes
+of limpets, and to take a fair and square hold, while the lower jaw
+seems to act as a fulcrum when the leverage is applied. But the
+exterior jaws and teeth are devoid of interest, compared with the
+interior set, which form an ideal pulverising apparatus. To those
+who are versed in ichthyology, these are known as pharyngeal teeth,
+because they are connected with the pharynx. Such teeth are present
+in some form or other in all true fish, but usually in a degraded
+form. In the rainbow and parrot fish they are highly specialised,
+otherwise the pulverisation of the hard shell of molluscs would be
+impossible. The interior of the mouth of certain species of the shark
+family, given specially to a diet of oysters, is thickly set with
+a series of uniformly diffused minute teeth, and another fish of
+these seas has a gizzard composed of an intensely tough material,
+lined with membrane resembling shark's skin. This fish swallows
+cockles and such like molluscs whole, and grinds them in its gizzard.
+
+And the colouring of this wonderful creature! The semi-transparent
+dorsal fin, which extends without a break from the back of the head
+to the tail, is broad and slightly scalloped. It displays an upper
+edging of radiant blue, a broad band of iridescent pink with greenish
+opal-like lights, and a narrow streak of the richest emerald green,
+close along the back. The body is covered with large scales, the
+colouring of which conveys a general appearance of an elaborate
+system of slightly elongated hexagons, generally blue outlined with
+pink, sometimes golden-yellow combined with green; and the colours flash
+and change with indescribable radiance. The head is decorated with bands
+of pink, orange and green; the pectoral fins are pale green with a bold
+medial stripe of puce, and the tail is a study of blue-green and puce.
+When the fish is drawn from the water the colours live, the play of
+lights being marvellously lovely. The colours differ, and they also vary
+in intensity in individuals. Though the prevailing tint may be radiant
+blue, it will be shot with gold in one and with pink in another.
+
+The flesh is edible, though (as is common with parrot fish) not
+particularly admirable with regard to flavour. It is wonderful and
+beautiful. Are not these qualities all-sufficient? Must everything be
+good to eat? To the natives of the island this jewel of the sea is
+known as "Oo-ril-ee," and to scientists as belonging to the scaroid
+family.
+
+TURTLE GENERALLY
+
+Three species of turtle frequent these waters--the loggerhead
+(THALASSOCHELYS CARETTA), the hawksbill (CHELONE IMBRICATA), and the
+green (CHELONE MYDAS). Both of the latter are herbivorous and edible;
+but the flesh of the first-named, a fish and mollusc eater, is rank and
+strong, and it is therefore not hunted, the shell being of little if any
+value. Loggerhead, however, is not disregarded by the blacks, though to
+the unaccustomed nose the flesh has a most repulsive smell. It is
+powerful and fierce when molested. One which was harpooned, on being
+hauled up to the boat seized the gunwale and left the marks of its beak
+deep in the wood. The creature seems also to be endowed with greater
+vitality than the other species, and this fact may excite the wonder of
+those who have seen the heart of a green turtle pulsate long after
+removal from the body, and the limbs an hour after separation shrink
+from the knife and quiver.
+
+The hawks-bill furnishes the tortoiseshell of commerce, and is much
+sought after. The flesh is highly tainted with the specific flavour
+of turtle, and therefore objectionable, though blacks relish it.
+Further north, in some localities, it is generally believed that the
+flesh of the hawks-bill may be imbued with a deadly poison. Great care is
+exercised in the killing and butchering, lest a certain gland, said to
+be located in the neck or shoulder, be opened, as flesh cut with a knife
+which has touched the critical part becomes impregnated. Here, though
+the blacks take precautions in the butchering a hawks-bill (being aware
+of its bad repute elsewhere), they have had no actual experience of the
+unwholesomeness of the flesh. One old seafarer acknowledges that he
+nearly "pegged out" as the result of a hearty meal of the liver of a
+hawks-bill. As is well known, fish edible in one region may be poisonous
+in another (Saville-Kent); the same principle may apply to the turtle.
+
+The flesh of the luth or leathery turtle (DERMOCHELYS CORIACEA) which
+diets on fish, crustacea, molluscs, radiates, and other animals, causes
+symptoms of poisoning; but the luth does not appear to be common in this
+part of the Pacific, though it occurs in Torres Straits.
+
+In a standard work on natural history it is asserted that the natives
+remove the overlapping plates of tortoiseshell from the hawks-bill by
+lighting a fire on the back of the creature, causing them to peel off
+easily. "After the plates have been removed, the turtle is permitted to
+go free, and after a time it is furnished with a second set of plates."
+Surely this might be classed among the fabulous stories of Munchausen.
+As the lungs of the turtle lie close to the anterior surface of the
+carapace, the degree of heat sufficient to cause the plates to come off
+would assuredly be fatal. Possibly there is explanation at hand. The
+turtle being killed, the carapace is removed and placed over a gentle
+fire, and then the plates are eased off with a knife. But that method is
+not generally approved. Professional tortoiseshell-getters either trust
+to the heat of the sun or bury the shell in clean sand, and when
+decomposition sets in, the valuable plates are detached freely. Exposure
+to fire deteriorates the quality of the product unless great care is
+exercised.
+
+The green turtle, with thin dovetailing plates, is the most plentiful
+and valued principally for food. But all green turtle are not acceptable.
+An old bull is so rank, that "there is no living near it--it would infect
+the North Star!" There are many Europeans who cannot relish even good
+green turtle, however tender, delicate, and sweet it may be. The worthy
+chaplain of Anson's fleet who "wrote up" the famous voyages, has some
+shrewd observations on the subject of green turtle, which he refers to
+as the most delicious of all flesh, "so very palatable and salubrious,"
+though proscribed by the Spaniards as unwholesome and little less than
+poisonous. He suggests that the strange appearance of the animal may
+have been the foundation of "this ridiculous and superstitious aversion."
+Perhaps the poor Spaniards of those days happened in the first instance
+upon an ancient bull, or a hawks-bill, and tapped the poison gland, or a
+loggerhead or a luth, and came ever after to entertain, with right good
+cause, a holy terror of turtle, irrespective of species.
+
+An interesting phase in the life-history of the green turtle is the
+deception the female employs when about to lay eggs. Her "nests" are
+shallow pits in the sand. She may make several during a hasty visit to a
+favourite beach, while postponing the laying until the following day.
+Whether this is a conscious stratagem by which the turtle hopes to
+mislead and bewilder other animals partial to the eggs, or merely a
+caprice--one of those idle fancies which the feminine part of animated
+Nature frequently indulge in at a time when their faculties are at
+unusual tension--does not appear to be quite understood. When serious
+business is intended, the turtle scoops new pits, leaving some of them
+partially and others quite unfilled. These also appear to be intended to
+delude. That in which the eggs are deposited is filled in and the
+surface smoothed and flattened, and in cases where the nest is any
+distance beyond the limits of high-water, it is frequently carelessly
+covered with grass and dead leaves. The heat of the sun hatches the
+eggs. But the guile of the turtle is limited. However artfully the real
+nest may be concealed, the tracks to and fro as well as the tracks to
+and from the many counterfeits are as unmistakable, until the wind
+obliterates them, as the tracks of a treble-furrow plough. The chances
+against an unintellectual lover of turtle eggs discovering a fresh nest
+off-hand are in exact ratio to the number of deceptive appearances. In a
+few days all the tracks are blotted out, and then none but those skilled
+or possessed of keen perception may detect the nest. Blacks probe all
+the likely spots with spears, and soon fix on the right one.
+
+In a certain locality where the hawks-bill turtle congregate in untold
+numbers, a remarkable deviation from the general habit has been
+observed. Several of the islands are composed of a kind of conglomerate
+of coral debris, shells and sand. With strange perversity some turtle
+excavate in the rock cylindrical shafts about 18 inches deep by 6 inches
+diameter with smooth perpendicular sides. There is no adjunct to the
+flippers which appears to be of service in the digging, yet the holes
+are such that a man would find it impossible to make without the use of
+a chisel. Whether they are dug with the flippers, or bored, or bitten
+out with the bill, does not appear to be known. Eggs varying in numbers
+from 120 to 150 are deposited in each shaft, and covered loosely with
+the spoil from the excavation.
+
+When the young are hatched only those on top are able to clamber out.
+They represent but a very small percentage of the family. The majority
+die miserably, being unable to get out of what is their tomb as well as
+their birthplace. In the vicinity are sandy beaches on which other
+hawks-bill turtle deposit their eggs in accordance with time-honoured
+plans, and successfully rear large families. Why some individuals should
+be at such pains to defeat the universal instinct for the propagation
+and preservation of their species, is a puzzle. Moreover, hundreds of
+these anomalous nests are excavated some distance beyond high-water,
+in country where the growth of grass is so strong and dense as to
+form an almost impenetrable barrier to those infantile turtle which
+have the fortune to get out of the death-traps, and in obedience
+to instinct, endeavour to reach the sea. Is it that Nature, "so careful
+of the type" imposes Malthusian practices to avoid the danger of
+overcrowding the "never-surfeited sea?" Notwithstanding the positive
+check upon increase, the young are produced in myriads.
+
+"Sambo," a black boy, who had visited this isle, on his return to
+shores where turtle are less numerous, sought to impress his master with
+the substantial charms of the faraway North. "When," he said, "you come
+close up, you look out. Hello! You think about stone. No stone;
+altogether turtle!"
+
+There, to within a recent date, might be seen the bones of fourteen
+great green turtle side by side in a row. At first glance the scene
+seems a sanctified death-place for the species, until you are informed
+that a visitor to the isle, astonished at the number of turtle on the
+beach, and eager to secure an abundance of fresh meat, turned over
+fourteen, intending to call again for them. Circumstances prevented him
+from re-visiting the place, and the turtle, being unable to right
+themselves, perished.
+
+Personal observation and inquiries from many men whose lives may be said
+to be spent among turtle on the Barrier Reef convince me that blacks
+never venture to get astride a turtle in the water. One more daring and
+agile may seize a turtle, and by throwing his weight aft cause the head
+to tilt out of the water. The turtle then strikes out frantically with
+its flippers, but the boy so counterbalances it that the head is kept
+above the surface continuously, until the turtle becoming exhausted is
+guided into shallow water or alongside a boat, where it is secured with
+the help of others. Boys who accomplish this feat are few and far
+between, though it is by no means uncommon for a turtle to be seized
+while in the water and overturned, in which position it is helpless. A
+turtle detected in shallow water falls a comparatively easy prey,
+for on being hustled it soon loses heart and endeavours to hide its
+head, ostrich-like, when it is easily captured. None unacquainted with
+the skill with which the creature can spar with its flippers, and the
+effectiveness of these flippers, when used as weapons of defence,
+should venture to grip a turtle in its natural element.
+
+Another species, stated to have a circumscribed habitat, has a steep
+dome-shaped back, resembling at a casual glance a seamless metal
+casting, with the edges abruptly turned up. The head is large, the eyes
+deeply embedded in their sockets, and the animal has the power of
+protruding and withdrawing the head much more extensively developed than
+usual. The "death's head" staring from beneath the dome-shaped back
+gives to the animal a most gruesome aspect. These details are supplied
+by the master of a beche-de-mer schooner, to whom all the nooks and
+corners of the Great Barrier Reef and of the other Coral Sea beyond,
+from New Guinea to New Caledonia, are familiar. He says that the
+species, as far as his observation goes, is confined to the
+neighbourhood of one group of islands. To others this is known as the
+"bastard tortoiseshell." The back is not actually seamless, but age
+causes the plates to cohere so closely as to present that appearance.
+
+THE MERMAID OF TO-DAY
+
+Dugong (HALICORE AUSTRALIS) still frequent these waters. The rapacity of
+the blacks is a rapidly diminishing factor in their extermination, and
+the rushing to and fro of steamers, which it was thought would scare
+away those which remain, is becoming too familiar to be fearsome. Even
+in the narrow limits of Hinchinbrook Channel, through which the passing
+of steamers is of everyday occurrence, they still exist, though not in
+such numbers as in the early days. It would seem that the waters within
+the Great Barrier Reef may long continue one of the last resorts of this
+strange, uncouth, paradoxical mammal.
+
+Half hippopotamus, half seal, yet in no way related to either, something
+between a pachyderm and cetacean, the dugong is a herbivorous marine
+mammal, commonly known as "the sea cow," because of its resemblance in
+some particulars to that useful domesticated animal. It grazes on marine
+grass (POSIDONIA AUSTRALIS), parts of the flesh very closely resemble
+beef, and post-mortem examination reveals internal structure similar in
+most details to those of its namesake. But, unlike the cow, the dugong
+has two pectoral mammae instead of an abdominal udder, and like the
+whale is unable to turn its head, the vertebrae of the neck being, if
+not fused into one mass, at least compressed into a small space.
+
+In form it resembles a seal, the body tapering from the middle to the
+fish-like, bi-lobed tail. As with the whale, the flippers or arms do not
+contribute any considerable means of locomotion, but are used, in the
+case of the female at least, for grasping the young. When the mother is
+nursing her child, holding it to her breasts, she is careful as she
+rises to breathe, that it, too, may obtain a gulp of fresh air, and the
+two heads emerging together present a strangely human aspect. Traces of
+elementary hind legs are to be found in some small bones lying loosely
+in the flesh. The skull is singularly formed, the upper jaw being bent
+over the lower. The huge pendulous, rubber-like under lip, so studded
+with coarse, sharp bristles as to be known as the brush, seems a
+development of the under lip of the horse, and is a perfect implement
+for the gathering of slimy grass.
+
+To further detail the paradoxes of the dugong, it may be said that some
+of the teeth resemble those of an elephant; that the males have ivory
+tusks and of ivory their bones are made; that parts of the flesh may
+hardly be distinguished from veal and other parts from fine young pork.
+The freshly flayed hide is fully half an inch thick, and when cured and
+dried resembles horn in consistency.
+
+Reddish grey, sometimes almost olive green in colour, with white
+blotches and sparse, coarse bristles, the animal has no comeliness,
+and yet when a herd frolics in the water, rising in unison with
+graceful undulatory movements for air, and the sunlight flashes in
+helioscopic rays from wet backs, the spectacle is rare and fine. Rolling
+and lurching along, gambolling like good-humoured, contented children,
+the herd moves leisurely to and from favourite feeding-grounds,
+occasionally splashing mightily with powerful tails to make fountains of
+illuminated spray--great, unreflecting, sportful water-babes. Admiration
+is enhanced as one learns of the affection of the dugong for its young
+and its love for the companionship of its fellows. When one of a pair is
+killed, the other haunts the locality for days. Its suspirations seem
+sighs, and its presence melancholy proof of the reality of its
+bereavement.
+
+For some time after birth the young is carried under one or other of the
+flippers, the dam hugging it affectionately to her side.
+
+As the calf grows, it leaves its mother's embrace, but swims close
+beside, following with automatic precision every twist and lurch of her
+body, its own helplessness and its implicit faith in the wisdom and
+protective influence of its parent being exemplified in every movement.
+
+Blacks harpoon dugong as they do turtle, but the sport demands greater
+patience and dexterity, for the dugong is a wary animal and shy, to be
+approached only with the exercise of artful caution. An inadvertent
+splash of the paddle or a miss with the harpoon, and the game is away
+with a torpedo-like swirl. To be successful in the sport the black must
+be familiar with the life-history of the creature to a certain
+extent--understanding its peregrinations and the reason for them--the
+strength and trend of currents and the locality of favourite
+feeding-grounds. Fragments of floating grass sometimes tell where the
+animal is feeding. An oily appearance on the surface of the sea shows
+its course, and if the wind sits in the right quarter the keen-scented
+black detects its presence when the animal has risen to breathe at a
+point invisible to him. He must know also of the affection of the female
+for her calf, and be prepared to play upon it implacably. In some
+localities the blacks were wont to manufacture nets for the capture
+of dugong, and nets are still employed by them under the direction
+of white men; for the flesh of the dugong is worthily esteemed,
+and oil from the blubber--sweet, and limpid as distilled water--is
+said to possess qualities far superior to that obtained from the
+decaying livers of cod fish in the restoration of health and vigour
+to constitutions enfeebled and wasted by disease,
+
+Using a barbless point attached to a long and strong line, and fitted
+into a socket in the heavy end of the harpoon shaft, the black waits and
+watches. With the utmost caution and in absolute silence he follows in
+his canoe the dugong as it feeds, and strikes as it rises to breathe. A
+mad splash, a wild rush! The canoe bounces over the water as the line
+tightens. Its occupant sits back and steers with flippers of bark, until
+as the game weakens he is able to approach and plunge another harpoon
+into it. Sometimes the end of the line is made fast to a buoy of light
+wood which the creature tows until exhausted.
+
+So contractible and tough is the skin, that once the point of the
+harpoon is embedded in it, nothing but a strong and direct tug will
+release it. Some blacks substitute for the barbless point four pieces of
+thin fencing wire--each about 4 inches long, bound tightly together at
+one end, the loose ends being sharpened and slightly diverged. This is
+fastened to the line and inserted in the socket of the haft, and when it
+hits it holds to the death, though the animal may weigh three-quarters
+of a ton.
+
+It is stated that the blacks towards Cape York having secured the animal
+with a line attached to a dart insufficient in length to penetrate the
+hide and the true skin, seize it by the nose, and plug the nostrils with
+their fingers until it drowns. Here, too, the natives have discovered
+that the nose is the vulnerable part of the dugong, and having first
+harpooned it in any part of the body, await an opportunity of spearing
+it there, with almost invariably speedy fatal effects.
+
+The flesh of a young dugong is sweet and tender, and the blubber,
+dry-cured after the manner of bacon with equal quantities of salt and
+sugar and finally smoked, quite a delicacy.
+
+Not long since an opportunity was given of examining the effects of a
+bullet on a dugong. We had harpooned a calf perhaps a year and a half
+old, and as it rose to the surface in the first struggle for freedom, I
+shot it, using a Winchester repeating carbine, 25-35, carrying a metal
+patched bullet. There was no apparent wound, and on the second time of
+rising another bullet was lodged in the head, causing instantaneous
+death. When the animal came to be skinned, it was found that the first
+bullet had completely penetrated the body, the tough, rubber-like hide
+so contracting over the wounds of entry and exit as to entirely prevent
+external bleeding. The fatal bullet had almost completely pulverised the
+skull, the bones of which were ivory-like in texture. The appearance of
+the skull might have led to the conclusion that an explosive instead of
+a nickel-plated bullet had been used, while if the first bullet had not
+penetrated several folds of the intestines, no doubt it would have
+caused the animal very little inconvenience.
+
+The dugong rises to the surface at frequent intervals for air, and the
+ancients in the rounded heads of the mother and her offspring fancied a
+resemblance to human beings, who sought to lure the unwary to their
+mansions beneath the waves. Hence the scientific title "Sirenia" for
+the family to which the dugong belongs. Unpoetical people as the coastal
+blacks of Queensland are, yet they were among the few who had for
+neighbours the shy creatures upon whose existence was founded the quaint
+and engaging legends of the mermaid.
+
+But now we make prosaic bacon from the mermaid's blubbery sides. And
+those long tresses which she was wont to comb as she gloated over her
+comeliness in her oval mirror and sang those alluring strains, so
+soothing, so sweet, yet so deceiving--those wet and tangled locks, where
+are they? Is the whole realm of Nature becoming bald? The hair
+of the mermaid of to-day is coarse, short and spiky, with inches
+between each sprout. For a comb she uses a jagged rock, or cruel coral;
+for her vanity there is no semblance of pardon; and for her seductive
+plaint, has it not degenerated into a gulping unmelodious sigh, as she
+fills her capacious lungs with atmospheric air?
+
+BECHE-DE-MERE
+
+Anticipating the possibility of readers away from the Coral Sea, and to
+whom no reference to the subject is available, wondering as to the form
+and character of beche-de-mer, let it be said that the commonest kind in
+these waters is an enormous slug, varying from 6 inches long by an inch
+and a half in diameter, to 3 feet 6 inches by 4 inches. Rough and
+repulsive in appearance, and sluggish in habit, it has great power of
+contractibility. It may assume a dumpy oval shape, and again drag out
+its slow length until it resembles an attenuated German sausage, black
+in colour. Its "face" may be obtruded and withdrawn at pleasure, or
+rather will, for what creature could have pleasure in a face like a
+ravelled mop.
+
+Termed also trepang, sea cucumber, sea slug, cotton spinner, and known
+scientifically as Holothuridae, no less than twenty varieties have been
+described and are identified by popular and technical titles.
+
+The "fish" are collected by black boys on the coral reefs--dived for,
+picked up with spears from punts, or by hand in shallow water. Some
+prefer to fish at high-water, for then the beche-de-mere are less shy,
+and emerge from nooks in the rocks and coral, and in the limpid water on
+the Barrier are readily seen at considerable depths. Then the boys dive
+or dexterously secure the fish with their slender but tough spears, 4
+fathoms long.
+
+At the curing station (frequently on board the owner's schooner or
+lugger) they are boiled, the fish supplying nearly all the water for
+their own cooking. Then each is cut open lengthwise, with a sharp knife,
+and by a thin skewer of wood its interior surface is exposed. Placed
+on wire-netting trays in series the fish are smoked or desiccated
+in a furnace heated, preferably, with black or red mangrove wood,
+and finally exposed to the sun to eliminate dampness which may have
+been absorbed on removal from the smoke-house. When the fish leave
+the smoke-house they have shrunk to small dimensions, and resemble
+pieces of smoked buffalo hide, more or less curled and crumpled.
+In this condition they are sent away to China and elsewhere to be
+used in soup. Australian gourmands are beginning to appreciate this
+delicacy, which is said to be marvellously strengthening, though
+without elaborate cooking it is almost tasteless, and therefore
+unlike dugong soup, which surpasses turtle in flavour and delicacy,
+and would fatten up a skeleton. Beche-de-mer is merely a substantial
+foundation or stock for a more or less artistic culinary effort.
+
+Beche-de-mer realises as much as 160 pounds per ton. In former days
+"red prickly fish," was the most highly-prized on the Chinese markets,
+but several years ago a fisherman in the neighbourhood of Cooktown used
+a copper boiler. Several Chinese epicures died after partaking of soup
+made from a particular parcel, and "red prickly" was forthwith
+credited with poisonous qualities. The consignment was traced to its
+origin, and popular opinion at the time was that the boiler had, unknown
+to the proprietor of the station, induced verdigris. Investigation,
+however, gave ground for the belief that the fish in the boiling exuded
+juices of such corrosive qualities that the copper was chemically acted
+upon. Beche-de-mer, is now invariably cooked in iron vessels, the bottom
+half of a malt tank being a common boiler, and the "red prickly," after
+being absolutely worthless for many years--so quaint are Oriental
+prejudices--is now regaining favour in that market.
+
+Beche-de-mer, though called fish by tradesmen, neither swims nor floats;
+neither does it crawl, nor wriggle, nor hop, skip nor jump. It simply
+"moves" on the ocean floor, when not reposing in apparently absolute
+and unconscious idleness like its distant relative, the star-fish. Nor
+does the creature possess any means of self-protection. Some species are
+rough and prickly, and are said to irritate the hand that grasps them.
+Others either in nervousness, or a result of shock to the system, or to
+amaze and affright the beholder, shoot out interminable lengths of
+filmy, cottony threads, white and glutinous, until one is astonished
+that a small body should contain such a quantity of yarn ready spun, to
+eject at a moment's notice like the mazes of ribbon drawn from a
+conjurer's hat.
+
+While it would be idle to particularise the different varieties of
+beche-de-mer, that lead such lowly lives in the coral reef here, there
+is one more conspicuous than the others, which may be referred to
+without presuming to trespass on the preserves of scientific inquirers.
+Indeed, it is entitled to notice, for it seems to be most prominent
+among the few which afford examples of unconscious mimicry and
+sympathetic coloration to insure themselves from molestation.
+Beche-de-mer does not generally give the idea of capability of even the
+simplest form of deception. True, the "black fish," shrinking from
+observation, puts on a cloak of sand, and a cousin assumes a resemblance
+to an irregular piece of coral--rugged, sea-stained and rotten. But the
+variety under notice takes a higher place in the deceptive art, for it
+seems to pose as an understudy to one of the most nimble and vicious
+habitants of the sea--the banded snake. It lies coiled and folded among
+the stones and coral of the reef, or partially hidden by brown seaweed,
+which heightens its momentary effect upon the nerves of the barefooted
+Beachcomber. Its length is from 4 to 5 feet, girth about 3 inches,
+colour reddish brown, with darker bands and blotches. The deception is
+in appearance only. A touch reveals an innocent but shocking fraud--a
+poor despicable dummy, lacking the meanest characteristic of its alert
+original.
+
+Limp and impotent, it is little more than a skin full of water, a yard
+and a half of intestine with no superficial indication of difference
+between head and tail. Watch closely, and the "face,"--a much frayed
+mop--is shyly obtruded from one end, and there is justification for the
+opinion that the other end is the tail. Possibly, after all, this may
+not be a true variety of beche-de-mer. In that case an apology to the
+rest of the tribe is necessary; though the mop-like face betrays a
+strong family likeness.
+
+If this dolefully helpless creature be lifted by the middle on a stick,
+its liquid contents are instantly separated, forming distended,
+high-pressure blobs at each end of the empty, flabby shrunken skin.
+Though it suffers this experiment placidly, being incapable of the
+feeblest resistance, it has the primordial gift of care of itself. Twists
+purposely made to test its degree of intelligence are artfullystraightened
+out, and the eagerness and hurry with which water is forced throughout
+empty parts show that life is both sweet and precious. And what is the
+value of life to an animal of such homely organism and so few wants?
+And under what charter of rights does it slink among the coral and weed
+affrighting God-fearing man under the cloak of his first subtle enemy?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+THE TYRANNY OF CLOTHES
+
+
+"Give the tinkers and cobblers their presents again and learn
+to live of yourself."
+
+
+Few enjoy a less sensational and more tranquil life than ours. Weeks
+pass, and but for the visits of the kindly steamer, and the passing
+of others at intervals, there is naught of the great world seen or
+experienced. A strange sail brings out the whole population, staring
+and curious. Rare is the luxury of living when life is unconstrained,
+unfettered by conventionalities and the comic parade of the fashions.
+The real significance of freedom here is realised. What matters it
+that London decrees a crease down the trouser legs if those garments
+are but of well-bleached blue dungaree? The spotless shirt, how paltry
+a detail when a light singlet is the only wear? Of what trifling
+worth dapper boots to feet made leathery by contact with the clean,
+crisp, oatmeal-coloured sand. Here is no fetish about clothes; little
+concern for what we shall eat or what we shall drink. The man who has
+to observe the least of the ordinances of style knows not liberty.
+He is a slave; his dress betrayeth him and proclaims him base. There
+may be degrees of baseness. I am abject myself; but whensoever I
+revisit the haunts of men clad in the few light incommoding clothes
+that rationalism ordains, I rejoice and gloat over the slavery of
+those who have failed to catch even glimpses of the loveliness of
+liberty, who are yet afeared of opinion--"that sour-breathed hag."
+How can a man with hoop-like collar, starched to board-like texture,
+cutting his jowl and sawing each side of his neck, be free? He may
+rejoice because he is a very lord among creation, and has trousers
+shortened by turning up the ninth part of a hair after London vogue,
+and may be proud of his laws and legislature, and even of his
+legislators, but to the tyrannous edge of his collar he is a slave.
+He can neither look this way nor that, nor up nor down, without being
+reminded that he has imposed upon himself an extra to the universal
+penalties of Adam. One who lives in London tells me of the load of
+clothes he is compelled to wear in winter to preserve animal heat. He
+fights for life thus arrayed--thick woollens next the skin, the decent
+shirt (badge of respectability), the waistcoat of heavy cloth, the
+cardigan jacket (which hides the respectable shirt), the coat of cloth,
+strong and heavy; the overcoat long and incommoding, the woollen
+comforter, the wool-lined gloves, the double-woollen socks, the
+half-inch soled boots, the leggings, the hat. To carry this burden of
+clothes all day, pursuing ordinary vocations, were surely the grossest
+of bondage. While my three-garment costume--is it not convenient and
+fashionable enough?
+
+A smart cutter appeared in Brammo Bay. A man, apparently in a pale red
+shirt, let down the sails and anchor, and by-and-by one in a black coat
+buttoned to the throat paddled himself ashore in a dinghy. Like a great
+many worn on state occasions in country parts here, the coat had seen
+better days. It was black with greenish lights; the stitches round the
+button-holes and along the seams brown and grey; it smelt fusty; the
+buttons were--well, various and assorted. An inch or two of tarry spun
+yarn, clove-hitched to a miniature toggel, neatly carved, was the hopeful
+beginning, a hasty splinter inserted pin-wise, the heedless ending of
+the row. Between these ranged a bleached cowrie shell, loosely looped
+with string; a fantastic ornament (green with verdigris) from some
+bygone millinery, and a cherished relic of a pair of trousers of the
+past in all the boldness of polished brass. But it was easy to detect
+that there was no shirt beneath the dingy coat; and that the coat itself
+was merely a concession to the evidence of civilisation which had been
+apparent from the boat. On board the man wore neither coat nor shirt.
+The cheerful note of colour, so conspicuous as he sailed to the
+anchorage, was his sunburnt skin. Some men burn brown, some red. He was
+of the red variety, and his bare skin looked a deal more respectable
+than his cockroach-nibbled coat. To him. clothing save for decency's sake
+had become superfluous. He felt that "to be naked is to be so much
+nearer the being man than to go in livery." He wore no hat, no boots.
+Pyjama trousers of cotton composed his entire workaday costume;
+dungaree trousers and a musty coat his Court dress. Yet he was clean and
+glowing with health and cheerfulness; self-reliant, splendidly
+independent. Had he allowed his mind to dwell on clothing his
+independence would have been less. He might have required the aid of a
+black boy to navigate his boat, and the continual presence of a black
+boy in a small boat does not make for sweetness and light.
+
+SINGLE-HANDEDNESS
+
+Another grandly free man sailed his cutter into the bay one fine
+morning. He knew the water and ran her on the sand, brought his anchor
+ashore and shoved her off, to swing lazily the while. When I paid him a
+ceremonious visit, I found that he had but one arm. The empty right
+sleeve was the more pathetic when I saw him mixing his flour for a
+damper, and in the cunning twists and wriggling by which the fingers
+freed each other of the sticky dough and other dextrous manipulations,
+I soon came to recognise that with his left hand he was as deft as many
+men with their right and left. He had sailed the boat ladened with wire
+netting and heavy goods from Bowen, 200 miles south, and was on his way
+to his selection, 100 miles further north. A wiry, slight man though a
+real "shellback," one who had been steeped in and saturated with every
+sea, was "giving the sea best," nerve-shaken, so he said--and yet
+sailing a cutter with but 3 or 4 inches of free board "single-handed."
+And he told the why and wherefore of his fear of the sea.
+
+With a mate he had been for many months, beche-de-mer fishing, their
+station or headquarters a lonely islet in Whitsunday Passage, which
+winds about that picturesque group of islands through which Captain Cook
+passed in the year 1770. The twain had been out on one of the spurs of the
+Great Barrier Reef, and had been caught in the toils of adverse weather.
+After beating about for days they managed to make their station--hungry,
+thirsty, their souls fainting within them. Shelter and comfort were
+theirs, and it was no surprise to my visitor when his mate slept the
+next morning beyond the accustomed time. "Let him rest," he said. "He
+is dog-tired;" and went about the work of the day. He had himself known
+what it was to sleep eighteen and twenty hours at a stretch, for he had
+many times been worn by toil and watching and nerve-tension to the limit
+of endurance. And so the day passed, and the man in the bunk slept on.
+Peace and rest were his, and the busy man envied the calm indifference
+to the day's doings that he could not find in his heart to disturb.
+
+"Won't he feel fresh when he does wake," he reflected. "He'll be a bit
+narked at having wasted a whole bloomin' day. I shouldn't be surprised
+if he was savage, because I didn't call him."
+
+When the evening meal was prepared and everything in the tiny hut made
+orderly, it would be a pleasure for him to wake up and discover that he
+had been allowed to have his sleep out.
+
+Ah! but his sleep was very sound and very silent--almost too stillful
+to be natural.
+
+A touch on his shoulders, saying--"Andrew. Wake up, old fellow!"
+
+No movement, or response. His feet--cold! cold! and his chest, too, cold!
+
+The mate had found his port after stormy seas. His heart--worn out with
+stress and strain--had failed within him, and all day long his companion
+thought tenderly of him, making but little noise, thinking that his
+sleep was the sleep of a day, not the sleep of eternity that no earthly
+din may disturb.
+
+The weather was still boisterous, but it was essential to take the body
+to Bowen, to render unto the authorities there conclusive evidence that
+death had been the result of natural causes. My visitor's nerves were
+then virile. But the time of stress and strain was at hand. He found
+himself alone on a remote Island. A grim responsibility forced upon him.
+Awful as the duty was, it had to be courageously faced, and performed as
+tenderly as might be. Instead of the enjoyment of comfort and rest, and
+days of busy companionship and revivifying hopes, there was the shock
+that sudden death inflicts, dramatic loneliness, dry-eyed grief, forced
+exertion, and the abandonment of brightening prospects.
+
+With pain and infinite labour he succeeded in dragging and rolling the
+corpse to the beach. Thence he pushed it up a plank on to the deck of
+the cutter, and leaving his possessions to chance and fate, he, the
+wearied and bereaved one-armed man, set sail in violent weather across
+the open sea to the nearest port. At midnight the "great cry" of a
+hurricane arose. Lightning flashed over the stricken yeasty sea. A
+lonesome and grim quest this--full of peril. Did not Nature in the
+trumpet tones of a furious and vengeful spirit decree the destruction of
+the little boat as she bounced and floundered among the crests of those
+awful waves? Here was booty belonging to the ocean--prey escaping from
+the talons of the fiercest and most remorseless of harpies. So they
+shrieked and swarmed about the boat, howling for what was theirs. The
+strife was great, but not too great for the lonely man's seamanship. All
+the fiends of the sea might do their worst, but until the actual finale
+came, he would sail the boat--lifting her on the swell, eluding the white
+hissing bulk of the following sea.
+
+When at last the boat ran into port, the sea had gained a moral victory,
+but the man gave to the authorities the mortal remains of his mate to be
+buried decently on land.
+
+He told me that he felt cowed--he could never face the sea again. Once
+before he had given up "sailorising," not then on account of his
+nerves, but because ambition to possess a sweet-potato patch, pumpkins
+and a few bananas, melons, mangoes, had got hold of him. He had taken up
+a piece of land, but having no money his flimsy fencing was no barrier
+to the wallabies, and he abandoned the enterprise to them. Now he had
+abandoned his beche-de-mer project, had bought wire netting to keep out
+the wallabies, and would make a second effort to settle down. A little
+net fishing would help to keep him going. "As for the sea," said he,
+"I have had enough--too much. It is all right while your pluck lasts, but
+once get a shake, and you had better give it up. And the little boat!--I
+broke that rail as I was getting poor Andrew's body on board. She is all
+right, but for that--and she's for sale!"
+
+In an hour, having concocted some stew and baked his damper, the
+single-handed nerve-shaken, old sailor set sail, and I knew him no more.
+
+Another of poor old "Yorky's" adventures is worth telling. While out on
+the Barrier Reef, the black crew of his beche-de-mer boat mutinied, and
+knocking him and his mate on the head, threw them overboard. The sudden
+souse into the water restored "Yorky" to consciousness, and he swam
+back to the cutter whence the blacks had hastily fled in the dingy. It
+was a desperate struggle for a one-armed man to cling to and clamber up
+the side of the boat, but "Yorky" has never yet failed when his life
+was at stake. He won the deck at last, but at the expense of a broken
+rib and the flesh on the best part of his side tom bare to the bones.
+Still dazed, he chanced to look over the side, where he saw his mate's
+head bobbing up and down in the water. Hard as it had been for him to
+save himself, it was more difficult still to rescue the body from the
+sharks. Frantically using rough-and-ready methods, he hauled it on
+board, and disposed it as decently as circumstances permitted.
+"Yorky," great of heart, is quite unused to the melting mood. He admits
+that he felt pretty bad mentally. But whatever his feelings towards his
+sodden mate lying there with watery blood oozing from wounds on his
+head, exhibiting the marks of the necessarily rough-and-ready means
+that had been taken for his rescue, they had to be suppressed. Wet,
+dizzy, and sadly battered, with little more apparent reason for the
+possession of the breath of life than his companion, he set sail,
+slipped the anchor, and steered for the nearest port. Some distance
+on the way, to use "Yorky's" own and sufficient words--"The dead
+man came to life!" Both had to submit to the restraint of hospital
+treatment for many weeks ere physical repairs were complete.
+
+How is it that a one-armed man, slight in physique, whose brains have
+been addled by blows with billets of firewood, whose side is raw and
+bleeding, and who has a broken rib hampering his movements, is able to
+achieve feats that would be surprising if performed by a whole and
+stalwart individual? "Yorky" has always been a wonder, and his life a
+series of adventures and arduous tasks, which seem to prove that the
+loss of a limb has been compensated for by hardihood and resourcefulness
+worth a great deal more.
+
+A BUTTERFLY REVERIE
+
+"And laugh
+At gilded butterflies, and bear poor rogues
+Talk of Court news."
+
+
+There were but three men and a dog in the boat, but the boat was
+overburdened. Not that the dog was big, or the men either. It was all on
+account of the day.
+
+It was a day in which you wanted the whole realm of Nature for
+yourself--so full of sunshine and flitting butterflies was it--so beaming
+with the advent of summer, and her fervent greetings, so wondrously calm
+and clear. You felt selfish at the pleasure of it all. It filled you
+well-nigh to surfeit, yet you would have more of it. It was too
+delicious to squander upon others, yet how could one mind comprehend the
+grandeur of it all?
+
+The white boat drifted on a blue and lustrous sea. The reef points
+tapped a monotonous scale as the white sails swang to the swaying of the
+gaff. Listlessly the boat drifted to the barely perceptible swell,
+regular as the breathings of a sleeping child. Sound and motion invited
+to slumber. The shining sea, the islands, green and purple, the soft
+sweet atmosphere, the full glory of a rare day, kept all the senses in
+tune.
+
+There, 4 miles away, lay the island, and close at hand the turtle were
+ever and anon rising, balloon-like, from coral gardens to gulp greedy
+draughts of air, which not even the salty essences of the ocean could
+rob of its perfume.
+
+Sometimes the boat did seem conscious of inconstancy, and anon with
+feminine frivolity she would coyly swing round to flirt with the islets
+close at hand. She would have her own way until the free breezes came,
+and somehow the wind still blows whereso'er it listeth, and will not be
+untimely wooed, though the sailor whistles with all the "lascivious
+pleasing of the lute."
+
+Some atmospheric phenomenon, altogether beyond idle concern, lifted the
+islands afar off out of the water, suspending them in the sky. The
+languorous breadths of the sea gradually changed to silver, and under
+the purple islands the silver band extended, bright and gleaming, until
+it seemed to merge again into the blue of the sky. That was so, for was
+it not all visible--the purple islands, with the silver bands separating
+them from the sea. Yet under ordinary conditions those very islands are
+blue studs set in the rim of the ocean. What magic is it that uplifts
+them to-day between the ocean and the sky?
+
+This was a day of gushing sunshine and myriads of butterflies. They flew
+from the mainland, not as spies but in battalions--a never-ending
+procession miles broad. You could fancy you heard in the throbbing
+stillness the movement of the fairy-like wings--a faint, unending hum.
+From the odorous jungle they came, flitting in gay inconsequence,
+steering a course of "slanting indeterminates," yet full of the power
+and the passion of the moment. They flitted between the idle boom and
+the deck, and up the gleaming sky in all the sizes that distance grades
+between nearness and infinity.
+
+There were Islands near at hand and some afar off. What instinct guided
+them--for butterflies are short-sighted creatures--I know not. If wind
+had come, as we who lolled lazily in the boat longed, the myriad host of
+resplendent creatures would have been scattered and millions beaten down
+into the sea, above which they flew with such airy levity.
+
+What instinct guided the frail, unreflective creatures across miles of
+ocean to the Islands of the Blest among butterflies.
+
+In their variety, too, they were entertaining. In great number was the
+pretty frailty, whose wings are compact of transparencies and purple
+blotches. In this full, fierce light the purple is black and the
+transparencies all steel-like glitter. They came across in shoals. There
+was neither beginning nor end. All the sky glittered with winged
+mosaics. Then came the great green and gold and black creature,
+accompanied sometimes by his less gaily decorated mate, ponderous of
+flight; and, anon, that insect of regal blue, that can flit as idly as
+any of the order, and yet dart in and out of the jungle and over the
+tree-tops, with swallow-like swiftness. Rarely in the throng came that
+scarlet and black, which makes the gaudy, flaunting hibiscus envious of
+its colour; but the little yellow "wanderers," ever busy and active,
+came low over the water, weary with the long journey, and sometimes
+ready to rest--shifty flecks of gold--on the white sail.
+
+There was no end to the flight. The air was too full. One wearied of the
+ceaseless panorama of the gay bejewelled insects. They were the
+possessors of the prime of that glorious morning. Beautiful and frail,
+and inconsequent as they were, you envied them. They flitted on without
+guide or leader, venturing the dangers of water and air, flying up in
+the full blaze of the sun--eager, joyous, unconcerned. In the boat we
+were compelled to loll about between heaven and the cool coral groves,
+and compare enforced inactivity with the blithesome freedom of the
+weakest butterfly.
+
+Occasionally a turtle would bob up from its pastures below, and catching
+sight of the sail, with a bubbling gulp, disappear, the white splash
+creating concentric rings of ripples. But the breeze came not, and the
+disorderly procession of butterflies, miles broad, passed on.
+
+
+"Some flew light as a laugh of glee;
+Some flew soft as a low, long sigh,
+All to the haven where each would be."
+
+
+I listened to the wooings of the black boys to the breeze. They liked
+not the prospect of sweeping the boat home. They implored for wind with
+cooings, with petulant whistlings, and with gentle but novel
+objurgations. But it came not, and so the afternoon passed and evening
+fell, and the butterflies, a faint, thin stratum, drifted on.
+
+Then as a final challenge to the breeze that we longed for, and which
+had resisted all appeals, "Come on big wind and kill little boat!"
+exclaimed an irresponsible boy, whose ears had long ached with the days
+dull silence, and who saw no prospect of hot turtle steak for supper.
+
+As if to take up the gauntlet, a faint zephyr flicked the listless cheek
+of the ocean, and slapped the sails. The boom swayed and swung over, the
+boat, without guidance, idly headed off, and we flopped home to the
+placid bay before the unenergetic breeze, which was all that Nature in
+her idle hour could spare.
+
+THE SERPENT BEGUILED
+
+Eve Avenged
+
+"You do yet taste
+Some subtleties o' the isle that will let not you
+Believe things certain."
+
+
+Once upon a time--not so very long ago either--an unpretentious poultry
+farm was started. The idea of making, if not a rapid and bulky fortune,
+at least "a comfortable living" (and that phrase embodies much) out of
+poultry farming has been conceived, possibly, many times and oft.
+There was nothing novel, therefore, in the hatching out of this
+particular scheme. But for a paltry detail it would never have
+attained notoriety. We never blazon our failures--why should we?
+The one spark of original thought that enlightened the prosaic
+plans of the undertaking was this: The promoters wanted quality
+in the eggs of their hens as well as quantity. Quantity rests with
+the hen, but quality--like the "sluttishness" of Touchstone's
+sweetheart--may come hereafter. In order that there might be no excuse
+for and no degeneracy on the part of the hens, shops were ransacked
+for nest eggs of proper proportions. These were placed in spots
+conspicuous to the hens, who, of course, understood that they were
+expected to lay up to them. In other words, these were patterns for the
+hens to lay by. No self-respecting, conscientious fowl likes to be
+beaten by a nest egg. She goes one, or, it may be, a dozen or two
+better; but the stony-hearted egg is never to be bluffed. It is there as
+a standard of size, and in accordance with its dimensions so will the
+credit of the fowl yard be.
+
+In this particular yard all went well for many months. Why, the hens
+beat the nest eggs with scarcely an effort, and then started making
+records. It was a fierce and clamorous competition, and the enterprise
+flourished. A good beginning had been made, and the high-minded hens
+chuckled with pride and satisfaction. In the course of two or three
+months, however, a gradual deterioration in the size of the eggs took
+place. There was just the same amount of fuss and feathers, showing the
+artfulness of the hens, but the eggs soon dwindled down below plans and
+specifications, and then an investigation took place. Not a single nest
+egg was to be found. Vainly was search made. The hens sniggered. They
+had fulfilled their duty, and finding it tiresome and wearing to produce
+abnormal eggs, had secreted those set apart for them to measure by,
+and had thereupon levelled their enterprise and skill down. Such
+sinfulness and such burglarious conduct on the part of respectable
+hens that had the most discreet upbringing, that had never been
+allowed to play in anybody else's yard, and that had never been
+permitted to wander from the paths of virtue, was a sore affliction.
+
+But one day a nest egg was found far away in the bush, and then another
+a quarter of mile from the yard in the creek. Again another was
+discovered underneath a hollow log. Being restored to accustomed places
+with due ceremony, and in sight of all the hens in convention assembled,
+a gratifying change in the size of eggs produced resulted in a few days,
+but again a slump set in. The nest eggs had disappeared, and the hens
+were fulfilling their contract anyhow.
+
+Other nest eggs of prescribed dimensions were taken out of stock; and a
+yet more wonderful thing happened!
+
+One morning about fowl-feeding time a great cry arose.
+
+"Sen-ake!" "Sen-ake!"
+
+Yes, there was a snake. About half--the latter half--its length was
+visible outside the back of a nesting place (a box open at the front), and
+a blow from a shovel disabled it. Further examination showed that the
+snake had squeezed through a knot hole in the box. A lusty man hauled on
+the snake violently. The box was heavy, and from the front the snake
+could be seen. It looked troubled and uncomfortable, but not inclined to
+back out, although the inducement in that direction was considerable.
+Eventually the snake parted; and in the latter half there was a bulge.
+Dissection revealed--What--marvellous! a nest egg. But why did the
+snake show such reluctance to leave the box? The first or forward half
+was hooked out from among the straw, and there was another oval
+distention--another nest egg! The snake had discovered elsewhere a china
+egg, had swallowed it, and then crawled in at the knot hole, and got
+outside another. Escape was impossible. until the problem was solved by
+halving.
+
+There are no more accusations of dishonourable motives on the part of
+the hens in doing away with the porcelain patterns to escape the arduous
+duty of laying. It was all the fault of the serpent. Now the serpent is
+not wise, for any nest egg beguiles him. It takes a long while to digest
+such hardware. Traps are now laid for him. An egg of china is put in a
+box, the open part of which is covered with small mesh-wire netting. The
+snake submits to the temptation of the egg coyly resting on a bunch of
+grass, and having made it its own, cannot let go. Then comes abhorred
+fate in the shape of a gleeful man with a long-handled shovel, and the
+end of the snake is piece--s.
+
+ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE
+
+"Cooling of the air with sighs,
+In an odd angle of the Isle."
+
+
+Now to proceed with the deliberate intention of dragging by the ears
+into these pages a crocodile yarn. We have not a single "alligator" in
+Australia, our crocodiles being wrongly so called, but this perversity
+of nomenclature does not affect the anecdote.
+
+To tell of the coast of Queensland, and to omit reference to an
+adventure with one of those wary beasts would be to court criticism
+likely to cast a shadow upon the veracity of more than one of the
+incidents and occurrences herein to be chronicled.
+
+I approach the duty to the readers as well as to myself with diffidence,
+for has it not been stated that these pages were fated to be
+unsensational and unromantic, and can any one imagine an unsensational
+adventure with a crocodile? Therein lie the virtue of and the apology
+for this story.
+
+If the reader will take the trouble to scan the revised chart of the
+Island, he will notice on the eastern coast an indentation entitled
+"Panjoo," which, in the language of the blacks, seems to indicate "nice
+place." A steep grassy slope comes down to the sea, separated therefrom
+by a line of pandanus palms. To the north is a jungle-covered
+spur, along the foot of which is a palm-tree gully; to the south a
+ridge with low-growing, wind-bent acacias. The gully enters the
+boulder-strewn inlet under the shade of much leafage. The great
+Pacific gurgles at the base of giant rocks, among which a ragged
+palm (CARYOTA) bears immense bunches of yellow insipid fruit, each
+containing two coffee-like berries. Panjoo is a favourite objective,
+for it may be approached from various directions, each pleasant,
+but as a resort for a crocodile it is about as unpromising a locality
+as could be imagined.
+
+Thither one bright November morning we ("Paddy," the most silent and
+alert of black boys, and myself) went. The tide was out, and we found a
+comparatively easy track close to the margin of the sea, having
+occasionally to wade through shallow pools and to clamber over rocks
+thickly studded with limpets.
+
+Years gone by a huge log of pencil cedar had been cast among the
+boulders at Panjoo, and as I looked at the log "Paddy" with a start
+indicated the presence of a novelty--a crocodile apparently in repose,
+with its head in the shadow of a boulder. I was carrying a pea rifle
+more for company than for anything else; for "Paddy," though of a most
+cheerful disposition, never made remarks. His conversation for the most
+part was compounded of eloquent looks and expressive gestures. A
+monosyllable to him was a laborious sentence; four or five words a
+speech. Once upon a time, it is said, a youthful German inadvertently
+blundered into a railway carriage reserved for Moltke. The glare of the
+great man brought three words of respectful apology for the intrusion.
+The great man exclaimed with an air of exasperated boredom--"Insufferable
+talker!"--of course, all in German. "Paddy," like Moltke, was,
+averse from speech, unless when speech was absolutely vital. The
+presence of a 10-foot crocodile of unknowledgeable ferocity was a vital
+occasion. We hastily discussed in staccato whispers our plan of
+campaign. It was arranged that we should assail the enemy at close
+quarters. The calibre of the rifle was 22; its velocity most humble,
+the bullet of soft lead. Unless it entered the eye of the crocodile,
+and thence by luck its small brain, there was no hope of fatal effects.
+Yet to take home such a rare trophy as a crocodile's skull, never
+before known or heard of on the island, was a hope sufficient to evoke
+and steady the instincts to be called upon as a necessary preliminary.
+
+"Paddy" armed himself with weighty stones, and so manoeuvring to cut
+off the creature's retreat to the sea, we silently and with the utmost
+caution advanced.
+
+Here let me advise readers to call to memory Nathaniel Parker Willis's
+poem, "The Declaration" beginning--
+
+
+'Twas late, and the gay company was gone,
+And light lay soft on the deserted room,
+
+
+and ending:
+
+
+She had been asleep.
+
+
+The crocodile moved not as we, thirsting for its blood, stealthily
+approached. Then as I raised the rifle "Paddy" tilted up his
+much-flattened nose, sniffed, and in tragic whisper said--"Dead!"
+
+At all times a crocodile has a characteristic odour, a combination of
+fish and very sour and stale musk, but Paddy smelt more than the
+familiar scent--the scent of carrion.
+
+Most unworthy of mortals, we had found the rarest of unprecious
+things--a crocodile that had died a natural death. Apparently a day, or
+at the most a day and a half, had elapsed since the creature had laid
+its head under the shadow of the boulder and died, far from accustomed
+haunts and kin. There was no sign of wound, bruise or putrefying sore.
+All the teeth were perfect. It seemed like a crocodile taking its rest,
+with its awful stench around it.
+
+With poles we levered the body out of the way of the tide. Months after,
+when Nature had done her part in the removal of all fleshy taint, we
+returned for the bones. The teeth are now scattered far and wide as
+trophies of the one and only crocodile ever acknowledged to have been
+discovered dead.
+
+To account for such a phenomenal occurrence a theory should be
+forthcoming. This ill-fated crocodile is assumed to have wandered from
+its proper quarters--the Tully or the Hull River, or one of the unnamed
+mangrove creeks of the mainland. Having lost its way, it emerged from
+the sea at pretty Panjoo. So different was the locality from that to
+which the poor forlorn creature had been accustomed, it was at once
+seized with a fatal attack of home-sickness. Shedding a few tears
+natural--to it ("'Tis so, and the tears of it are wet"), it died ("and
+the elements once out of it, it transmigrates"). Such is the theory,
+annotated by Mark Antony's immortal after-dinner gossip, on the emotions
+and natural history of the species.
+
+THE ARABS PRECEPT
+
+"A Pearl of Great Price"
+
+
+"Mister, I tell you, neber say anything. I hab bin reech once. I lorse
+my reechness for that I talk a little bit; but I talk too much. I poor
+man now. I lorse my chants. Suppose I no lorse my chants I am reech man
+of my country."
+
+So said Hassan, the Arab with the pearly teeth, as he sat on the edge of
+the verandah one steaming January evening.
+
+"Yes, Hassan. How did you lose your money?"
+
+"I hab no money, Mister. But I hab a pearl. My word, Mister, I tell you
+my yarn about that pearl. My beauty beeg pearl. White pearl--more white
+than snow-white! my pearl!"
+
+The thin-framed swarthy Arab, with the flashing eyes and glistening
+teeth, quivered with the intensity of his recollection.
+
+"My beauty pearl. My beeg white pearl. My pearl of snow-white,"
+he murmured as in a dreamy reverie he subdued the light of his great
+black eyes.
+
+"But you never saw snow. How can you talk about a snow-white pearl?"
+
+"Mister, I bin steward boy on beeg steamer. I been eberywhere. I bin
+in London, I bin in Antwerp. I bin see snow all over. That how I talk
+about my snow pearl. I tell you my yarn."
+
+Hassan smoothed down his white jacket, lit a lean cigarette, rolled
+the incense--thrifty smoker that he was--as a sweet morsel under the
+tongue, permitted it to drift lazily from his lips, and gave his story.
+
+"I bin deck hand on pearling lugger. To be spell about with wind pump.
+Sometimes I work on dinghy. Two or three times I dibe--not much dibe.
+I carn stand that work. Not strong for that so heavy work. One morning
+Boss he set me on to clean out dinghy. Too much rotten fish. You see, when
+diber bring shell up, Boss he open ebery one--chuck meat along dinghy.
+That dinghy, I tell you my yarn proper--close up half full stinking
+meat. I chuck that stinking meat ober-board along my hand. Close up
+I bin finish I catchem stinking meat like this. Hello! I feel 'em
+something! My heart he stand--he carn go. He stop altogether. I carn look!
+feel 'em beeg. I look! Ha! Beeg, beeg pearl! Round like anything.
+White like snow. Pretty--lobley. My heart inside go ponch, quick like
+that, I hear 'em jump along my shirt. No one look out. My pearl!
+I whistle for nothing; put my pearl easy like I find nothing in my
+pucket. Go on my work, steady. Heart jump about all the time. Chuck
+em out those stinking meat. Ha! First time I feel something--one pearl!
+Beeg, but no all the same like nother one. One more time chuck stinking
+meat. Ha! one more pearl! White, long like small finger here. My heart
+easy now. I think my good luck come. I say my prayer to Allah! I work
+hard. I finish that boat. Chuck gem out stinking meat, wash her down.
+My three pearls inside my pucket.
+
+"For one week I neber say nothing. My good friend, my countryman from
+Aden, Ali. I tell 'em I find one pearl. Now, Mister, I tell you
+straight--neber tell nothing. You hab one good friend, one countryman.
+You lobe that man, your good friend. But you no tell 'em nothing. I
+made fool myself when I tell 'em. I big hoombug of myself. Two days, I am
+pulling dinghy up to lugger. Big Boss he on board schooner. I see him
+look me. Quick I think, 'Hassan, you make of yourself a fool. You lorse
+you white pearl!' He sing out 'Hassan!' I gammon I neber hear 'em. Sing
+out loud 'Hassan! You, boy! Come here!' I pull up to lugger. He sing
+out. 'Come here quick! I want talk you!' 'All right, Boss, I come, I
+go longa lugger first time!' He savage. Call out smart--'Come here, I
+tell you! Come quick!'
+
+"I am little fright he might shoot with revolver. I pull up to
+schooner; make fast line. Go on board. Boss he say quiet, nice, like
+gentlemen, 'Hello, Hassan! Good-day. Why you no come when I sing out
+first time.' I say 'I hab that water for lugger.' He say, 'Well, my boy,
+you come quick when I call out. No good hang back. How you getting on?
+You come down my cabin. I no see you long time. Come down below.' 'All
+up,' I say myself. Hello! Nother man. Bottle rum on table. Plenty
+biskeet on plate, glasses--eberything. Boss he say, 'Come, my boy; come,
+Hassan, make yourself happy. Gib yourself glass rum. Take good nip.'
+That very good rum, strong too. I gib myself one good rum. I eat
+biskeet. Boss he say, 'Come, my boy, gib yourself nother rum.' I gib
+myself nother good rum; eat plenty of that sweet biskeet. We three
+fellow very good friend. I feel happy. Boss shake hand, he say--'Hassan,
+very good boy.' I gib myself nother good rum. We talk. Just now Boss he
+look straight. He say quiet--'Hassan, my boy, you hab something belonga
+me.' He look sharp like a knife. 'No, Boss, I hab nothing of you.' He
+talk loud--'Hassan, you hab something belonga me. Gib it up quick!'
+That other white man he stand longside gangway. I look straight.
+I feel cold. I say, 'No, Boss, I hab nothing.' He talk more loud--GIB
+UP THAT PEARL!' I fright. I put my hand to my pucket. I pull out
+pearl. I am all fire now. I shove 'em longa table. I shout--'There
+you blurry pearl!' Boss catch 'em quick. He say 'Get out my cabin, you
+dirty Arab! You dam thief. Subpose you gib my pearl first time I gib you
+something. Now I gib you kick!' I go.
+
+"You see, Mister my good friend, my countryman, he tell Boss about my
+white pearl. I lorse him now."
+
+"But you got two more in your pocket"
+
+"Yes, very good pearl; but not good like my snow pearl. I am sick now.
+Boss he sack me. I land Thursday Island. I gamble fantan. I no care.
+Soon I hab no pearl at all. I hab no work. I am hard up.
+
+"Now, Mister, subpose I no say nothing to my good friend I am reech man
+of my country. I drink Mocha coffee. I am too poor. Suppose I go to my
+country, back from Aden, I carn drink coffee I am too poor, I drink
+coffee from outside. Inside coffee, we sell for reech people--you
+Inglesh, and Frinch, and Turkey men."
+
+"What do you mean by outside coffee?"
+
+"When you pick coffee, you Inglesh chuck away outside. We poor Arab dry
+that outside, smash 'em up like flour, boil 'em for coffee. All inside
+coffee we hab to sell, so poor that country. Mister, I bin tell true my
+yarn--neber tell you good friend nothing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+IN PRAISE OF THE PAPAW
+
+
+Properties varied and approaching the magical have been ascribed to one
+of the commonest plants of North Queensland; and yet how trivial and
+prosaic are the honours bestowed upon it. That which makes women
+beautiful for ever; which renews the strength of man; which is a sweet
+and excellent food, and which provides medicine for various ills, cannot
+be said to lack many of the attributes of the elixir of life, and is
+surely entitled to a special paean in a land languishing for population.
+
+Distinctive and significant as the virtues possessed by the papaw are,
+yet because of its universality and because it yields its fruits with
+little labour, it gets but scant courtesy. It is tolerated merely; but
+if we had it not, if it were as far as that vast shore washed by the
+farthest sea, men would adventure for such merchandise--and adventure at
+the bidding of women. How few there are who recognise in the everyday
+papaw one of the most estimable gifts of kindly Nature?
+
+Some who dwell in temperate climes claim for the apple and the onion
+superlative qualities. In the papaw the excellences of both are blended
+and combined. The onion may induce to slumber, but the sleep it produces
+is it not a trifle too balmy? The moral life and high standard of
+statesmanship of an American Senator are cited as examples of the
+refining influences of apples. For every day for thirty years he has, to
+the exclusion of all other food, lunched on that fruit. Possibly the
+papaw may be decadent in respect to morals and politics. The grape,
+lemon, orange, pomelo, and the strawberry, each in the estimation of
+special enthusiasts, is proclaimed the panacea for many of the ills of
+life. One writer cites cases in which maniacs have been restored to
+reason by the exclusive use of cherries. The apple, they say, too,
+gives to the face of the fair ruddiness, but the tint is it not
+too bold, compared with maiden blush which bepaints the cheek of
+the beauty who rightly understands the use of the vital principle
+of the papaw? Those who have complexions to retain or restore let
+them understand and be fair.
+
+In North Queensland the plant grows everywhere. In the dry, buoyant
+climate west of the coast range, and in the steamy coastal tract, on
+cliff-like hill-sides, on sandy beaches a few feet above high-water
+mark, among rocks with but a few inches of soil, and where the decayed
+vegetation of generations has made fat mould many feet deep, the papaw
+flourishes. It asks foothold, heat, light and moisture, and given these
+conditions a plant within a few months of its first start in life will
+begin to provide food--entertaining, refreshing, salubrious--and will
+continue so to do for years. Its precociousness is so great and its
+productiveness so lavish, that by the time other trees flaunt their
+first blossoms, the papaw has worn itself out, and is dying of senile
+decay, leaving, however, numerous posterity. The fruit is delicate, too,
+and soon resolves itself into its original elements. Pears and peaches
+are said by the artistic to enjoy but a brief half hour of absolute
+perfection. The artist alone knows the interval between immaturity and
+deterioration. The refined and delicate perception of the exquisite and
+transient aroma and flavour of fruits deserves to be classed among the
+fine arts. Some people are endowed with nice discrimination. They are of
+the order of the genius. The higher the poetic instinct, generally the
+better qualified the individual to detect and enjoy the fugitive
+excellences which fruits possess. Can a gourmand ever properly
+appreciate rare and fragile flavours? Though he may be a great artist in
+edible discords--things rank and gross and startling--can he in the
+quantity of inconvenient food he consumes, be expected to pose as a
+critic of the most etherealised branch of epicureanism? The true eater
+of fruit is of a school apart, not to be classed with the individual
+who, because of the rites and observances of the table, accepts,
+in no exalted spirit, a portion of fruit at the nether end of a
+feast. He is one who has attained, or to whom has been vouchsafed,
+a poignant sense of all that does the least violence to the sense
+of taste and smell; but, moreover, who is capable of discovering
+edification in things as diverse as the loud jack fruit and the subtle
+mangosteen--who can appreciate each according to its special
+characteristics, just as a lover of music finds gratification of a
+varied nature in the grand harmonies of a Gregorian Chant and in the
+tender cadences of a song of Sullivan's. Are those who have sensitive
+and correct palates for fruit not to be credited with art and
+exactitude, as well as critics of music and painting and statuary, and
+connoisseurs of wine?
+
+As with many other fruits, so with the papaw. Only those who grow it
+themselves, who learn of the relative merits of the produce of different
+trees, and who can time their acceptance of it from the tree, so that it
+shall possess all its fleeting elements in the happy blending of full
+maturity, can know how good and great papaw really is. The fruit of
+some particular tree is of course not to be tolerated save as a
+vegetable, and then what a desirable vegetable it is? It has a precise
+and particular flavour, and texture most agreeable. And as a mere fruit
+there are many more rich and luscious, and highly-flavoured; many that
+provoke louder and more sincere acclamations of approval. But the papaw,
+delicate and grateful, is more than a mere fruit. If we give credence to
+all that scientific research has made known of it, we shall have to
+concede that the papaw possesses social influences more potent than many
+of the political devices of this socialistic age.
+
+But there may be some who do not know that the humble papaw (CARICA
+PAPYA) belongs to the passion-fruit family (PASSIFLORA) a technical title
+bestowed on account of a fancied resemblance in the parts of the flower
+to the instruments of Christ's sufferings and death. And it is said to
+have received its generic name on account of its foliage somewhat
+resembling that of the common fig. A great authority on the botany of
+India suggested that it was originally introduced from the district of
+Papaya, in Peru, and that "papaw" is merely a corruption of that name. The
+tree is, as a rule, unbranched, and somewhat palm-like in form. Its great
+leaves, often a foot and a half long, borne on smooth, cylindrical
+stalks, are curiously cut into seven lobes, and the stem is hollow and
+transversely partitioned with thin membranes.
+
+One of the most remarkable characteristics of the papaw is that it is
+polygamous--that is to say, there may be male and female and even
+hermaphrodite flowers on the same plant. Commonly the plants are classed
+as male and female. The males largely predominate. Many horticulturists
+have sought by the selection of seeds and by artificial fertilisation to
+control the sex of the plant so that the fruit-bearing females shall be
+the more numerous, but in vain. Some, on the theory that the female
+generally obtains a more vigorous initial start in life, and in very
+infancy presents a more robust appearance, heroically weed out weak and
+spindly seedlings with occasionally happy results. The mild Hindoo,
+however, who has cultivated the papaw (or papai to adopt the Anglo-Indian
+title) for centuries, and likewise wishes to avoid the cultivation of
+unprofitable male plants, seeks by ceremonies to counteract the bias of
+the plant in favour of masculine attributes. Without the instigation or
+knowledge of man or boy, a maiden, pure and undefiled, takes a ripe
+fruit from a tree at a certain phase of the moon, and plants the seed in
+accordance with more or less elaborate ritual. The belief prevails that
+these observances procure an overwhelming majority of the female
+element. The problem of sex, which bewilders the faithless European, is
+solved satisfactorily to the Hindoo by a virgin prayerful and pure.
+
+On plants which have hitherto displayed only masculine characteristics,
+small, pale yellow, sweetly-scented flowers on long, loosely-branched
+axillary panicles, may appear partially or fully developed female organs
+which result in fructification, and such fruit is ostentatiously
+displayed. The male produces its fruit not as does the female, clinging
+closely and compact to the stem, but dangling dangerously from the end
+of the panicles--an example of witless paternal pride. This fruit of
+monstrous birth does not as a rule develop to average dimensions, and it
+is generally woodeny of texture and bitter as to flavour, but fully
+developed as to seeds.
+
+The true fruit is round, or oval, or elongated, sometimes pear-shaped,
+and with flattened sides, due to mutual lateral pressure. As many as 250
+individual fruits have been counted on a single tree at one and the same
+time. The heaviest fruit within the ken of the writer weighed 8 lb. 11
+oz. They hug the stem closely in compact single rows in progressive
+stages, the lower tier ripe, the next uppermost nearly so, the
+development decreasing consistently to the rudiments of flower-buds in
+the crown of the tree. The leaves fall as the fruit grows, but there is
+always a crown or umbrella to ward off the rays of the sun. When ripe,
+the most approved variety is yellow. In the case of the female plant
+growing out of the way of a male, the fruit is smaller in size, and
+seedless or nearly so.
+
+Another curious, if not unique point about this estimable plant is that
+sometimes within the cavity of a perfect specimen will be found one or
+two infant naked fruits, likewise apparently perfect. Occasionally these
+abnormal productions are crude, unfashioned and deformed.
+
+Ripened in ample light, with abundance of water, and in high
+temperature, the fruit must not be torn from the tree "with forced
+fingers rude," lest the abbreviated stalk pulls out a jagged plug,
+leaving a hole for the untimely air to enter. The stalk must be
+carefully cut, and the spice-exhaling fruit borne reverently and
+immediately to the table. The rite is to be performed in the cool of the
+morning, for the papaw is essentially a breakfast fruit, and then when
+the knife slides into the buff-coloured flesh of a cheesy consistency,
+minute colourless globules exude from the facets of the slices. These
+glistening beads are emblems of perfection. Plentiful dark seeds adhere
+to the anterior surface. Some take their papaw with the merest sensation
+of salt, some with sugar and a drop or two of lime or lemon juice; some
+with a few of the seeds, which have the flavour of nasturtium. The wise
+eat it with silent praise. In certain obvious respects it has no equal.
+It is so clean; it conveys a delicate perception of musk--sweet, not
+florid; soft, soothing and singularly persuasive. It does not cloy the
+palate, but rather seductively stimulates the appetite. Its effect is
+immediately comforting, for to the stomach it is pleasant, wholesome,
+and helpful. When you have eaten of a papaw in its prime, one that has
+grown without check or hindrance, and has been removed from the tree
+without bruise or blemish, you have within you pure, good and chaste
+food, and you should be thankful and of a gladsome mind. Moreover, no
+untoward effects arise from excess of appetite. If you be of the fair
+sex your eyes may brighten on such diet, and your complexion become more
+radiant. If a mere man you will be the manlier.
+
+So much on account of the fruit. Sometimes the seeds are eaten as a
+relish, or macerated in vinegar as a condiment, when they resemble
+capers. The pale yellow male flowers, immersed in a solution of common
+salt, are also used to give zest to the soiled appetite, the
+combination of flavour being olive-like, piquant and grateful. The seeds
+used as a thirst-quencher form component parts of a drink welcome to
+fever patients. The papaw and the banana in conjunction form an
+absolutely perfect diet. What the one lacks in nutritive or assimilative
+qualities the other supplies. No other food, it is asserted is essential
+to maintain a man in perfect health and vigour. Our fictitious appetites
+may pine for wheaten bread, oatmeal, flesh, fish, eggs, and all manner
+of vegetables but given the papaw and the banana, the rest are
+superfluous. Where the banana grows the papaw flourishes. Each is
+singular from the fact that it represents wholesome food long before
+arrival at maturity.
+
+Then as a medicine plant the papaw is of great renown. The peculiar
+properties of the milky juice which exudes from every part of the plant
+were noticed two hundred years ago. The active principle of the juice
+known as papain, said to be capable of digesting two hundred times its
+weight of fibrine, is used for many disorders and ailments, from
+dyspepsia to ringworm and ichthyosis or fish-skin disease.
+
+By common repute the papaw tree has the power of rendering tough meat
+tender. Some say that it is but necessary to hang an old hen among the
+broad leaves to restore to it the youth and freshness of a chicken. In
+some parts of South America papaw juice is rubbed over meat, and is
+said to change "apparent leather to tender and juicy steak." Other folks
+envelop the meat in the leaves and obtain a similar effect. Science, to
+ascertain the verity or otherwise of the popular belief applied certain
+tests, the results of which demonstrated that all the favourable
+allegations were founded on truth and fact. A commonplace experiment
+was tried. A small piece of beef wrapped up in a papaw leaf during
+twenty-four hours, after a short boiling became perfectly tender; a
+similar piece wrapped in paper submitted to exactly similar conditions
+and processes remained hard. Few facts are more firmly established than
+that the milky juice softens--in other words hastens the decomposition
+of--flesh. Further, the fruit in some countries is cooked as a vegetable
+with meat, and in soups; it forms an ingredient in a popular sauce, and
+is preserved in a variety of ways as a sweetmeat. Syrups and wines and
+cordials made from the ripe fruit are expectorant, sedative and tonic.
+Ropes are made from the bark of the tree. By its power of dissolving
+stains the papaw has acquired the name of the melon bleach; the leaves,
+and a portion of the fruit are steeped in water, and the treated water
+is used in washing coloured clothing, especially black, the colours
+being cleaned and held fast.
+
+In the country in which it is supposed to be endemic it is believed that
+if male animals graze under the papaw tree they become BLASE; but
+science alleges that the roots and extracted juice possess aphrodisiac
+properties, and who among us would not rather place credence upon this
+particular fairy tale of science than the fairy tales of swarthy and
+illiterate and possibly biassed gentlemen.
+
+And as to its beauty-bestowing attributes, an admirer's word might be
+quoted as a final note of praise--
+
+"The strange and beautiful races of the Antilles astonish the eyes of
+the traveller who sees them for the first time. It has been said that
+they have taken their black, brown, and olive and yellow skin tints from
+the satiny and bright-hued rinds of the fruit which surround them. If
+they are to be believed, the mystery of their clean, clear complexion
+and exquisite pulp-like flesh arises from the use of the papaw fruit as
+a cosmetic. A slice of ripe fruit is rubbed over the skin, and is said
+to dissolve spare flesh and remove every blemish. It is a toilet
+requisite in use by the young and old, producing the most beautiful
+specimens of the human race."
+
+THE CONQUERING TREE
+
+Inconsequent as Nature appears to be at times and given to whims,
+fancies and contradictions, only those who study with attention her
+moods may estimate how truthful and how sober she really is. She is
+honest in all her purposes, and though changeful and gay in apparel
+never cheap nor meretricious. A slim-shafted palm shooting through the
+leafy mantle, and swaying airily a profuse mass of fiery red seeds,
+distinctive in shape, may be the prototype of a flirt, but the
+flirtation which arrests attention and bewitches the beholder is also
+innoxious. There is nothing of the artificial about the display. The
+colours flaunted are true, perfect and pure, however cunningly, however
+boldly by their means admiration is challenged. The true lover knows too
+that in her least conspicuous moods, Nature is as consistent and as
+wonderful as when in her exuberance she carpets a continent with
+flowers, and when all the forests of a country, at her bidding, don a
+mantle of yellow.
+
+To exaggerate any of her methods were needless. She is never ugly, for
+in her seemingly forbidding moods she wears a smiling face. The smiles
+may not be apparent to all, but they are there for those who expect and
+look for them.
+
+Let a mangrove swamp be taken as an illustration of an untoward aspect
+of Nature, and see whether among the apparent confusion, and the mud and
+slime and the unpleasant odours, there are not many proofs of
+good humour, kindly disposition, real prettiness, and orderly and
+systematic purpose.
+
+On the deltas and banks of all the rivers and creeks of North Queensland
+and on many of the more sheltered beaches, the mangrove flourishes, that
+ambitious tree which performs an important function in the scheme of
+Nature. Its botanical title reveals its special character--Rhizaphora.
+Very diverse indeed are the means by which plants are distributed. While
+some are borne, some fly and others float. The mangrove is maritime.
+While still pendant from the pear-shaped fruit of the parent tree, the
+seed, a spindle-shaped radicle, varying in length from a foot to 4 feet,
+germinates--ready to form a plant immediately upon arrival at a suitable
+locality. A sharp spike at the apex represents the embryo leaves ready
+to unfold, while the roots spring from the opposite and slightly heavier
+end. The weight is so nicely adjusted that the spindle floats
+perpendicularly or nearly so, when owning a separate existence from the
+parent tree, it drops into the water, and begins its remarkable career.
+
+It has been suggested that the viviparity of the mangrove is a survival
+of a very remote period in the development of the earth--that a mangrove
+swamp represents an age when the earth was enveloped in clouds and mist;
+and that with the gradual decrease in tepid aqueous vapour the
+viviparous habit, then almost universal, was lost, except in the case of
+this plant. Other plants, however, exhibit the characteristic. Notably
+one of the handsomest of the local ferns (ASPLENIUM BULBIFERUM) which,
+with motherly solicitude, detains its offspring until they are not only
+fully developed but are strong and lusty. As the fronds die they incline
+earthwards, each weary with the burden of a new and virile
+generation--some of which float down stream to foreign parts, some create
+a colony round the parent. This fern demands conditions similar to the
+mangrove--water, heat and humidity--and might be quoted in support of
+the theory which gives unique interest to a mangrove swamp.
+
+Whole battalions of living mangrove radicles fall into the rivers during
+February and March. Out at sea miles from the land you may cross the
+sinuous ranks of the marine invaders--a disorderly, planless venture at
+the mercy of the wind and waves. Myriads perish, hopeless, waterlogged
+derelicts, never finding foothold nor resting-place. But thousands of
+these scouts of vegetation live to fulfil the glorious purpose of
+winning new lands, of increasing the area of continents. This arrogant
+plant not only says to the ocean, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no
+further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed" but unostentatiously
+wrests from it unwilling territory.
+
+Plants like animals require "food convenient for them," certain
+constituents of the soil, certain characteristics of environment, that
+they may flourish and fulfil their purpose. This delights in conditions
+that few tolerate--saline mud, ooze and frequent flooding by the salt
+sea. Drifting into shallow water the sharp end of the spindly radicle
+bores into the mud. At once slender but tough roots emerge in radiating
+grapples, leaves unfold at the other extremity, and the plan of conquest
+has begun. During the early period of its life there is nothing singular
+in the growth of the plant In a few months, however, it sends out
+arching adventitious roots, which on reaching the mud grasp it with
+strong finger-like rootlets. These arching roots, too, send out from
+their arches other roots that arch, and the arches of these similarly
+repeat themselves, and so on, until the tree is underpinned and
+supported and stayed by an elaborate and complicated system, which while
+offering no resistance to the sweep of the seas, upholds the tree as no
+solid trunk or stem could. Then from the plan of arches spring
+offshoots, in time to become trees as great as the parent. Aerial roots
+start a downward career from the overhanging branches, anchoring
+themselves in the mud. Some young seedling drops and the pointed end
+sticks deep in the mud, and grows forthwith, to possess arching and
+aerial roots of its own, and to make confusion worse confounded. The
+identity of the original founder of the grove is lost in the bewildering
+labyrinth of its own arches, offshoots, and aerial roots, and of
+independent trees to which it has given the mystery of life. One
+floating radicle with its pent-up energy, having after weeks of drifting
+and swaying this way and that to the slightest current and ripple,
+grapples Mother Earth and makes a law to the ocean. Among the
+interlacing roots seaweed, sodden driftwood and leaves lodge, sand
+collects, and as the level of the floor of the ocean is raised the sea
+retires, contributing by the flotsam and jetsam of each spring-tide to
+its own inevitable conquest.
+
+Not to one plant alone is the victory to be ascribed. As in the army
+there are various and distinct branches of service, so in this ancient
+and incessant strife between land and water, the vegetable invaders are
+classified and have their appointed place and duties. Neither are all
+the constituents of a mangrove swamp mangroves. In the first rank will
+be found the hardiest and most highly specialised--RHIZOPHORA
+MURCRONATA, next, BRUGUIERA GYMNORRHIZA (a plant of slightly more lowly
+growth but prolific of arching and aerial roots); BRUGUIERA RHEEDI (red
+or orange mangrove.) Some of the roots of the latter spread over the
+surface and have vertical kinks. The roots and the accessories act as
+natural groynes, causing the waves to swirl and to precipitate mud and
+sand. BRUGUIERA PARVIFLORA and CERIOPS CANDOLLEANA assist in the general
+scheme, the former depending upon abutments for security instead of
+adventitious roots. Its radicles resemble pipe-stems, or as they lie
+stranded on the beach, slightly curved and with the brown tapering calyx
+tube attached, green snakes with pointed beads.
+
+Surprising features are possessed by the tree known as SONNERATIA ALBA.
+The roots send up a multitude of offshoots, resembling woodeny radishes,
+some being forked, growing wrong end up. All the base of each tree is
+set about with a confusion of points--a wonderful and perfect design for
+the arrest and retention of debris and mud. Some of these obtrusive
+roots are much developed, measuring 6 feet in height and about 4
+in. diameter.
+
+No less remarkable is the help that the white mangrove (AVICENNA
+OFFICINALIS) affords in the conquest with its system of strainers.
+Though different in many respects from the SONNERATIA, it too has erect,
+obtrusive, respiratory shoots from the roots, slender in comparison,
+resembling asparagus shoots or rake tines (called by some cobbler's
+pegs) and which strain the sea, retaining light rubbish and assisting to
+hold and consolidate it all. Each of the plants mentioned is equipped in
+a more or less efficient manner for the special purpose of taking part
+in the reclamation of land. In some the roots descend from the branches
+to the mud where roots ought to grow; in others, roots ascend from the
+mud to the upper air, where, ordinarily, roots have no sort of business.
+Each possesses varying and distinct features well designed to aid and
+abet the general purpose.
+
+Other species of marine plants have their duty too. That which is known
+as the river mangrove (AEGICERAS MAJUS)--which does not confine itself to
+rivers--comes to sweeten the noisome exhalation of the mud, and with
+its profuse white, orange-scented flowers, to invite the cheerful
+presence of bees and butterflies. The looking-glass tree (HERITIERA
+LITTORALIS), with its large, oval, glossy, silver-backed leaves and
+boat-shaped fruit, stands with the river mangrove along the margin
+farthest from the sea, not as a rearguard, but to perform the function
+of making the locality the more acceptable to the presence of plants
+which luxuriate in sweetness and solid earth. Another denizen of the
+partially reclaimed area of the mangrove swamp is the "milky
+mangrove," or river poison tree, alias "blind-your-eyes" (EXCAECARIA
+AGALLOCHA). In India the sap of this tree is called tiger's milk. It
+issues from the slightest incision of the bark, and is so volatile that
+no one, however careful, can obtain even a small quantity without being
+affected by it. There is an acrid, burning sensation in the throat,
+inflamed eyes and headache, while a single drop falling into the eyes
+will, it is believed, cause loss of sight. Yet a good caoutchouc may be
+prepared from it, and it is applied with good effect to ulcerate sores,
+and by the blacks of Queensland and New South Wales for the relief of
+certain ulcerous and chronic diseases; while in Fiji the patient is
+fumigated with the smoke of the burning wood. Several of the plants
+produce more or less valuable woods. BRUGUIERA RHEEDI frequently grows
+slender shafts, favoured by blacks for harpoon handles on account of
+their weight and toughness. White mangrove provides a light, white tough
+wood eminently adapted for the knees of boats. The seeds resemble broad
+beans, and after long immersion in the sea will germinate lying naked
+and uncovered on the scorching sand, stretching out rootlets in every
+direction in search of suitable food, and expanding their leathery
+primary leaves--even growing to the extent of several inches--while yet
+owing no attachment to the soil. If it were not capable of surviving and
+flourishing under conditions fatal to most plants it could not
+contribute its quota to the formation of humus favourable to the
+progress of the advancing hosts of tropical vegetation.
+
+A weird and stealthy process is this invasion of the ocean, which leads
+to the alteration and amendment of the surface of the globe. Here, may
+be watched the very growth of land--land creeping silently, irresistibly
+upon the sea, yet with a movement which may be calculated and registered
+with exactitude. Having fulfilled its purpose, the mangrove suffers the
+fate of the primitive and aboriginal. Tyrannous trees of over-topping
+growth, which at first hesitatingly accepted its hospitality, crowd and
+shove, compelling the hardy and courageous plant to further efforts to
+win dominion from the ocean. So the pioneer advances, ever reclaiming
+extended areas as the usurping jungle presses on its rear.
+
+Nor must it be imagined that mangrove swamps are unproductive. Fish
+traverse the intricacies of the arching roots, edible crabs burrow holes
+in the mud, and in them await your coming, and more often than not
+baffle your ingenuity to extricate them. Among other stalked-eyed
+crustaceans is that with one red, shielding claw, absurdly large, and
+which scuttles among the roots, making a defiant clicking noise--the
+fiddle or soldier crab (GELASIMUS VOCANS). Oysters seal themselves to
+the roots, and various sorts of shell-fish gather together--two or
+three varieties appear to browse upon the leaves and bark of the
+mangroves; some excavate galleries in the living trunks. The insidious
+cobra does not wear any calcareous covering beyond the frail tiny
+bivalves which guard the head--a scandalously small proportion of its
+naked length--but lines its tunnels with the materials whence shell is
+made, smooth and white as porcelain. How this delicate creature with
+less of substance than an oyster--a mere worm of semi-transparent, stiff
+slime--bores in hard wood along and across the grain, housing itself as
+it proceeds, and never by any chance breaking in upon its neighbours,
+though the whole of the trunk of the tree be honeycombed, savours of
+another wonder. Authorities consider the bivalve shell too delicate and
+frail to be employed in the capacity of a drill, and one investigator
+has come to the conclusion that the rough fleshy parts of the animal,
+probably the foot or mantle, acting as a rasp, forms the true boring
+instrument. Thus, the skill of a worm in excavating tunnels in wood
+puzzles scientists; and the cobra is certainly among the least
+conspicuous of the denizens of a mangrove swamp, and perhaps far from
+the most wonderful.
+
+The most remarkable if not the strangest denizens of the spot are two
+species of the big-eyed walking and climbing fish (PERIOPHTHALMUS
+KOELREUTERI and P. AUSTRALIS) which ascend the roots of the mangrove by
+the use of ventral and pectoral fins, jump and skip on the mud and over
+the surface of the water and into their burrows with rabbit-like
+alertness. They delight, too, in watery recesses under stones and
+hollows in sodden wood. Inquisitive and most observant they might be
+likened to Lilliputian seals, as they cling, a row of them, to a
+partially submerged root, and peer at you, ready to whisk away at the
+least sign of interference. They climb along the arching roots, the
+better to reconnoitre your movements and to outwit attempts at capture.
+Their eyes--in life, reflecting gems--are so placed that they command a
+complete radius, and if you think to sneak upon them they dive from
+their vantage points and skip with hasty flips and flops to another
+arching root, which they ascend, and resume their observation. It must
+not be assumed that the climbing fish--which seems to be more at home on
+the surface of the water than below--climbs up among the branches. A foot
+or so is about the limit of its upper wanderings.
+
+Then, too, in what is generally regarded as a noisome, dismal, mangrove
+swamp, birds of cheerful and pleasing character congregate. Several
+honey-eaters, the little blue turtle dove, the barred-shouldered dove,
+the tranquil dove, the nutmeg pigeon, the little bittern, the grey
+sandpiper, the sordid kingfisher, the spotless egret, the blue heron,
+the ibis--all and others frequent such places, and in their season,
+butterflies come and go. In most of its aspects a mangrove swamp is not
+only the scene of one of Natures most vigorous and determined processes,
+but to those who look aright, a theatre of many wonders, a museum
+teeming with objects of interest, a natural aviary of gladsome birds.
+
+THE UMBRELLA-TREE
+
+Having paid, in passing, respects to the most gorgeous tree of the
+island, it would be sheer gracelessness to withhold a tribute to one of
+the commonest, though ever novel and remarkable--the umbrella-tree. Less
+conspicuous in its blooming than the flame-tree, it flourishes
+everywhere--on the beaches with its roots awash at high tide; on the
+rearguard of the mangroves, leaning on the white-flowered CALOPHYLLUMS;
+on the steep hill-sides; on the borders of the jungle, and gripping
+scorched rocks with naked roots.
+
+While the flame-tree--few and confined to the beaches--flashes into
+bloom--an improvident blaze of colour, without a single atoning green
+leaf--the umbrella-tree charms for several months with a combination of
+graceful foliage and a unique corollary of singular flowers.
+
+From the centre of whorls of shapely glossy leaves radiate simple
+racemes, 2 feet long, as thickly set with studs of dense heads of red
+flowers as Aaron's rod with its magical buds. Crowned with several
+crowns of varying numbers of rays, rarely as few as four, frequently
+seven and nine and occasionally as many as twelve, each tree is a
+distillery of nectar of crystal purity and inviting flavour. On every
+ray there may be eighty red studs, each composed of twelve compact
+flowers, and every flower drips limpid sweetness. For months this
+unexcised distillation never ceases. For all the birds and dainty
+butterflies and sober bees there is free abundance, and every puff of
+wind scatters the surplusage with spendthrift profusion. Sparkling in
+the sunbeams, dazzling white, red, orange, green, violet, the swelling
+drops tremble from the red studs and fall in fragrant splashes as the
+wanton wind brushes past or eager birds hastily alight on the swaying
+rays. A rare baptism to stand beneath the tree for the cool sweet spray
+to fall upon the upturned face, a baptism as pure as it is
+unceremonious.
+
+Red-collared lorikeets revel in the nectar, hustling the noisy
+honey-eaters and the querulous sun-birds. The radiant blue butterfly sips
+and is gone, or if it be his intent to pause, tightly folds his wings on
+the instant of settling, and is transformed from a piece of living
+jewellery to a brown mottled leaf caught edgeways among the red flowers.
+The green and gold butterflies are for ever fluttering and quivering.
+The complaining lorikeets peevishly nudge them off with red,
+nectar-dripping bills, the honey-eaters disperse them with inconsiderate
+wing sweeps; but the butterflies are not to be denied their share.
+After a moment's airy flight they return to the feast, quivering with
+eagerness. And so the weeks pass, the patient tree generating food far
+beyond the daily needs of all who choose to take.
+
+By a very moderate computation--such an orderly plan of bloom lends
+itself to simple statistics--the average production of a fairly crowned
+tree is over a gallon of nectar per day. Hundreds of trees so crowned
+brighten all parts of the island with their red rays. And where the
+nectar is, there will the sun-birds be gathered together--a sweeter
+notion, truly, than carcases and eagles.
+
+And this nectar, clear as dew-drops, sweet with an aftertaste of some
+scented spice--a fragile pungency--was ever liqueur so purely compounded?
+Drawn from untainted soil; filtered and purified; passed from one
+delicate process to another, warmed during the day, cooled by night
+airs, chastened by breezes which have all the virtue of whole Pacific
+breadths; sublimated by the sun--all to what end, to be proffered to
+birds and butterflies in ruddy goblets full to the brim.
+
+THE GENUINE UPAS-TREE
+
+Powerful as nutmeg pigeons are on the wing, some suffer lingering deaths
+in consequence of a singular characteristic of one of the trees of the
+jungle. Tall and graceful, with luxuriant glossy leaves, there is
+nothing uncanny about the tree. In style and appearance it is the very
+antithesis of "the upas-tree," upon which legendary lore cast unmerited
+responsibility. Yet in certain respects it would be vain to enter upon
+its defence. It is no myth. There is no exaggeration in the statement
+that the character of the Queensland tree is actually murderous, and
+that it counts its victims by the thousand every season. Of the great
+host it destroys, all save a few may be very small and very feeble, and
+from the human standpoint some of its death-dealing is perfectly
+justifiable if not laudable. Not often, locally, is a bird destroyed,
+but the fact that occasionally one has the ill-luck to fall foul of it
+and to perish miserably in consequence, places the tree in the catalogue
+of the remarkable. Neither spike nor poison is used nor any sensational
+means of destruction but nevertheless the tree is sure and implacable in
+its methods.
+
+The seed-vessels of the Queensland Upas-tree, "Ahm-moo" of the blacks
+(PISONIA BRUNONIANA), which are produced on spreading leafless panicles,
+exude a remarkably viscid substance, approaching bird-lime in
+consistency and evil effect. Sad is the fate of any bird which,
+blundering in its flight, happens to strike against any of the many
+traps which the tree in unconscious malignity hangs out on every side.
+In such event the seed clings to the feathers, the wings become fixed to
+the sides, the hapless bird falls to the ground, and as it struggles
+heedlessly gathers more of the seeds, to which leaves and twigs adhere,
+until by aggregation it is enclosed in a mass of vegetable debris as
+firmly as a mummy in its cloths. Small birds as well as lusty pigeons,
+spiders and all manner of insects; flies, bees, beetles, moths and
+mosquitoes, as well as the seeds of other trees are ensnared. Spiders
+are frequently seen sharing the fate of the flies, fast to seeds in the
+humiliating posture in which Br'er Fox found Br'er Rabbit on the occasion
+of the interview with the Tar Baby.
+
+Insectivorous plants am common enough in Australia; but the "Ahm-moo,"
+tree does not appear to make use of the carcases of its victims, though
+it kills on an exceptionally extensive scale.
+
+On some of the islands where the tree is plentiful numbers of pigeons
+meet a dreary fate every season. The maturity of the seeds coincides
+with the hatching out of the young, and inexperienced birds pay dearly
+for their inexperience. The natural glutin is produced while the slim,
+fluted, inch-long seeds are green, but its virtue remains even after the
+whole panicle has withered and has fallen. So tenacious is it and
+prompt, that should a panicle as it whirls downward touch the leaves of
+lower branches of the parent, or of any neighbouring tree, it sticks and
+becomes a pendant swaying trap in a new position. At first glance it is
+not easy to identify the tree to which the obnoxious feature belongs.
+
+The seeds occasion even dogs considerable distress, and might easily be
+the cause of death to them. As the dog endeavours to remove them from
+his feet and sides with his teeth, his muzzle is fouled, and he very
+soon exhibits confusion and alarm, and rolling about in frenzied
+attempts to free himself, gathers more and more of the seeds and
+accumulated rubbish.
+
+One is led to ponder upon the purpose of this provision--to endeavour,
+if possible, to find its justification. Insects lured by the sweetness
+of the exudation are callously entrapped, and why so? Do the seeds
+require the presence of animal matter to ensure germination? In that
+case the tree is indirectly carnivorous, and therefore decidedly
+entitled to recognition among the curiosities of the island. Is the
+glutin secreted to secure the wide dispersal of the seeds? If so, the
+object is largely self-defeated, for seeds by the hundred cling as they
+fall to the branches of the parent tree, and to those of its lowly
+neighbours. Certainly some proportion of the seeds which reach the
+ground must be borne hither and thither by the agency of that eternal
+scratcher, the scrub fowl. But even a bird of such immensely
+proportionate strength may be seriously troubled by them. A case in
+point may be cited. A dog retrieving a scrub fowl, which had fallen in
+the vicinity of an "Ahm-moo" tree, emerged with it entirely enveloped
+with the seeds and adhering rubbish, and itself almost helpless from a
+similar cause. In this happy chance the seeds were eventually widely
+distributed. If the glutin is provided to prevent birds consuming the
+kernels, then the object is perfectly served; otherwise no very
+satisfactory reason is apparent why the tree should be invested with the
+means of destroying even humble forms of life. Is this one of the "lost
+chords" in the harmony of nature?
+
+THE CREEPING PALM
+
+Perhaps the most impressive feature of the jungle--that which takes fast
+hold, clings most tenaciously, and leaves the most irritating
+remembrances--is what is known as the lawyer cane or vine (CALAMUS). It
+is a vegetable of tortuous ambitions, that defies you, that embarrasses
+with attention, arrests your progress, occasionally envelops you in a
+net work of bewildering, slender, and cruelly-armed tentacles, that
+everywhere bristles with points, that curves back on itself, and makes
+loops and wriggles; that springs from a thin, sprawling and helpless
+beginning, and develops into almost miraculous lengths, and ramifies and
+twists and turns in "verdurous glooms," ascends and descends, grovels
+in the moist earth and among mouldy leaves, clasps with aerial rootlets
+every possible support, and eventually clambers and climbs above the
+tallest tree, twirling its armed tentacles round airy nothings. It
+blossoms inconspicuously, and its fruit is as hard, tough and dry as an
+argument on torts. Ordinary mortals call it a vine. Botanists describe
+it as a prickly climbing palm, and no jungle is complete without it.
+There are several varieties of this interesting plant, all more or less
+of a grasping, clinging character, and each of vital importance in the
+republic of vegetation.
+
+Sometimes when it is severed with a sharp knife there flows from the
+cane a fluid bright and limpid as a judge's summing up; occasionally it
+is all as dry as dust and as sneezy, and its prickly leaf sheathes the
+abode of that vexing insect which causes the scrub itch.
+
+This plant produces lengths of cane similar in every respect to the
+schoolmaster's weapon--familiar but immortal--varying in diameter from a
+quarter of an inch to an inch and a half, and in length, as some assert,
+to no less than 500 and 600 feet. Certainly 300 feet is not uncommon,
+and one can readily concede an additional 100 feet, knowing the
+extravagance of the remarkable palm under ordinary circumstances. And
+the cane weaves and entangles the jungle, binds and links mighty trees
+together, and with the co-operation of other clinging, and creeping, and
+trailing plants--some massive as ship's cables, and some thin and fine as
+fishing-lines--forms compact masses of vegetation to penetrate which
+tracks must be cut yard by yard. When this disorderly conglomeration of
+trees and saplings, vines, creepers, trailers and crawlers, complicated
+and confused, has to be cleared, as civilisation demands the use of the
+soil, sometimes a considerable area will remain upright, although every
+connection with Mother Earth is severed, so interlaced and interwoven
+and anchored are the vines with those clinging to trees yet uncut. Then,
+in a moment, as some leading strand gives way, the whole mass
+falls--smothered, bruised, and crushed--to be left for a month and more
+before the fires destroy the faded relics of the erstwhile gloriously
+rampant jungle. In all this the lawyer cane is the most aggressive and
+hostile. Not only are there prickles on the 10-feet thongs, but the
+leaves and leaf-sheaths are thickly beset. In one species the 6-feet-long
+leaves bear upon the margins and upper surface long, thin, needle-like
+points, black and glossy, and attaining a length Of 3 inches; the main
+rib bears stout re-curved prickles, while the sheaths which envelop the
+cane are densely covered with dark brown or black points 1 inch and more
+long.
+
+One cannot cut jungle and escape bloodshed, for the long tentacles of
+the lawyer catch you unawares sooner or later, and then, for all are set
+with double rows of re-curved points, do not endeavour to escape by
+strife and resistance--it is no use pulling against those pricks--but by
+subtlety and diplomacy. The more you pull, the worse for your skin and
+clothes; but with tact you may become free, with naught but neat
+scratches and regular rows of splinters. The points of the hooks to
+which you have been attached anchor themselves deep in the skin, and
+tear their way out and rip and rend your clothes, and your condition of
+mind, body and estate, is all for the worse.
+
+But the uses of the lawyer cane are many and various. Blacks employ it
+as ropes, as stays for canoes, and, split into narrow threads and woven,
+for baskets and fish-traps; and white men find it handy for all sorts of
+purposes, from boat-painters and fenders to stock-whip and maul-handles.
+Suppose a tree that a black wishes to climb presents difficulties low
+down, he will procure a length of lawyer cane, partly biting and partly
+breaking it off, if he lacks a cutting implement. Then he will make a
+loop, so bruising and chewing the end that it becomes flexible and ties
+almost as readily and quite as securely as rope. Ascending a
+neighbouring tree, he will manoeuvre one end over a limb of that which
+he wishes to climb, and slip it through the loop, and run it up until it
+is fast. A cane 50 feet long, no thicker than one's little finger,
+fastened to the upper branch of a tree, has on trial borne the weight of
+three fairly-sized men. Thus tested, the black has no hesitation or
+difficulty in rapidly ascending, and in lowering down young birds, or
+eggs (wrapped in leaves), or whatsoever his quest.
+
+Another cane-producing plant (FLAGELLARIA), though innocent of the means
+of grappling, succeeds in overtopping tall trees and smothering them
+with a mass of interwoven leafage. Each of its narrow leaves ends in a
+spiral tendril, sensitive but tough, which entwines itself about other
+leaves and twigs. Feeling their respective ways, the tender tips of
+leaves of the one family touch and twist, and the grasp is for life.
+Though not of such extravagant character as the lawyer vine, the
+FLAGELLARIA seems to be endowed with perceptive faculty almost amounting
+to instinct in selecting the shortest way toward the support necessary
+for its plan of existence, which is to climb not to grovel. It spurns
+the ground. New shoots spring from old rhizomes in the clearings, and
+turn towards the nearest tree as though aware of its presence, as the
+tendrils of a grape vine instinctively grope for the artificial support
+provided for it. Progress along the ground is slow, but once within
+reach, the shoot rears its head, stretches out a delicate finger-tip,
+and clings with the grasp of desperation. A vigorous impulse thrills the
+whole plant. It has found its purpose in life. With the concentration of
+its energies, its development is rapid and merciless. Its host is
+rapidly enveloped in entangling embraces, smothered with innumerable
+clinging kisses.
+
+MAUVE, GREEN AND GREY
+
+An attempt to do justice by description to the rich and varied
+vegetation of Dunk Island in these unlearned pages would bespeak an
+idle, almost profane vanity. Yet the pleasure of revealing one or two of
+the more conspicuous features cannot be forgone. In the term conspicuous
+is included plants that attract general attention. Possibly the skilled
+botanist might disregard obvious and pleasing effects, and find classic
+joy in species and varieties unobtrusive if not obscure.
+
+About 600 feet above sea-level, looking across the Family Group to the
+great bulk of Hinchinbrook, there is an irregular precipice, half
+concealed by the trees and plants that decorate its seams and crevices
+and spring up about its cool and ever gloomy base.
+
+During the greater part of the year water trickles down the grey face of
+the rock in narrow gleaming bands, and wheresoever are the faintest
+footholds there is a flower--mauve in its modesty. It is not common
+enough to possess a familiar name, but botanists have called it BAEA
+HYGROSCOPICA, for it is always found near water, invariably pure, cool,
+fern-filtered mountain water. From the damp rock the roots of the plant,
+matted and interwoven, may be peeled off in a thin layer, for the plant
+is epiphytical, depending as much upon heat, moisture and light as on
+any constituents of the soil for sustenance. When the season is
+exceptionally dry, the thick, soft wrinkled leaves become parched and
+shrivelled; but a shower restores their vigour and lovely, tender green,
+and fresh flowers slightly resembling the violet, but borne on scapes 6
+or 8 inches long, bloom within a few hours of the revivification of the
+plant. In moist seasons the plant, true to its hygrometic character,
+continuously blooms, and while it braves the hottest sun on the bare
+places of the burning rock as long as its roots find moist spots, it
+will also be found in the shade below, where the flowers are richer in
+colour, more of purple than mauve, and, rarely, pure white. Generally
+the plant depends upon others or cracks or crevices in rock for
+foothold. It shares the grasp the spongy moss may take on the slippery
+surface, or when the root, thin as whipcord, of a certain fig-tree has
+crept across the face of the grey rock forming a ridge or barricade
+against which decayed vegetation accumulates, there the BAEA flourishes,
+displaying an indeterminate line of mauve flowers above oval, crimpled
+leaves. Mauve, green and grey--the mauve of the Victorian age, the green
+of the cowslip, the grey of glistering, weathering granite.
+
+The whole of the rock face is a study. Grasping with greedy white talons
+a piece of decaying wood is one of the prettiest of the more common
+orchids, DENDROBIUM SMILIAE which produces short spikes of waxy flowers,
+pink tipped with green; the creeping, sweet-scented, BULBOPHYLLUM
+BAILEYI, with greenish-yellow flowers spotted with purple, and the
+commonest of the dendrobiums (UNDULATUM) revel here.
+
+The edge of the precipice looks over a tangle of jungle down upon the
+top of a giant milkwood tree (ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS), taken possession of
+by a colony of metallic starlings, whose hundreds of brown nests hang in
+clusters from the topmost branches. By the perpetual shrieks and calls
+of these most lively of birds a straight course may be steered through
+the gloomy jungle to the tree, and thence to the beach, as a ship gains
+her haven through a fog by the sound of unseen warning horns and
+bell-surmounted rocks. On the trunk of this great tree may still be seen
+the marks of stone tomahawks of the primitive inhabitants of the island.
+There is none now to disturb and plunder the hasty birds.
+
+STEALTHY MURDERERS
+
+The fig-tree which aids the BAEA in its object of beautifying the
+precipice is one of a very numerously represented species, which assumes
+great variety of form, and produces fruit of varying quality. This
+particular variety (FICUS CUNNINGHAMII) begins life as a parasite. A
+thin slender shoot, tremulously weak, leans lightly on the base of some
+tall tree, and finding agreeable conditions, clings and grows. A
+harmless, tender, thong-like shoot it is--a helpless plant, that could
+not stand alone or exist but for the hospitality of another of strength
+and substance. Soon a second shoot, slight and frail, emerges near the
+root, but at a different angle from its aspiring brother, and others as
+delicate as the first follow, until the trunk of the host is sprawled
+over by naked running shoots, grey-green in colour, crafty and
+insidious. As they increase in age the shoots flatten on the under
+surface and cross and recross. Wheresoever they touch they coalesce. The
+trunk becomes enveloped in living lace--in a network, rather, living,
+ever growing and irregular--the meshes of which gradually decrease in
+dimension. All the while squeezing and causing decay, the meshes close
+up. The trunk of the host is completely enclosed; it is the dying core
+of a living cylinder, for the first shoots have long since crept up
+among the branches, have expanded their leaves, and are busy sapping the
+life-blood of the tree at all points. A greedy intractable, implacable
+foe, it gives no quarter, but flourishes upon its dead or dying friend,
+upon which in its youth it leaned delicately for support. Finally it
+weaves its slender shoots among the topmost leaves of its victim, and
+having outgrown its growth, flourishes on its decay.
+
+This vegetable usurper produces immense crops of small purple figs, the
+favourite food of many birds. So bountiful are its crops, and so much
+are they appreciated, that one perceives, almost without reflection, its
+due and proper place in the harmony of nature. To complete the cycle,
+birds frequently, after eating the fruit, "strop" their beaks on the
+bark of a neighbouring tree. Now and again a seed thus finds favourable
+conditions for its germination, and then the parasite sends exploring
+roots to the ground, forming as they descend intricate lace-work, while
+shoots repeat a similar process as they climb further up the trunk and
+among the branches. Then the fate of the host seems less cruel, for the
+end is speedier.
+
+Delicious fruit is produced by a somewhat similar fig (VALIDINERVIS)
+growing in the locality and displaying, though not in such a cruel
+manner, parasitical tendencies. Passing from green to orange with deep
+red spots to rich purple, the fruit--about the size of an average
+grape--indicates arrival at maturity by the exudation of a drop of nectar.
+Clear as crystal, the nectar partially solidifies. Fragrant and
+luscious, pendant from the polished fruit, this exuberant insignia of
+perfection, this glittering drop of vital essence, attracts birds of all
+degree. It is a liqueur that none can resist, and which seems, so noisy
+and demonstrative do they all become, to have a highly exhilarating
+effect on their nerves. Birds ordinarily mute are vociferous, and the
+rowdy ones--the varied honey-eater as an example--losing all control of
+their tongues, call and whistle in ecstasy. The best of the fig-tree's
+life is given for the intoxication of unreflecting birds.
+
+TREE GROG
+
+Few of the forest trees are more picturesque than the paper-bark or
+tea-tree (MELALEUCA LEUCADENDRON), the "Tee-doo" of the blacks. It is
+of free and stately growth, the bark white, compacted of numerous sheets
+as thin as tissue paper. When a great wind stripped the superficial
+layers, exposing the reddish-brown epidermis, the whole foreground was
+transfigured. All during the night alone in the house, I heard the great
+trees complaining against the molestation of the wind, groaning in
+strife and fright; but little had I thought that the violation they had
+endured had been so coarse and lawless. The chaste trees had been
+incontinently stripped of their decent white vestiture, leaving their
+limbs naked and bare. In the daylight they still moaned, throwing their
+almost leafless branches about despairingly, their flesh-tints--dingy
+red--giving to the scene a strangely unfamiliar glow. This outrage was
+one of the most uncivil of the wrong-doings of the storm wind "Leonta."
+But within a week or so the trees assumed whiter than ever robes; pure
+and stainless, the breeze had merely removed soiled linen. The picture
+had been restored by the most ideal of all artists.
+
+The blossoms of the melaleuca come in superabundance, pale yellow
+spikes, odorous to excess. When the trees thus adorn themselves--and they
+do so twice in the year in changeless fashion, in the fulness of the wet
+season--the air is saturated with the odour as of treacle slightly
+burnt. The island reeks of a vast sugar factory or distillery. Sips of
+the balsamic syrup are free to all, and birds and insects rejoice and
+are glad. A perpetual murmur and hum of satisfaction and industry haunt
+the neighbourhood of the trees as accompaniment to the varied notes of
+excitable birds. Chemists say that insects imprisoned in an atmosphere
+of melaleuca oil become intoxicated. Insects and birds certainly are
+boldly familiar and hilarious during the time that the trees offer their
+feast of spiced honey.
+
+Every tree is a fair, and all behave accordingly, chirping and
+whistling, humming and buzzing, flitting and fluttering, in the
+unrestrained gaiety of holiday and feast-day humour. Always an
+impertinent, interfering rascal, the spangled drongo, under the
+exhilarating influence of melaleuca nectar, degenerates into a
+blusterer. He could not under any circumstances be a larrikin; but the
+grateful stimulant affects his naturally high spirits, and he is more
+frolicsome and boisterous than ever. The path between the coco-nuts to
+the beach passes close to two of the biggest trees, and from each as I
+strolled along, one sublime morning when the whole world was drenched
+with whiffs, strong, sweet and spirity, a drongo, flushed with
+excitement, flew down, bidding me begone in language that I am fully
+persuaded was meant to provoke a breach of the peace. The saucy bullies,
+the half-tipsy roysterers, tired of domineering over every participator
+of the feast, dared to publicly flout me, defiantly sweeping with their
+tails the air, as an Irishman, "blue mouldy for want of a bateing,"
+sweeps the floor with his coat, and chattered and scolded in every tone
+of elated bravado. The bibacious drongo can be as demure as any. When he
+comes to dart among the eddying insects, glorying in the first cool
+gleams of the sunshine, he will take his ease on a mango branch, make
+jerky bows and flick the fine feathers of his tail, and "cheep" in
+timorous accents. He is sober then, quite parsonified in demeanour; his
+speech "all in the set phrase of peace," and would be scandalised by the
+mere mention of melaleuca nectar.
+
+A professor of physiology asserts that rabbits are very curious when
+under the influence of liquor, and that a drunken kangaroo is brutally
+aggressive. The drongo is merely pugnacious and noisy. Having heard of
+the melancholy effects of over-indulgence in melaleuca nectar, I was not
+at all disposed to judge of the misbehaviour harshly or to take personal
+offence; for the drongo is a respectable bird, and the opportunities for
+excess come but twice a year. Are not the tenses of intoxication
+infinite?
+
+This is not a prohibition district, and if the happy, unreflective bird
+chooses to partake even to excess of the free offering of Nature, the
+quintessence of the flowers of the tree distilled by sunshine, why
+should not he? Am I the only one to be "recompensed by the sweetness
+and satisfaction of this retreat"?
+
+When the melaleuca blossoms, bees seem to work with quite feverish
+haste; but the honey gained is dark in colour and has a certain pungent,
+almost acid, flavour. Holding a frame of comb to the light, you see the
+clear gold of the bloodwood and the tawny tints of the melaleuca as
+erratically defined as geographical distinctions in a tinted map. Bees
+keep it apart to indulge in it, peradventure, at revolutionary epochs.
+Italian bees are docile, at least less pugnacious than other species.
+Does not the dark spirituous honey inspire them with that degree of
+courage which we English call Dutch?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+
+"THE LORD AND MASTER OF FLIES"
+
+
+Among the curious creatures native to the island is a fierce
+cannibalistic fly. Fully an inch in length and bulky in proportion, it
+somewhat resembles a house-fly on a gigantic scale, but is lustrous grey
+in colour, with blond eyes, fawn legs, and transparent, iridescent
+wings, with a brassy glint in them. The broad, comparatively short wings
+carry a body possessing a muscular system of the highest development,
+for the note flight produces indicates the extraordinary rapidity of the
+wing vibrations. Some swift-flying insects are said to make about eight
+hundred down strokes of the wing per second. This big fair fellow's
+machinery may not be equipped for such marvellous momentum, but the
+high key that he sounds under certain circumstances indicates rare force
+and speed. No library of reference is available. The specific scientific
+title of the insect cannot therefore be supplied. Possibly it does not
+yet possess one, but it is a true fly of the family ASILIDAE, and being
+a veritable monster to merely sportful and persistent if annoying flies
+of lesser growth, no doubt it will continue to perform its part even
+though without a formal distinction. Its presence is announced by an
+ominous, booming hum. It passes on one side with a flight so rapid as to
+render it almost invisible. You hear a boom which has something of a
+whistle, and see a yellowish glint; the rest is space and silence. In
+half a minute the creature returns; and thus he scoops about, booming
+and making innocent lightnings in the clear air. The tone is
+demonstrative, aggressive, triumphant; but the monster is only
+reconnoitring--seeing whether you have any flies about you. You may
+have boasted to yourself--there being no friends about to tolerate your
+egotistical confidences that there are no flies about you; but the big,
+booming creature has his suspicions. Apparently in his opinion you
+are just the sort of country to attract and encourage flies, and
+he does not immediately satisfy himself to the contrary. But should
+you witlessly happen to have attracted the companionship of ever
+so innocent a fly, the awful presence seizes it on the wing and is
+away with the twang of a bullet. It will pick a fly from your
+sunburnt arm--no occasion for coats here--with neatness and despatch
+and leave wondering comprehension far behind. And having seized its
+prey, it may, haply, seek as it booms along the nearest support on which
+to enjoy its meal. Then you see what a terrific creature it is. One
+favoured me with a minute's close observation. By a hook on one of the
+anterior legs (it possesses the regulation half-dozen) it had attached
+itself to a tiny splinter on the under-side of the verandah rail, and so
+hung, the body being at right angles to its support. Thus stretched, the
+leg appeared fully two inches long, and with the rest of its legs it
+clasped to its bosom the unfortunate little fly, shrunken with distress,
+the very embodiment of hopeless dismay. No sight which comes to memory's
+call equals for utter despair that of the little insect, which no doubt
+in its day had provoked a big lump of irritation and strong but
+ineffective language. Hugged by its great enemy, it seemed aware of its
+fate, yet unreconciled to it. Pendant by the one long, slender leg, as
+if hung by a thread, the blond monster seemed quite at ease over its
+repast. That was its customary pose and attitude at meal-times. As far
+as observation permitted, it was pumping out the blood of its prey, but
+before the operation was finished it forbade closer scrutiny by humming
+away with a note of savage resentment--a rumble, a grumble and a growl,
+ending in a swelling shriek.
+
+It would be interesting to know how many flies of the common vexing kind
+such a ferocious creature disposes of during the day. He preys upon the
+lustrous bluish-green fly, which draws blood almost on the moment of
+alighting, and also on the sluggish "march" fly, which goes about the
+business of blood-sucking in a lazy, dreamy, lackadaisical style; and I
+am inclined to acknowledge him as a friend and as a blessing to humanity
+generally.
+
+A TRAGEDY IN YELLOW
+
+Quite a distinct tragedy occurred the other day. The little yellow
+diurnal moth commonly known as "the wanderer" has a partiality for the
+nectar of the "bachelor's button," as yellow as itself. The morning was
+gay with butterflies. A "wanderer" poised over a yellow cushion
+fluttered spasmodically, and remained fixed and steadfast with
+tightly-closed wings. It allowed itself to be touched without showing
+uneasiness, and when a brisk movement was made to frighten it to flight
+it was still steady as a statue. Closer inspection revealed the cause.
+The body was tightly-gripped in the mandibles of a spider, a yellow
+rotund spider with long, slender, greeny-yellowy legs. Under cover of
+the yellow flower the yellow spider had seized the yellow moth. A
+general inspection showed that the tragedy was almost as universal as
+the flowers. There were few flowers which did not conceal a spider, and
+few spiders which had not murdered a moth. The conspiracy between the
+flower and the spider for the undoing of the moth (a conspiracy from
+which both profited) was repeated thousands of times this bright
+morning, and it illustrated the profundity of Nature's lesser tragedies,
+the sternness with which she adjusts her equilibriums.
+
+COLOUR EFFECTS
+
+A favourite food of the great green, gold and black butterfly
+(ORNITHOPTERA CASSANDRA) is the nectar of the hard, dull-red flowers of
+the umbrella-tree, and this fact assisted in an observation which seems
+to prove that plants play tricks on insects. Among the introduced plants
+of the island is one of the acalyphas. Butterflies which have feasted
+among the umbrella-trees on the beach and on the edge of the jungle flit
+about the garden and almost invariably visit the red but nectarless
+acalypha. One began at the end of the row, examined the topmost leaves,
+flitted to the next, and so on, lured by the colour and disappointed by
+the absence of nectar, twenty-five times, in succession, until it
+blundered on the red hibiscus bushes and began to feed.
+
+The gorgeous blue swallow-tail (PAPILIO ULYSSES) seems to have a fancy
+for yellow, for it pays frequent visits to the golden trumpets of the
+tecoma and the alamanda. The living gold of the flowers and the imperial
+blue of the insect form a sumptuous if everyday scene.
+
+MUSICAL FROGS
+
+A marked feature of the wet season is the varied chant of happy frogs.
+During the day silence is the rule. A low gurgle of content at the
+sounding rain is occasionally heard on the part of a flabby, moist
+creature unable to restrain its sentiments until the approach of
+evening. But as the sun sets, each of the countless host utters a song
+of thankfulness and pleasure. To the unappreciative it may appear merely
+an inharmonious vocal go-as-you-please, in which each frog is the
+embodiment of the idea that upon its jubilant efforts the honour and
+reputation of the race as vocalists depend. But to one class of listener
+the opera is decently if not scientifically constituted. There is the
+loud and cheerful, if not shrill, bleating of the soprano, the strenuous
+booming of the bass, the velvety softness and depth of the contralto
+and the thin high tenor. Hordes of the alert, sharp-featured, far-leaping
+grass frog represent the chorus, and they have a perfectly rehearsed
+theme. Down on the flat along the edge of the pandanus grove the
+preliminary chords are uttered--a merry, unreflective, chirrupy strain,
+gay as "the Fishermen's Chorus." The motive is taken up nearer among the
+coco-nuts, and is in full swing in the pools below the terrace. Thence
+the sound passes on through the wattles and bloodwoods to the narrow
+tea-tree swamp lined with dwarf bamboos and dies in echoes in the
+distance. A brief interlude, and the pandanus choir gives voice again,
+stronger and resonant; the companions of the coco-nuts join lustily, the
+strain reverberates from the wet lands below, resounds through the
+forest, and is lost in the mellow distance of the tea-trees. And so the
+sound rises and falls, swells and dwindles away in chords and harmonies,
+until presently every amphibian is alert and tremulous with emotion and
+emulation. If an attempt is made to analyse the music, you may discover
+sounds sharp as those of the fife, deep and hollow as drum-beats,
+sonorous and acrid, tinny and mellow.
+
+I have heard that those who are not disciples of Wagner find it
+necessary to undergo a process of education ere they acquire an
+unaffected taste for the composer's masterpieces. Possibly those who
+have not listened, wet season after wet season, to the light-hearted
+chant, may be inclined to suggest that there can be no such thing as
+music in the panting bellows of a North Queensland frog. But music "is
+of a relative nature, and what is harmony to one ear may be dissonance
+to another." The Chinese opera proves that "nations do not always
+express the same passions by the same sounds." If one obtains music from
+the clang and clamour of full-throated frogs, may it not be because his
+ears are more attuned to natural than to artificial harmonies, not
+because, of any defect in, or aberration of, hearing, or any lack of
+melody on the part of the frogs?
+
+ACTS WELL ITS PART
+
+"A living drollery! Now I will believe
+That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
+There is one tree, the phoenix throne; one phoenix
+At this hour reigning."
+
+
+Few insects repay observation better than the mantis and the stick
+insect, which generally, of most voracious habits themselves, resort to
+all manner of disguises and devices to elude their enemies and lure
+their prey. Nearly all furnish striking examples of colour protection.
+One variety of the mantis here is black and rugged, and is to be found
+only on charred wood. The wing-cases present the characteristic grain
+and glint of fresh charcoal, distinctly showing the influence of the
+condition of its environment. Another is grey, to match its groundwork
+of dead wood; another brown and slightly hairy, to coincide with the
+bark of the particular eucalyptus upon which it lurks. Another, and the
+most graceful, resembles two bright green leaves, the midrib and the
+nerve system being imitated perfectly.
+
+Among the most singular is one of the stick insects (PHASMA). A fair
+specimen may be a foot and more long. The body presents the general
+appearance of a dry stick; the posterior legs, held at different and
+erratic angles to the grey and brown body, are as sunburnt twigs; the
+intermediary pair seem to be used primarily as supports. The anterior
+are stretched out to their fullest extent parallel to each other, and so
+close together as to resemble one tapering termination, with the head
+closely packed between the thighs, in each of which is a complementary
+depression for its accommodation. When the insect is motionless it is
+difficult to detect. By its long posterior legs, stiffly held aloft, it
+proclaims to every bird--"Do not be so absurd as to imagine these dry
+twigs to be legs, belonging to a body good to eat." And if the bird does
+not take the resemblance for granted and is inquisitive and approaches
+too familiarly, it finds that instead of a dinner it has discovered a
+snake. The insect seems to say--"I am a stick! Look at the twigs. No, I
+am a snake! Long live the serpent!"
+
+The long, slender anterior legs--used more frequently as arms than as
+legs--form the tapering tail; the other end is the head with mouth open,
+ready for action--eyes and jaws and protruding tongue complete. This
+end sways as does the head of an excited snake, and curves round as if
+to strike, and the boldest of little birds fly off with a note of
+apprehension and alarm. I have had these strange creatures under
+observation many weeks, and invariably found that when one was
+interfered with in any way it used its snake-like aft end as a bogey,
+curving it round towards the molesting hand. A fowl that will attack an
+8-inch centipede without hesitation, makes a sensational fuss and
+clatter when it detects a stick insect, especially when the stick insect
+feints, however ineffectually, with its perfectly harmless tail. If it
+is capable of imposing upon a sagacious fowl, the effect of its
+terrifying aspect upon an unsophisticated little bird can well be
+understood.
+
+Richard Kerr, the author of NATURE: CURIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL, describes a
+specimen of the stick insect from a cabinet specimen and a pen-and-ink
+drawing in the museum of the Hon. W. Rothschild, at Tring. This
+particular insect originally came from Malacca, and is jointed somewhat
+after the style of a Malacca cane, and of it the author says--"It is
+said that when the insect is attacked by its foe, or is in danger of
+attack, it has the power to protrude telescopically the tenth (terminal)
+segment, which has a mouth-like opening and a tongue-like organ which at
+once gives the creature the appearance of a snake. There is also a spot
+that answers to the appearance of an eye on the ninth segment."
+
+The Dunk Island representative of the family does not possess the power
+of protruding and withdrawing its terminal segment, but it certainly
+assumes a resemblance to a snake, and a pugnacious snake too. Further,
+the Tring insect does not appear to possess wings. My friend does--though
+she flies as the Scotchman admitted he joked--"wi' deefeeculty." She
+spreads her light, gauzy, grey, and shockingly inadequate, skirts, and
+romps and rollicks away, giving one a fleeting impression of a bold and
+most disorderly ballet girl. "She" is quite the proper mode of
+address, for there can be no mistake as to the sex.
+
+The male is a slim individual, not half the length, and about one-fourth
+of the circumference of the female. Though (unlike his consort) he is in
+his general demeanour sprightly and alert, taking to the wing at the
+slightest impulse, in his love-making he is most deliberate, courtly and
+formal, the consummation of it all continuing for several days. So we
+see that the character of the snake which the female plays with so much
+art is not disturbed during the most emotional period of her existence.
+Nature holds the mirror to herself with inimitable skill. While the male
+takes long flights, those of the female are short and uncertain and
+seldom voluntary. Immediately she alights the anterior legs are
+extended, the head is depressed between the thighs, and the legs which
+are at liberty become as rigid as twigs. Among the branches of a shrub
+her action is cautious and stealthy; but the stick insect is seldom to
+be caught napping. It is very wide awake when it plays the dual part of
+a sleepy snake and four crooked twigs. In youth, the colouring of the
+female is ashy green, almost exactly the tint of the most common of
+arboreal snakes, and at the time of life when it is less able to defend
+itself it seems to spend all its days in the snake-like posture.
+
+In some respects this insect resembles the MANTIS RELIGIOSA; but it does
+not seem to possess the voracious appetite of that insect, which assumes
+the supplicatory attitude that it may the more readily seize its prey.
+Indeed, although two specimens were under observation for three months,
+at morning, noon and eve, I only once saw one eating, and then it was
+partaking sparingly of orange leaves. The insect is well-known as a
+vegetarian, but the manner of its feeding is singular. The part that it
+takes of a motionless snake would be ineffective if the head moved while
+eating, and Nature provides against any blundering of that sort. The
+edge of a leaf is guided to the mouth, which appears to open
+vertically--not horizontally as mouths usually do--by a set of palpi or
+feelers, three on each side. The palpi move the leaf along, the while a
+crescent-shaped strip is rapidly nibbled away. Then they move the leaf
+back again to the original starting point, and another crescent is
+devoured, and so on, while the extended anterior legs, hooked on to a
+twig, pull the body forward with a gliding, almost imperceptible motion
+as the leaf is gradually consumed. Between meals, the palpi are folded
+flat close to the mouth, like the blades of a pocket-knife.
+
+Blacks classify most of the works of Nature under two headings--"Good to
+eat," "Not good to eat," and nearly everything is included under the
+former. The "Taloo" or "Yam-boo" is included in the larger class.
+Ruthlessly deprived of its limbs, the insect is placed squirming on hot
+embers until it becomes crisp, when it is eaten with great relish.
+
+GREEN-ANT CORDIAL
+
+White ants, black ants, red ants, brown ants, grey ants, green ants;
+ants large, ants small; ants slothful, ants brisk; meat-eating ants,
+grain-eating ants, fruit-eating ants, nectar-imbibing ants; ants that
+fight, ants that run away; ants that live under coldest stone, ants that
+dwell among the treetops; silent ants, ants that literally "kick up"
+a row; good ants, bad ants, ants that are merely so so--we have them
+all and would not part with any--not even the stinging green ants, which
+are among the most singular of the tribe, nor even the "white ant"
+(which is not an ant), that would literally eat us out of house and home
+if not rigorously excluded and warred against with poison, for they are
+the great scavengers of woodeny debris.
+
+Green ants do disfigure orange and mango trees with their "nests," and
+they have the temper of furies; but they wage war on many of the insects
+which bother plants, and clear away insect carrion, and carrion, in
+fact, of all sorts. This ant, to which has been given the official title
+of "emerald-coloured leaf dweller," constructs a pocket with leaves of
+living trees (and, very rarely, of the blades of living grass), and
+dwelling therein establishes populous colonies. The queen or mother ant
+sets up her separate establishment by curling a small leaf or the corner
+of a large one, joining the edges with a white cottony fabric, and
+forthwith begins to raise a family. She is a portly creature--unlike her
+slim, semi-transparent workers and warriors--and most prolific, and her
+family increases marvellously. As it multiplies, ingenious additions of
+living leaves are made to the pocket or purse, until it may assume the
+size of a football and be the home of millions of alert, pugnacious,
+inquisitive, foraging insects, whose bites are dreaded by individuals
+whose skin is extra sensitive.
+
+Is it not astonishing that insects, possessing even in combination such
+trivial muscular power as the green tree-ant, should be able to cause
+leaves 12 inches long by 8 inches wide to curl up so that the apex shall
+almost touch the base, or that the parallel borders shall be brought
+together with the nicest apposition? The astonishment increases when it
+is recognised that at the founding of a colony there are but few workers
+to co-operate in the undertaking.
+
+The minute caterpillar of a certain species of moth mines leaves, and
+eating away the cellular structures, causes them to twist irregularly,
+and eventually spins on the spot a cocoon of green silk in which it
+undergoes metamorphosis. A local caterpillar, too, converts the tough
+harsh leaves of a fig-tree (FICUS FASCICULATA) into a close and perfect
+scroll by an elaborate system of haulage, spinning silken strands as
+required, having primarily rendered the leaf the more easy to manipulate
+by nibbling away a portion of the midrib. In this scroll the insect
+dozes until in process of time it is transformed, and emerges a bright
+but short-lived butterfly.
+
+But, as far as my personal observation goes, the green tree-ants do not
+effect any alteration in the superficial appearance nor destroy the
+structure of leaves, nor employ any physical power at the first stages
+of the construction of a habitation. The process by which a leaf is
+curled extends over several days, and but few take part in it. Half a
+dozen ants may be seen perpetually engaged in, apparently, an
+unmethodical but extremely minute and critical inspection of the rhachis
+and the nerves or ribs of the leaf. Days pass. The ants are there all
+the time, examining the leaf and communicating with each other
+whensoever they meet. Imperceptibly the leaf begins to curl. The ants
+continue to make mesmeric passes over the nerves with ever-waving
+antennae.
+
+In accordance with the will and the design of the architects, who merely
+stand by and gesticulate, the opposite margins approach, or the apex
+curls towards the base, or towards one of the sides to form a miniature
+funnel. When the extremities are so close that the intervening space may
+be spanned, threads of white gossamer are laced across, and the slack
+being taken up by degrees, in a few days a cosy pocket with
+closely-fitting seams is completed.
+
+How is this folding of the leaf accomplished? A theory which presents
+itself is that the ants eject some active chemical principle into
+certain of the cells of the leaf tissue, and that the stimulus is
+transmitted by excitation from cell to cell, bringing about a general
+and uniform contraction without destroying the vitality of the leaf.
+Further, by the application of the injection to specific cells the ants
+convey impulses to specific nerves, causing the leaf to curl
+longitudinally or laterally, or at any angle they design. The poison
+that a single ant injects into the neck of a brawny man so affects his
+nervous system that he twists and writhes and stamps his feet with
+energy sufficient to destroy millions of the species. Maybe a slightly
+different compound is reserved for vegetable substances, which can offer
+only a flabby sort of remonstrance. If this theory be supported on
+investigation, surely the green tree-ant will deserve to be catalogued
+among creatures who have solved labour-saving problems--who employ
+consciousness, if not rational thought, to compensate for physical
+frailty. This theory is applicable to the manipulation of a single leaf
+only, and of a leaf of considerable size. Yet these feeble folk more
+frequently take up their quarters in trees bearing small leaves, of
+which scores are embodied in a mansion. Immense and concentrated
+exertion is necessary to draw far-flung branchlets and leaves together,
+and the feverish host accomplishes a seemingly impossible feat by an
+organised combination of engineering with co-operative labour. Spaces
+between leaves and twigs four and five inches wide are bridged by chains
+of ants--each individual clasping with its mandibles above the abdominal
+segment its immediate companion; occasionally the ant grips its fellow
+by the posterior legs, and is so held by the next in order. In the
+construction of these chains ants hastily mass at each side of the gulf
+to be spanned, and crawling, or rather running over each other, form
+pendant strands, each ant a living link. The chains sway until the
+terminal links engage, when they are immediately shortened up. Several
+of these chains are swung across parallel to each other with astonishing
+rapidity; and in addition to the constant strain of the hauling workers
+at each end they are used as bridges by innumerable other workers and
+fussy superintendents, the traffic on them being almost as voluminous
+and bustling as that of a Thames thoroughfare. Gradually the most
+obstinate branchlet with its spray of leaves is drawn into juxtaposition
+with the main part of the mansion. Then the living spans become more
+numerous, presenting the appearance of great stitches. As the edges of
+the leaves are brought together they are fastened with white gossamer
+while the tireless workers strain themselves, heroically holding the
+edges in apposition. The gossamer seems to be obtained in part from the
+pupuae, which, borne in the mandibles of workers, are passed to and fro
+as weavers' shuttles. As a rule, insects which house themselves in
+leaves are vegetarian, but the green ant is demonstratively carnivorous,
+using leaves solely for shelter.
+
+An aboriginal--to repeat perhaps a needless observation--regards the
+most of things of this earth from a dietetic standpoint. He does not so
+regard the green tree-ant in vain. He knows when the pocket is packed
+with white larvae and white helpless infant ants, or with helpless green
+ones big of abdomen, and consenting to the assaults of the adults, cuts
+away the supporting branch and shakes off the furious citizens, or
+expels them with the smoke and fire of paper-bark torches, or, maybe,
+casts the pocket into water so that the adult ants may swim ashore,
+abandoning those that cannot, on account of immaturity or incompetence,
+to their fate.
+
+Eaten raw, the larvae are pungent morsels, or macerated in water in
+company with relatives distended to the degree of helplessness, form a
+cordial that is sharp to the palate, scarifying to the throat, and
+consoling to the stomach replete with the cold and sodden foods with
+which blacks often have to be content.
+
+Tetchy and quarrelsome, staccato in action, the warriors of a colony
+bury their forceps in the skin and stand upon their heads to give all
+their weight to the attack; but each individual retains its grip until
+squashed and crumpled up, and the human being who has suffered the
+assault comments on it in language corresponding with the sensitiveness
+or otherwise of his skin. Consequently the green tree-ant is not as a
+rule regarded with any tenderness or consideration, and there never
+existed a green ant which hesitated to attack the greatest man. He is
+quite as heroic as a bee--though armed much less efficiently--and far more
+resentful.
+
+A brilliant black ant imitates its green cousin in the construction of a
+leafy dwelling somewhat similar in design but on a smaller scale, and
+having no apparent weapon of defence, save odour--and not very much of
+that--adopts a novel plan of protecting its refuge against assaults.
+However gently the leafy house is touched the denizens set up a violent
+agitation, the simultaneous efforts of hundreds making a sound quite
+loud enough to scare away intruders whose senses are attuned to the
+silence and rustlings of the jungle. The noise, which resembles that
+which results from the easy agitation of coarse sand in a crisp paper
+envelope, seems to be caused by the ants kicking or drumming on the
+sides and partitions of the house, the partitions being composed of a
+light brown fabric, tense, tough and resonant.
+
+WOOING WITH WINGS
+
+Among the many engaging scenes and frolics that are ever taking place
+along the flounces of the jungle, where the serrated leaves of the fern
+of God make living lacework up and among the tangle of foliage, none is
+prettier than the love flight of the green and gold butterfly
+(ORNITHOPTERA CASSANDRA). Human beings, who in their marriage ceremonies
+array themselves to the best advantage and assume their most charming
+traits, can hardly withhold attention from other and more ethereal
+creatures when they become subject to the divine passion. All have their
+moments of bliss, and the butterfly--"the embodiment of pure felicity
+--happy in what it has and happier still in searching for something
+else"--reveals its "love-sickness and pain" as the bloom of its gay and
+sportful existence.
+
+In the courtship of this particular species the male exercises a
+singular fascination, while the female gracefully and without hesitation
+submits to the spell. He has flitted airily in the sunshine, glorying in
+a livery of green and gold and black, has daintily sipped nectar from
+the scarlet hibiscus flowers, has soared over the highest bloodwood in
+wild but idle impulse, and in a flash, is fervently in love. Judged by
+appearance alone he has chosen quite an unworthy bride. She is much the
+larger, darker and heavier, and has little of the colouring of her
+passionate wooer on her wings, though her body is decorated with
+unexpected red. Her flight, ordinarily, is cumbersome and slow, and her
+demeanour pensive--almost prim. She seems to be of a steady, matronly
+disposition, whereas the shape of the wings of her mate alone denotes
+quite a different ideal of life. He is all alert, charged to the full
+with nervous energy--free, careless, inconsequent, but absolutely
+irresistible.
+
+When the pair meet, what time the fancies of butterflies lightly turn to
+thoughts of love, he swoops impetuously towards her and rises in a
+graceful curve, seeming to enchant her with the display of his colours.
+She forthwith amends her staid behaviour, and begins a quivering,
+fluttering flight, rising and falling with gentle, rhythmical grace. He,
+hovering about with rapid wing movements, harmoniously responds to her
+undulations. Still maintaining her coy contours she floats over the
+tree-tops, or descends among the ferns or bushes, past the blue berries
+of the native ginger, while with quaint courtliness he pays his
+compliments and bewilders by his audacity. As the amorous dalliance
+proceeds, he flits in brilliant spirals round and before her, and
+again resumes his tremulous flight, consonant with her emotional
+flutterings. However intricate, however long the dance she leads,
+he follows, blithesomeness and confidence in all his poses. Exhausting
+work this aerial flirtation. The bride alights among the red knobs
+of the umbrella-tree for refreshment. Her wings quiver as she sips,
+while her admirer poises a yard in the air above her, flashes hither
+and thither, briefly steadying his flight in positions whence all
+his loveliness may be advantageously revealed; poises again a yard
+above her; gyrates with the air of a dandy of over-weening assurance,
+vanity, and pride; swoops until his wings in their down-strokes salute
+her; and then the dainty pair dance into the sunless mazes of the
+jungle.
+
+It is all a vivid but soundless symphony--a concord of tender harmonies
+and sprightly trills and passionate phrases.
+
+THE GREED OF THE SNAKE
+
+In another place in these artless chronicles proof has been given of the
+fact that though serpents were long enough ago declared to be the most
+subtle of the beasts of the field, they may be imposed upon. I would
+like now to cite an instance of their greed and their grasping nature.
+Our chicken coops were made snake-proof, but a more than ordinarily,
+crafty individual burglariously broke into one, and the hen and chickens
+sounded the alarm. It was night, and the lantern revealed the snake. The
+affrighted chickens with their anxious parent issued forth as soon as
+the door was opened, all save two, one at each end of the snake. A
+gunshot through the open door divided the snake. When the coop was
+lifted away, each end retained tightly a dead chicken, one partially
+swallowed, the other throttled and held by three encircling coils of the
+tail. Apart from the gunshot there was a tragic element in this case.
+When once it has firmly seized with its teeth its prey, a snake must
+swallow it whole or burst in the attempt. Nature has denied some species
+the privilege of rejection. Now the chicks were several sizes too large
+for the snake, and consequently the sides of its mouth, its neck and
+body, for a length of about 4 inches, had been ripped in the vain
+endeavour to perform an impossibility.
+
+A SWALLOWING FEAT
+
+Everyone knows that small snakes are capable of swallowing comparatively
+large eggs. But is the way in which the feat is accomplished generally
+understood? That is the question. No doubt a big snake glides jauntily
+to a moderately-sized egg, grips it with its in-curved teeth, the jaws
+loosen and begin their alternating movement, and unhook themselves at
+the bases to permit of the eggs passing down the throat. That is easy.
+But how does a small snake, the neck of which is an inch and a half in
+circumference, swallow whole an egg 5 inches and more in circumference?
+Actual observation enables me to explain. If the snake were to begin the
+act straightforwardly, the egg, presenting but little resistance, would
+be continuously pushed away. The snake slides its head and neck over the
+egg, and pressing downward upon it with that part of its body which for
+the present purpose may be termed the bosom, prevents it moving. The
+head turns over as if the snake was preparing for a somersault; the jaws
+fit over the end of the egg, the upper below and the lower above, and
+begin to work. Presently the upper and lower jaws become entirely
+disassociated, the egg is encompassed and forced down into the throat.
+The process seems a most distressing one to the snake, for so great is
+the distension of the flesh tissues and the skin that they become
+semitransparent, revealing the colour of the egg. When the egg is safe
+in the stomach, the shell submits to the action of the gastric juices,
+and the meal is digested. That is if it is a hen's egg. A porcelain
+counterfeit, which the most subtle snake cannot distinguish from a
+natural egg, passes on its way unblemished,
+
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+
+STONE AGE FOLKS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+PASSING AWAY
+
+
+Some investigators tell us that the aborigines of Australia came out of
+Egypt carrying with them their ancient signs and totemic ceremonies;
+others, that they are representatives of the Neolithic Age; others
+assert that Australia is the cradle of the human race, the primitive
+inhabitants the stock whence all sprung.
+
+Without pausing to hazard an opinion upon any of these theories, it may
+be said that stone axes, shell knives, and fish-hooks of pearl and
+tortoiseshell now in use are among the credentials of a people whose
+attributes and conditions are in line with those who, in other parts of
+the world, had their day and fulfilled their destiny ages upon ages ago,
+leaving as history etchings on ivory of the mammoth and the bone of the
+reindeer. Implements similar to those which are relics of a remote past
+elsewhere are here of everyday use and application. The Stone Age still
+exists.
+
+To speculate upon those phases of aboriginal life and character which go
+to establish the antiquity of the race and its profound
+unprogressiveness, is no part of the present purpose, which is merely to
+relate commonplace incidents and the humours of to-day. Much of that
+which follows is necessarily matter of common knowledge among those who
+have studied the blacks of the coast.
+
+There is nothing obscure, and but little that concerns even the
+immediate past, in the philosophy of those natives of North Queensland
+with whom I am in touch. With the black, to-day is--"to be, contents
+his natural desire!" The past is not worth thinking about, if not
+entirely forgotten; the future unembarrassed by problems. Crafts and
+artifices, common enough a few years ago, are fast passing away. New
+acquirements are generally saddening proofs of the unfitness of the
+aboriginal for the battle of life when once his primitive condition is
+disturbed by the wonder-working whites. Bent wire represents a cheap and
+effective substitute for fish-hooks of pearl-shell, which cost so much
+in skill and time, and ever so shabby and worn a blanket more
+comfortable and to the purpose than the finest beaten out of the bark of
+a fig-tree.
+
+Many of the wants of the race are supplied through the agency of the
+whites, and there are so many new tasks and occupations and novelties
+generally to occupy attention, that the decent and often ingenious
+handicrafts lapse and are lost. Our blacks still decorate rocks and the
+bark of trees with rude charcoal drawings; but the art of making stone
+axes is lost, though trees yet exhibit marks of those handled by the
+fathers of the present generation.
+
+In passing, an example of the difficulties that must inevitably be faced
+by inquirers a few years hence who may seek information first hand may
+be cited. The grandfathers of the blacks of Hinchinbrook Island and the
+islands of Rockingham Bay have been popularly credited with the art of
+making out-rigger canoes, such as were common a few miles to the north.
+One living representative of the race gave me a detailed description of
+this style of canoe, and pointed out with pride the particular tree
+whence it was invariably fashioned, by hollowing out a section of the
+trunk, leaving the ends solid and shaping them. A different and very
+buoyant timber, according to him, was used for the out-rigger. This boy
+had travelled. He had seen the canoes further north as well as those of
+New Guinea, and it was found on investigation that his description of
+the local craft was quite imaginary. Captain Philip P. King, who came
+hither from Sydney in 1818, anchoring at Goold Island, thus describes
+the canoe of the period--"Their canoes were not more than five feet
+long, and generally too small for two people; two small strips of bark
+five or six inches square serves the darkie's purpose of paddling and
+for baling the water out, which they are constantly obliged to do to
+prevent their canoes from sinking." These details are applicable to the
+canoes of the present day.
+
+As a matter of fact, out-rigger canoes were not known in this locality,
+though but 20 miles to the north hollowed logs with out-riggers of the
+stems of banana plants were common. This fact definitely fixes the
+point--geographical and also historical--at which the advanced ideas of
+the Papuan in the science of boat-building ceased to influence the tardy
+Australian. Ere knowledge of the counterbalance crept further south, the
+advent of the arbitrary white man brought its progress to a full and
+final stop. Fragile single canoes of bark were the only means of
+navigation here, and not many men in these degenerate days can
+successfully imitate the work of their fathers. Owing to disuse, the
+talent in that direction has almost been lost. Lost, too, are many of
+the legends which were wont to be handed down from one generation to
+another, and forgotten the very names of common objects. But these
+investigations do not pretend to depth, nor are they presented in any
+authoritative manner. No attempt is made to discuss the Australian
+aboriginal in general nor from any particular standpoint. A few
+side-shows and character sketches, are offered in the attempt to
+interest and entertain.
+
+In some respects our blacks, said to be among the finest physically in
+Queensland, and desperately deceitful, are cute and as independent of
+artificial aids as ever.
+
+TURTLE AND SUCKERS
+
+Generally unprogressive and uninventive, the aboriginals of the coast of
+North Queensland apply practically the result of the observation of a
+certain fact in the life-history of a fish in obtaining food. By them
+the sucker (REMORA) is not regarded as an interesting example of a fish
+which depends largely upon turtle, dugong, sharks and porpoises for
+locomotion, but as a ready means of effecting the capture of the two
+first-mentioned animals, always eagerly hunted for their flesh.
+
+In the days of hoary antiquity it was believed that this strange fish
+was wont to affix itself to the bottom of a ship, and was able of its
+malice to hold it stationary in a stiff breeze though all sails were
+set. According to the legend (a popular method by means of which the
+descendants of great men explained away their faults and blunders), at
+the famous sea-fight at Actium, Mark Antony's ship was held back by a
+remora in spite of the efforts of hundreds of willing galley-slaves.
+Shakespeare may say that Cleopatra's "fearful sails" were the cause of
+Antony's fatal indecision and flight, and a lesser poet may cast the
+blame upon her "timid tear"; but the tribute to the remora's
+interference with the fate of nations was accepted in good faith at the
+time, and was, moreover, supported and confirmed by the inglorious
+experience of other great men who hung back when they should have sailed
+boldly on to victory or noble disaster.
+
+Vulgarly known nowadays as "the sucker," and to science as the "ECHENEIS
+REMORA" and "ECHENEIS NAUCRATES," and to the blacks as "Cum-mai," the
+fish upon which such grave responsibility was thrown by the ancients
+monopolises the sub-order of ACANTHOPTAYGII (DISCOCEPHALI). Its
+distinguishing feature is a shield or disc extending from the tip of the
+upper jaw to a point behind the shoulders, and said to be a modification
+of the spurious dorsal fin. This structure consists of a midrib and a
+number of transverse flat ridges capable of being raised or depressed.
+The disc has a membranous continuous edge or margin. When the fish
+presses the soft edge of the disc against any smooth surface and
+depresses the ridges and the intervening spaces, a vacuum is formed,
+giving it enormous holding power. Other countries have sucker fish of
+different form; but it remained for the benighted Australian blacks,
+among a few other savage races, to make practical use of the creature,
+which, as a means of locomotion, forms strong attachments to the dugong,
+turtle, shark and porpoise. It can hardly be called domesticated, yet it
+is employed after the manner of the falcon in hawking, save that the
+sucker is fastened to a light line when the game is revealed.
+
+Some assert that the sucker swims on its back when not adhering to its
+host, but my observation denounces that theory. Becalmed among the
+islands, where the water is transparently clear, I have seen the sucker
+swim cautiously to the boat, apparently reconnoitring. Shy and easily
+startled, a wave of the hand over the gunwale is sufficient to scare it
+away; but it comes again, keeping pace as the boat drifts, and liking to
+remain in its shadow. Then it is easily seen that it swims with the
+sucker uppermost.
+
+Occasionally when the blacks harpoon a turtle or a dugong a sucker is
+secured. They declare that it stays in one locality until a suitable
+host happens along, and then forms a life-long attachment.
+
+If one is seen among the rocks the blacks are at pains to catch it, and
+as it is shark-like in its nervousness, the sport demands considerable
+skill and patience. "Feed 'em plenty" is the ruling principle.
+Delectable morsels of fresh fish are tendered abundantly until the
+sucker abandons his usual caution, and then when he is feeding freely a
+hook temptingly baited is let down casually among the other dainties,
+and if the fish has been liberally and yet not over fed, it will
+probably accept the line, and after protesting and holding back to the
+best of its ability, find itself flapping in the bark canoe. Should it
+get away--"Well! Plenty more alonga salt water. Catch 'em to-morrow."
+When determined to secure a sucker whose haunt they have discovered, the
+blacks will feed it at intervals for a day or two to overcome its
+nervous apprehension. In other localities along the coast the fish is
+plentiful and by no means shy, taking bait ravenously.
+
+Having secured the sucker, the blacks farm it in their haphazard
+fashion. They fasten a line above the forked tall so securely that it
+cannot slip, nor be likely to readily cut through the skin, and tether
+it in shallow water, when it usually attaches itself to the bottom of
+the canoe. When, as the result of frequent use and heavy strain, the
+tail of the sucker is so deeply cut by the line that it is in danger
+of being completely severed, a hole is callously bored right through
+the body beside the backbone, and the line passed through it for
+additional security.
+
+Turtle being wanted, the blacks voyage out each in a bark canoe, which
+weighs about 40 lbs., is 8 feet long, 2 feet beam and 1 foot deep
+midships, where the sides are much depressed, leaving little more than
+an inch of freeboard. There is a good sheer forward and a slight tilt at
+the stern, while the bottom is level. Occasionally two men fit
+themselves into a canoe of the dimensions given. The canoe is
+constructed of a single sheet of bark, preferably of "Gulgong"
+(EUCALYPTUS ROBUSTA) or "Carr-lee" (ACACIA AULACOCARPA), or "Wee-ree"
+(CALOPHYLLUM INOPHYLLUM) brought neatly together at the ends, which are
+sewn with strips of lawyer cane. Pieces of lawyer cane are sometimes
+also stitched in to represent stem and stern posts, and the chaffing
+pieces also are of cane, though occasionally thin pliant saplings are
+strapped and sewn on. Across the bow and the stern are stays of cane,
+with generally a stronger thwart midships. When new, and the stitches of
+yellow cane regular and bright, the canoe represents about the neatest
+and nattiest of the few constructive efforts of the blacks, and is as
+buoyant as a duck. The seams are caulked with a resinous gum,
+"Tambarang," of the jungle tree known as "Arral" (EVODIA ACCEDENS), and
+is prepared by being powdered on a flat stone previously moistened with
+water. The powdered resin is melted by heat, allowed to solidify, and
+pounded and melted again, and after being rolled and kneaded into a
+lump, is wrapped in a leaf until wanted. The finished article, which is
+also used as a cement, is known as "Toon-coo."
+
+Motor power for the canoe is a shovel-shaped piece of bark 5 inches by 3
+1/2 inches, each man having a pair. Ever and anon the aft man ejects
+leakage by a rapid succession of dexterous back strokes of his paddle.
+
+Naked and unashamed, the blacks are well equipped for sport. They may
+have three or four harpoons of their own manufacture, besides a live
+fire-stick lying on a piece of bark sprinkled with sand, or they may
+carry a couple of dry sticks for raising a fire by friction. The haft of
+the harpoon is probably red or orange mangrove (BRUGUIERA RHEEDI), heavy
+and tough. It has been duly seasoned and straightened by immersion in
+running water and exposure to fire. At the heavy end it is hollowed out
+to a depth Of 4 inches. The point is preferably of one of the black
+palms (ARCHONTOPHOENIX JARDINEI), and a barb is strapped to it with the
+fibre of the "Man-djar" (HIBISCUS TILIACEOUS) and cemented with
+"Toon-coo."
+
+I have never known one of these barbs to break or come loose, so adept
+are the blacks in securing them. The point is about 6 inches long, and
+on the barbless end is tightly wound successive layers of fibrous bark,
+until its size is adjusted to the socket in the haft. Above the swathing
+of bark a strong line is made fast; the padded end is fitted into the
+socket, the line is made taut along the whole length of the haft, and
+secured by three or four half hitches about a foot from the thin end. A
+neat coil of perhaps 50 yards of line lies in the bottom of the canoe.
+Probably each of the blacks will have his fishing-line, for sometimes
+the turtle do not rise according to expectations. At high tide these
+feed among the rocks close to the shore, at low water out among the
+coral on the reef, and the hunters wait and watch and fish silently and
+with all passivity. Then, when maybe they have caught schnapper, red
+bream and parrot-fish, they drift among the turtle, and the sport
+begins.
+
+In sight of the game the sucker which has been adhering to the bottom of
+the canoe is tugged off and thrown in its direction. As a preliminary
+the disc and shoulders of the sucker are vigorously scrubbed with dry
+sand or the palm of the hand, to remove the slime and to excite the
+ruling passion of the fish. It makes a dash for a more congenial
+companionship than an insipid canoe. The line by which it is secured is
+made from the bark of the "Boo-bah" (FICUS FASCICULATA) and is of two
+strands, so light as not to seriously encumber the sucker, and yet
+strong enough to withstand a considerable strain. Two small loops are
+made in the line about an interval Of 2 fathoms from the sucker, to act
+as indicators.
+
+As soon as the sucker has attached itself to the turtle, a slight pull
+is given and the startled turtle makes a rush, the line being eased out
+smartly. Then sport of the kind that a salmon-fisher enjoys when he has
+hooked a 40-pounder begins. The turtle goes as he pleases; but when he
+begins to tire, he finds that there is a certain check upon him--slow,
+steady, never-ceasing. After ten minutes or so a critical phase of the
+sport occurs. The turtle bobs up to the surface for a gulp of air, and
+should he catch sight of the occupants of the canoe, his start and
+sudden descent may result in such a severe tug that the sucker is
+divorced. But the blacks watch, and in their experience judge to a
+nicety when and where the turtle may rise; telegrams along the line from
+the sucker give precise information. They crouch low on their knees in
+the canoe, as the game emerges, with half-shut eyes and dives again
+without having ascertained the cause of the trifling annoyance to which
+he is being subjected. The line is shortened up. Perhaps the turtle
+sulks among the rocks and coral, and endeavours to free himself from the
+sucker by rubbing against the boulders. Knowing all the wiles and
+manoeuvres, the blacks play the game accordingly, and hour after hour
+may pass, they giving and taking line with fine skill and the utmost
+patience. The turtle has become accustomed to the encumbrance, and
+visits the surface oftener for air. One of the harpoons is raised, and
+as the turtle gleams grey, a couple of fathoms or so under the water,
+the canoe is smartly paddled towards the spot whence it will emerge, and
+before it can get a mouthful of air the barbed point, with a strong line
+attached, is sticking a couple of inches deep in its shoulder.
+
+There is a mad splash--a little maelstrom of foam and ripples, the line
+runs out to its full length, and the canoe careers about, accurately
+steered by the aft man, in the erratic course of the wounded creature.
+As it tires, the heavy haft of the harpoon secured by the half hitches
+round the thin end being a considerable drag, the line is shortened up,
+but too much trust is not placed on a single line; some time may pass
+before the canoe is brought within striking distance again. When that
+moment arrives, a second harpoon is sent into the flesh below the edge
+of the carapace at the rear. Unable to break away, the turtle is hauled
+close alongside the canoe, secured by the flippers and towed ashore. I
+have known blacks, after harpooning a turtle, to be towed 6 miles out to
+sea before it came their turn to do the towing.
+
+How they accomplish the feat of securing a turtle that may weigh a
+couple of hundredweight from a frail bark canoe, in which a white man
+can scarcely sit and preserve his balance, is astonishing. In a lively
+sea the blacks sit back, tilting up the stem to meet the coming wave,
+and then put their weight forward to ease it down, paddling, manoeuvring
+with the line and baling all the time. The mere paddling about in the
+canoe is a feat beyond the dexterity of an ordinary man.
+
+It must not be concluded that these blacks invariably have the
+co-operation of a sucker in securing turtle. Its use is comparatively
+rare. Generally both turtle and dugong are harpooned as they rise to the
+surface to breathe, the sportsmen being very cunning and skilful. They
+descry the turtle on the bottom, and softly follow its movements as it
+feeds on the marine vegetation, and then as it rises harpoon it; or
+they follow one that has betrayed itself by rising, observation and
+experience enabling them to judge fairly accurately when and where it is
+likely to rise again. But patience, solemn silence, and the avoidance of
+anything like sudden movements, are among the principal rules to be
+observed.
+
+In passing, on the point of the turtle endeavouring to rid itself of the
+sucker, a European pearl-sheller told me of a unique experience that
+befell him in Torres Straits. Groping along the bottom, pushing his way
+against an impetuous current, he was almost knocked down by a move-on
+sort of shove. Instinctively his hand clutched the life-line, when he
+was again pushed disrespectfully, and in the greenish light saw that a
+monstrous turtle was using him as the afflicted Scotch were said to use
+the stones set up by the humane and sympathetic Duke of Argyle, and
+without so much as invoking a blessing.
+
+A "KUMMAORIE"
+
+Having caught their turtle and brought it ashore, and having seen the
+extent to which the tail of the sucker (which has been faithful to its
+host to the death) has been cut by the line, and having decided that it
+will do one time more and put it back in the water tethered, or "that
+fella no good now," and cast it callously on the sand, to writhe about
+until dead, the blacks proceed to the cooking. Possibly the camp decides
+upon a "Kummaorie."
+
+A big fire is made and a dozen or so smooth stones about the size of
+saucers put on the embers to get red hot. In the meantime the turtle is
+killed, the head, neck, and sometimes the two fore flippers, removed.
+The entrails and stomach are taken out, and after being roughly cleansed
+are put back into the cavity. A hole is scraped in the sand, and the
+turtle stuck tail-first into it, the sand being banked up so that it
+remains upright. Then the red-hot stones are lifted with sticks and
+dropped into the turtle, hissing and spluttering, and stirred about with
+a stout stick. Another hole has been scooped in the sand and paved with
+stones, upon which a roaring fire is made, When the stones are hot
+through, the fire is scraped away, and the steaming turtle eased down
+from its upright position, care being taken not to allow any of the
+gravy to waste, and carefully deposited on the hot stones--carapace
+down. Quickly, so that none of the "smell" escapes, the whole is covered
+with leaves--native banana, native ginger, palms, etc., and over all is
+raised a mound of sand. In the morning the flesh is thoroughly cooked.
+The plastron (lower shell) is lifted off, and in the carapace is a rich,
+thick soup. No blood or any of the juices of the meat have gone to
+waste--the finest of meat extracts, the very quintessence of turtle,
+remains. What would your gourmands give for a plate of this genuine
+article? Who may say he has tasted turtle soup--pure and unadulterated--
+unless he has "Kummaoried" his turtle to obtain it? With balls of grass
+the blacks sop up the brown oily soup, loudly smacking and sucking
+their lips to emphasise appreciation. Then there are the white flesh
+and the glutin, the best of all fattening foods; and having eaten to
+repletion for a couple of days, the diet palls, and they begin to speak
+in shockingly disrespectful terms of turtle.
+
+WEATHER DISTURBERS
+
+In the arid parts of Australia, where rain rarely occurs, the blacks
+have acquired much out-of-the-way knowledge on the means of obtaining
+water. White men, unable to read the secret signs of its existence, have
+perished in all the agonies of thirst in country in which water, from a
+black fellow's point of view, was plentiful and comparatively easy to
+reach. Here there is never any anxiety on the subject. The minds of the
+blacks turn rather upon attempts to account for the rain, at times
+excessive and discomforting. Bad weather, in common with other untoward
+circumstances, is frequently ascribed to the machinations of evilly
+disposed boys. A boy may accept the credit or have the greatness thrust
+upon him of the manufacture of a gale which has brought about general
+discomfort, and to spite him, regardless of consequence to others,
+another boy will promise a still more destructive breeze next year. And
+so the game of wanton interference with the meteorological conditions of
+the continent proceeds, each successive infliction being arranged to
+serve out the author of the one preceding. It may be that the instigator
+of a gale lives far away, at the Palm Islands, or on Hinchinbrook, or
+at Mourilyan. Those who are terrified or inconvenienced agree to ascribe
+it to him, and having done so there is nothing of the mysterious to
+explain away. Usually the boy upon whom the responsibility is fixed is
+not available for cross-examination; but that renders the fact all the
+more conclusive. Here is the storm. Peter of the Palms must have made it.
+
+An old gin known as Kitty, and who lived on Hinchinbrook Island, was
+famed on account of her successful manipulation of the weather. She was
+a grim personage--held in respect, if not awe, because of the peculiar
+distinctions ascribed to her. She could command not only the wind and
+the rain, but the thunder and lightning also, and to offend her was to
+run the risk of bringing about a terrifying storm. Years after her death
+blacks had faith in her potency for ill. One of the few white men who
+have attempted to climb the highest peaks of the island mountain,
+informed me that when he reached a certain elevation, the boys who
+accompanied him never spoke above an awe-struck whisper, and solemnly
+reproved him whensoever he uttered an unguarded exclamation. They were
+afraid that the debil-debil might be aroused; that Kitty would resent
+the intrusion of her haunt. At last they refused to go higher, and the
+ascent up in the dreaded regions was continued alone, while they
+abandoned themselves to sinister prognostics. One lonely night was spent
+high up on the mountain, and when the adventurer came back on his tracks
+in the morning, the boys were surprised to find that no harm had
+befallen him. To go into the very stronghold of mischievous and
+vindictive spirits, and to come away again, was to them almost beyond
+comprehension, and because no hurricane swooped down upon them, as they
+hurried to the lower and safer levels, nothing short of the marvellous.
+
+However fantastic this supposition of human influence on the weather,
+there is an inclination to treat it with a semblance of respect when it
+is borne in mind that up to a comparatively recent date a similar belief
+prevailed even in enlightened England. Addison has a sarcastic reference
+to the superstition in one of his delightful essays. Detailing the news
+brought from his country seat by Sir Roger de Coverley, he says that the
+good knight informed him that Moll White was dead, and that about a
+month after her death, the wind was so very high that it blew down the
+end of one of his barns. "But for my own part," says Sir Roger, "I do
+not think that the old woman had any hand in it." In this particular,
+blacks are not so very far in the wake of races quite respectable in
+other points of civilisation.
+
+Among other causes to which bad weather is ascribed is the eating by the
+young men of the porcupine (ECHIDNA), a dainty reserved for the wise,
+conservative old men. If young men should eat of the forbidden flesh, a
+terrible calamity will befall--the clouds will "come down altogether!"
+One day Tom picked up a young porcupine before it had time to dig a
+refuge in the soil, and took it to his camp alive. That afternoon a
+south-east gale sprang up, masses of rain-clouds driving tumultuously to
+the mountains of the mainland, but Tom was still youthful, and we felt
+fairly safe in respect of the stability of the dull and heavy, and
+wind-swept firmament. As we watched, a cloud settled on the summit of
+Clump Point mountain, assuming shape as fancy pictures the
+Banshee--drooping head and shoulders, and arms with pendant drapery
+uplifted as in imprecation. The boys, in awe-struck attitude, pointed
+to the vapoury spectre, and prognosticated fearsome rain and wind. It
+all came during the night. Next morning one of the boys was eager to
+declare that the nocturnal tempest was due to Tom, who had eaten the
+porcupine. We had seen his weird mother-in-law, aged and decrepid,
+preparing it for supper. When Tom appeared, he was duly denounced, and
+challenged with the responsibility of the storm. "No!" he cried with
+scorn. "Me no eat 'em that fella porcupine; chuck 'em away!" He had
+intended to, but the thought of the apparition on Clump Point mountain,
+and of the awful responsibility of causing the collapse of the clouds
+had taken away his inclination.
+
+But the other boy was not to have his theories as to the weather brushed
+aside lightly. It was "that fella along a mountain," who caused the
+trouble, or else "another boy alonga Hinchinbrook!" Having thus
+completely and satisfactorily settled the point, his face assumed a
+slow, wise smile, and his agitated mind rested. Was it not all another
+palpable proof, a precedent to be cited, of the manner in which a
+no-good-boy wantonly brought about a big wind?
+
+Most of the dainties are forbidden the young members of the camp. Bony
+bream and bony herring will be passed on to the boys and girls, and, so
+too, the rough parts of turtle; but the sweet fish and flesh are
+retained by the old and lusty men, who proclaim that they alone may eat
+of such things with impunity. No youngster will dare to partake of
+ECHIDNA ("coom-be-yan") at the risk of the prescribed consequences; and
+to the old men the fiction stands in the place (as was recently pointed
+out) of an annuity or old age pension.
+
+A DINNER-PARTY
+
+To fare sumptuously every day was not the lot of the natives of Dunk
+Island. In excessively rainy weather they were often glad of the
+coarsest and hardest of foods. Certain sharks are eaten with avidity
+whenever they are secured; but some species are too rank and tough to be
+endurable under any but extraordinary circumstances. Oysters were always
+plentiful, but a diet restricted to the most delicate of molluscs palls
+on the palate even of a black fellow. Ordinarily, food was abundant. For
+the most part it had only to be picked up and cooked. Frequently it was
+eaten on the spot, fresh from bountiful Nature's hands; but blacks
+appreciate changes of diet--even when the change is retrogressive--from
+the well-cooked, clean food of a white household to that of the sodden
+and strong stuffs common to the camp. When, as sometimes happened, the
+desire for novelty came, the whole population would paddle away to the
+mainland or to one or other of the adjacent islands, voyages being
+undertaken as far away as distant Hinchinbrook. Turtle do not favour
+the beaches and sandbanks of Dunk Island generally as safe depositories
+for their innumerable eggs, and when the longing came for these
+delicacies the inhabitants would with one accord travel to those islands
+in the security of which turtle still exhibit faith. The drift of the
+population hither and thither was not due to the scarcity of food but to
+a wayward impulse. As a rule there was little for the population to do
+save to eat, drink, laze away the hotter hours of the day, and
+"corrobboree" at night.
+
+Astonishment can scarcely be withheld when an attempt is made to
+catalogue the available foods of the island, the variety and quantity.
+No effort was made at cultivation. Blacks took no heed of the morrow,
+but accepted the fruits of the earth without thought of inciting Nature
+to produce better or more abundantly, and yet how plenteous were her
+gifts!
+
+Permitting imagination to soar away into regions of romance, one might
+picture a dinner-party of the bygone days, the lap of Mother Earth
+furnished with edibles and dainties, and the hungry and expectant
+members of the camp squatted round in anticipation of the various
+courses. Such a scene would be worthy of being classed among the most
+improbable; but as it would not be absolutely impossible, may not an
+attempt be made to treat it as a reality?
+
+The repast might be initiated with a few oysters on the shells (with a
+choice of three or four varieties); a selection of many fish would be
+succeeded by real turtle ("padg-e-gal") soup (in the original shell),
+and made as before described; the joint, a huge piece of dugong
+("pal-an-gul") kummaoried, rich and excellent, with ENTREES of turtle
+cutlets and baked grubs ("tam-boon"), ivory white with yellow heads, as
+neat and pretty a dish as could be seen, and rather rare and novel too.
+When the beetles (APPECTROGASTRA FLAVIPILIS) into which these stolid
+grubs and fidgetty nymphs develop, are chopped out of decayed wood, they
+have the odour of truffles, and emit two distinct squeaky notes from the
+throat and the abdominal segments respectively. Each maintains a duet
+with itself until the hot embers impose silence and convert them into
+dainty nutty morsels. Roast scrub fowl eggs would be no novelty, and
+baked crayfish ("too-lac"), bluey-white and leathery--"such stuff as
+dreams are made on"--might lend a decorative effect. Raw echinus
+("kier-bang"), saline and tonic, would clear the palate for succeeding
+delicacies.
+
+The tough sweet yam ("pun-dinoo"), the heart of the Alexandra palm
+("koobin-karra"), the hard rhizome of BOWENIA SPECTABILIS ("moo-nah")
+after being allowed weeks to decompose, the core of the tree fern
+("kalo-joo"), the long root-stock of CURCULIGO ENSIFOLIA ("harpee")
+crisp and slightly bitter, the broad beans of the white mangrove
+("kum-moo-roo"), would stand as vegetables.
+
+Sweets would be the weakest part of the menu. One pudding might
+certainly be included, VERMICELLI (shredded bean-tree
+nuts--"tinda-burra") with honey and orange-coloured balsamic custard,
+scraped from the outside of the drupes of the PANDANUS ODORATISSIMUS
+("pim-nar").
+
+Dessert, on the other hand, might be plentiful and varied. "Bed-yew-rie"
+(XIMENIA AMERICANA), thirst-allaying and palate-sharpening; "Top-kie"
+(Herbert River cherry, ANTEDISMA DALLACHYANUM), resembling red currants
+in flavour; "Pool-boo-nong" (finger cherry, RHODOMYRTUS MACROCARPA),
+sweet, soft and appeasing; "Panga-panga," raspberry (RUBUS ROSAEFOLIUS);
+"Koo-badg-aroo" (Leichhardt-tree, SARCOCEPHALUS CORDATUS), resembling a
+strawberry in shape, but brown, spicy and hot; "Murl-kue-kee"
+(snow-white berries of EUGENIA SUBORBICULARIS), vapid, and as insipid as
+an immature medlar; "Raroo" (CAREYA AUSTRALIS), mealy and biting.
+Various figs, ranging in size from a large red currant to a tennis-ball,
+and in colour from white through all the tints from pale yellow and green
+to red, purple and black, sweet and generally mawkish. The banana would
+be there in the MUSA BANKSIA ("boo-gar-oo"), although "close up all bone";
+but the Davidsonian plum, plentiful on the mainland, would be absent.
+The scape of the ELETTARIA SCOTTIANA, oozing viscid nectar, might stand
+as a sweetmeat.
+
+Then, dallying with tomahawks and flat stones with the tough nuts of the
+"Moo-jee" (TERMINALIA MELANOCARPA), and the drupes of the "Can-kee"
+(PANDANUS AQUATICUS) to extract the narrow sweet kernels, and sipping the
+while cordial compounded of the larvae of green tree-ants ("book-gruin"),
+acidulous and nippy, the men might indulge in after-dinner stories
+and reminiscences, as the gins and piccaninnies drink heartily of water
+sweetened with sugar-bag (honey-comb), and chew the seeds contained in
+the china-blue pericarp of the native ginger--"Ool-pun" (ALPINIA CAERULA).
+
+Many vegetable foods would still be unenumerated, and there would be
+numerous shell-fish--periwinkles, cockles, mussels, scallops, dolphins,
+besides crabs. On rare occasions a scrub fowl (the blacks had no
+reliable means of capturing that wary bird, and when fortune favoured,
+it was an instance of bad luck on its part), with pigeons, carpet
+snakes, and sea-birds' eggs might make high tea.
+
+BLACK ART
+
+Time, and diligent search revealed the location on the island of two art
+galleries, or rather independent studios, where there are exhibited
+works of distinct character. Tradition points to the existence of a
+third, the discovery of which gives zest to each exploratory expedition.
+Possibly it may also display original exploits in the realms of fancy,
+and so confirm the opinion that the black artists were not mere copyists
+of each other, but belonged to different schools, each having his own
+method and allowing his talent free and untrammelled development.
+
+What may be designated the Lower Studio is on the eastern slope, and is
+only to be approached from the sea in calm weather, the alternative
+route being a tiresome climb, a long and tormenting struggle through
+the jungle, and a descent among a confusion of rocks and boulders. It is
+situated about a couple of hundred feet above sea-level, quite hidden in
+the leafy wilderness which covers that aspect of the island from
+high-water mark to the summit of the ridge. Unless the spot was
+indicated, one might search for it for years in vain, and though I had
+made frequent inquiries, its existence was made known only by chance,
+its importance being considered insignificant compared with the other
+studio, the glories of which had frequently been descanted upon. Taking
+the sea-route, there is a natural harbour available, just capacious
+enough for a small dingy, and up above the rocks, swept bare by the
+surges, a dense and tangled scrub "whereto the climber upwards turns
+his face," and taking advantage of such aids as aerial roots, slim
+saplings, and the reed-like growths of the so called native ginger,
+begins the steep ascent. Where the rock does not emerge from the
+surface, the black soil is loose and kept in perpetual cultivation by
+scrub fowl, the wonder being that earth reposes at such an angle. But
+for interlacing and matted roots all must slide down to the sea.
+
+A few minutes' exertion lands one at the portal of the studio, which is
+of the lean-to order of architecture, a granite boulder having one
+fairly vertical face being overshadowed by a much higher rock having a
+dip of about 60 degrees.
+
+Here originally there were five exhibits. Two have weathered away almost
+to nothingness, some faint streaks and blotches of red earth, in which
+medium all the pictures have been executed, alone remaining. Those
+subjects that are readily decipherable are mutilated after the style of
+certain much-prized antiques.
+
+Of those which have successfully withstood the ravages of time, two
+apparently represent lizards, and the third seems to portray a
+monstrosity--a human being with a rudimentary tail. A German philosopher
+might possibly build upon this embryonic tail a theory to prove that the
+Australian aboriginal is indeed and in fact the missing link, and
+thereby excel in ethnological venture those who merely recognise in him
+the relic from a prehistoric age of man. Could it not be argued that the
+picture reveals an act of unconscious cerebration--an instinctive
+knowledge of ancestors with tails?
+
+However that may be, the unconscious artist took further artless
+liberties with the human form divine. He had been at pains, too, to
+smooth down the face of the rock for the reception of the unshaded daubs
+of terra-cotta, using peradventure the flat stone upon which he was wont
+to bruise the hot and biting roots of the aroid (COLOCASIA MACRORRHIZA)
+which formed part of his diet. The utensil lies there at the entrance
+where he left it; the plants grow in profusion close by among the rocks;
+but of the artist there is no record, save the crude and grotesque
+figures in fading red on the grey granite.
+
+Most of the central figure is clearly discernible; but parts of the
+outline have become blurred and irregular. Tradition says that all the
+figures once had black heads--the only attempts at the introduction of a
+second colour--but no traces of the black heads are now visible. They must
+have succumbed to the tender but irresistible assaults of Time long ago.
+In one case, fact seems to belie tradition, for there exist faint
+suggestions of a red head--and a red-headed black is as rare as a black
+with a tail; but the traces are so extremely vague and indeterminate as
+to render any attempt at restoration hopeless. But does not this
+obscurity and partial dismemberment lend an air of antiquity, much
+prized elsewhere, to these savage frescoes?
+
+Of quite a different order are the works in the Upper Studio at the sign
+of the White Stripe. This lies close to the backbone of the island, in
+the heart of a bewildering jumble of immense rocks overgrown with
+jungle. Circumstantial accounts of the treasures there to be seen had
+determined me to persevere in attempts to discover it; but though the
+traditions of the blacks were strengthened by a mild sort of enthusiasm,
+and the exhibition of no little pride, they did but slight service
+towards revealing the precise locality. None of the living remnants of
+the race had seen the paintings. All trusted to the saying of "old men"
+and had faith. Experience had taught me to accept with caution and
+reserve legends founded on the unverified testimony of "old men" which
+had passed down to the present generation; but being much interested,
+and having become elated with the hope of discovering that which had not
+been seen by white folks, nor, indeed, by any living person, I also
+trusted and persevered.
+
+From ships that pass to the East may be seen a bold white streak on the
+face of a huge rock, so sharply defined and accurate in alignment that
+it might be mistaken for a guide to mariners, or rather a warning, for
+the floor of the ocean is strewn with patches of coral, and the rocks
+are singularly forbidding, save on calm days. Opinion current among the
+blacks asserted that the paintings were on a rock below the disjointed
+precipice on the top of the ridge made conspicuous by the broad white
+band. The sign was found to be due to the bleaching of the rock face by
+the drainage from a mass of stag's horn fern. Possessed of this
+information, which proved in the long run to be trustworthy, several
+exploratory trips were undertaken. To reach the locality from Brammo
+Bay, one must cross the middle of the backbone of the island, and
+descend some little distance on the Pacific slope.
+
+I scaled and scrambled over and crawled upon huge rocks, peered into
+gloomy crevices with daylight edges fringed with ferns and orchids,
+squeezed through narrow tunnels, and groped in dark recesses without
+finding any evidence of prehistoric art. Blacks do not care to venture
+into places where twilight always reigns, though they are curious to
+learn the experiences and sensations of other explorers of the gloom. At
+last, however, patience was rewarded, and beneath a great granite rock,
+which on three previous excursions had been overlooked, the paintings
+were discovered. In their execution the artist must have lain on his
+back, for the "cave" does not permit one to sit upright in it, except
+towards the wide and expansive front, and the subjects are on the
+ceiling, which is fairly flat. The floor, thick with a fine brown dust
+mingled with shining specks of decomposed granite, and dimpled with
+hundreds of pitfalls of the ant-lion, slopes upward. It is cool, and a
+dry, secure spot. Not even the torrential rains of many decades of wet
+seasons have damped the floor. One feels as though he were disturbing
+the dust of ages; when sitting back to admire the decorated ceiling, he
+necessarily imprints patterns which are the replicas of those made by
+flesh and bone long since numbered among the anonymous dead.
+
+The sea laves the hot rocks 600 feet below, and booms and gobbles in the
+cool crevices; but up here the outlook is obscured by rocks and giant
+trees, and an artistic soul, longing for some method of expression,
+might serenely gratify itself in accordance with its lights--crude though
+they were. Here, at the entrance, lie a couple of charred sticks,
+significant of the last fire of the artist, which smouldered out perhaps
+half a century ago. On the very doorstep is a disc of pearl-shell, the
+discarded beginning of a fish-hook. These relics give to the scene a
+pathetic interest. As I looked at them ponderingly, a frog far in the
+back of the cave gave a discordant, echoing croak, which started the
+sulky and suspicious black boy who attended me into an abrupt
+exclamation of semi-fright; while a scrub fowl, scratching for its living
+overhead, dislodged a chip of granite which went clicking down the
+rocks. "Tom," at the instant, felt that the spirit of the departed was
+manifesting, in the hollow tones of a frog and the activity of a bird,
+resentment at the intrusion of his haunts, and was warning us to begone.
+But we had come far on a toilsome errand, and were not to be scared away
+by trifles, though a transient feeling of reluctance to disturb the
+solemnity of the studio could not be withheld.
+
+Remembering the fervid praises of the treasures by those who had not
+seen them, a sense of disappointment when they came to be examined was
+inevitable. They are not to be classed in any standard beyond that
+displayed on early school-slates; but imperfect as they are, they
+possess a certain symmetry and proportion, and the facts that they are
+where they are, and that the artist--dead and forgotten--had no light or
+leading, and was in other respects probably one of the most rude, most
+uncouth of human beings, are sufficient to lend to the drawings an
+interest as absorbing (though of a nature quite apart) as that with
+which the average individual contemplates the stiff works of masters of
+Continental fame.
+
+One able critic of aboriginal art refers to similar rock paintings as
+frescoes, for lack of a significant title. Apparently the rock surface
+was slightly smoothed where inequalities existed--in one case the design
+follows the ridges and hollows--the subjects being worked in, in dry
+earth of a chalky nature, dull red in colour. Animated nature and still
+life have been studied and reproduced. The turtle is true, and the most
+conspicuous and sharply-defined study the least convincing. It resembles
+those fantastic interwoven shapes that some men in fits of abstraction
+or idleness sketch on their own blotting-pads, and which signify
+nothing.
+
+Comparing the works of the two studios, there is little doubt that there
+were at least two artists native of Dunk Island in times past, and in
+that respect the island was infinitely superior to its present state.
+Each appears to have effected a different kind of work--one devoting
+himself to realistic reptiles and the human form debased, and the other
+almost solely to the creation of conventional designs, and the
+representation of the animals and of weapons of his age. One illustrated
+man, and even gave to one of his reptiles a semi-human shape; the other
+exercised an exuberant fancy for ornamentation. Each bequeathed to the
+present day and generation works that are at least free from the
+subtleties of art.
+
+Most of us have had moments of rapture before the glowing embodiment of
+the inspiration of some great artist, whose gifts have been developed to
+maturity by enthusiastic and patient striving for perfection. Do not
+these clumsy drawings, too, reveal that which, considering their
+environment, is talent--original and unacademic. Here is the sheer
+beginning, the spontaneous germ of art, the labouring of a savage soul
+controlled by wilful aesthetic emotions. For these pictures are not
+figurative, not mere signs and symbols capable of elucidation, but the
+earliest and only efforts of an illiterate race, a race in intellectual
+infancy, towards the ideal--a forlorn but none the less sincere attempt
+to reach the "light that quickens dreams to deeds!"
+
+The last of the series of "Black Art" pictures is not local. It occurs
+on the reverse of a shield, the spear-punctured lower edge of which
+verifies its eventful history. The warrior-artist silhouetted a
+sweetheart's figure, where, at supreme moments, it came before his fancy
+and gave the battle to his hands.
+
+A POISONOUS FOOD
+
+One of the chief vegetable foods of the blacks is the fruit of
+"tinda-burra" (Moreton Bay chestnut--CASTANOSPERMUM AUSTRALE). The
+plentiful pea-shaped flowers range in colour from apple-green, pale
+yellow, orange to scarlet, and contain large quantities of nectar, which
+attracts multitudes of  birds and insects. Blacks regard this tree with
+special favour and consideration. A casual remark, as I observed the
+industry of insects about the flowers, that the bean-tree was good for
+bees, elicited the scornful response, "Good for man!" The tree is of
+graceful shape, the bole often pillar-like in its symmetry, and the wood
+hard and durable and of pleasing colour, and so beautifully grained that
+it is fast becoming popular for furniture and cabinet-making. It bears a
+prolific crop of large beans, from two to five in each of its squat
+pods, but they are, as Mr Standfast found the waters of Jordan, "to the
+palate bitter, and to the stomach cold," and require special treatment
+in order to eliminate a poisonous principle. Many chemists analysed the
+beans (one finding that they may be converted into excellent starch)
+without discovering any noxious element; but as horses, cattle, and pigs
+die if they eat the raw bean, and a mere fragment is sufficient to give
+human beings great pain, followed by most unpleasant consequences, the
+research was continued, until within quite a recent date the presence of
+saponin was detected. Before science made its discovery, the blacks were
+very positive on the point of the poisonous qualities of the bean, and
+took measures to eliminate it. In some parts of the State the beans,
+after being steeped in water for several days, are dried in the sun,
+roasted in hot ashes, and pounded between stones into a coarse kind of
+meal, which may be kept for an indefinite period. When required for use
+the meal is mixed with water, made into a thin cake or damper, and baked
+in the ashes. Prepared in this way the cake resembles a coarse ship's
+biscuit. In other parts, the beans are scraped by means of mussel-shells
+into a vermicelli-like substance, prior to soaking in water. Our blacks
+have a more ingenious method of preparation, and employ a specially
+formed culinary implement, which is used for no other purpose. They take
+the commonest of the land shells--"kurra-dju" (XANTHOMELON
+PACHYSTYLA)--and breaking away the apex grind down the back on a stone
+until but little more than half its bulk remains. The upper edges being
+carefully worked to a fine edge, the only housewifery implement that the
+blacks possess is perfect. With the implement in the right hand, between
+the thumb and the second finger--the sharp edge resting on the
+thumb-nail--the beans are planed, the operator being able to regulate
+the thickness of the shaving to a nicety.
+
+It is women's work to collect the beans, make the shell-planes, and do
+the shredding. In the first place the beans are cooked, the oven
+consisting of hot stones covered with leaves. In three or four hours
+they are taken out and planed, a dilly-bag (basket made of narrow
+strips of lawyer cane or grass) full of the shavings is immersed in
+running water for two or three days, the food being then ready for
+consumption without further preparation. In appearance it resembles
+coarse tapioca, and it has no particular flavour. To give it zest,
+some have a shell containing sea-water beside them when they dine,
+into which each portion of the mess is dipped. As saponin is very
+soluble in water, by soaking the shredded beans for a few days the
+blacks resort to an absolutely perfect method of converting a
+poisonous substance into a valuable and sustaining, if tasteless,
+food. No doubt, made up into a pudding with eggs, milk, sugar and
+flavouring, shredded beans would pass without comment as a substitute
+for tapioca.
+
+MESSAGE-STICKS
+
+There came to our beach one afternoon some poor exiles from Princess
+Charlotte Bay--300 miles to the north. Exiled they felt themselves to
+be, and were longing to return to their own country although their
+engagement for a six months' cruise in quest of the passive beche-de-mer
+had but just begun. One boy stepped along with an air of pride and
+importance. His companions were deferential to a certain extent, but
+they, too, exhibited an unusual demeanour. Some of the glory and honour
+that shone in Mattie's face was reflected in theirs. With the assurance
+of an ambassador bearing high credentials he saluted me--
+
+"Hello, Mister! Good day."
+
+"Good day," I responded. "You come from that cutter?"
+
+Mattie--"Yes, mister. Mickie sit down here, now? Me got 'em letter.
+Brother belonga gin, belonga Mickie; him gib it!"
+
+"No; Mickie sit down alonga Palm Islands. Come back, bi'mby."
+
+Mattie (with a downcast air)--"My word! Bo'sun (the brother-in-law) gib
+it letter belonga Mickie."
+
+"Where letter?" I asked.
+
+Mattie--"Me got 'em," and drawing out a very soiled little parcel, he
+proudly exposed a piece of greyish wood, about the size and shape of a
+lead pencil, on which had been cut two continuous intersecting grooves.
+"Me giv' 'em Mickie; Bo'sun alonga Cooktown. He want to come up this
+way now."
+
+The letter was a mere token of material expression of the fact that the
+sender was in the land of the living, and of his faith in the bearer,
+who was charged with all the personal messages and news. It was a sad
+rebuff to Mattie, elated with responsibility and eager to unburden
+himself of the latest domestic intelligence, to find that Mickie was not
+on the spot to receive it all. And, after fondling the wooden document
+for a while, he wrapped it up and carefully bestowed it within the bosom
+of his shirt. The disappointment was general. The gleam faded from the
+faces of the boys. For several days, first one and then another was
+entrusted with the honourable custody of the missive. Whoever possessed
+it for the time being was the most favoured individual. His worthiness
+for the office he acknowledged with an amusing air of self-consciousness
+and pride. The transmission of a letter is not an ordinary occurrence,
+and though there is an entire absence of form and ceremony in its
+delivery, the rarity of the event lends to it novelty and importance.
+
+Aboriginal letters are of great variety, and some there are who profess
+to interpret them. The despatches are, however, invariably, in my
+experience, transmitted from hand to hand, the news of the day being
+recapitulated at the same time. It is not essential that the unstudied
+cuts and scratches on wood should have any significance or be capable of
+intelligible rendering. Though blacks profess to be able to send
+messages by means of sticks alone, the pretension is not recognised by
+those who have crucially investigated it
+
+On a certain station a youthful son of the proprietor was accidentally
+drowned in a creek not far from the homestead. The grief of the parents
+was participated in by all engaged on the station, for the boy, full of
+promise, had been a general favourite. None seemed more sorrowful and
+gloomy than the blacks camped in the neighbourhood, and when the first
+shock of sorrow was of the past, they were eager to send the news to
+distant friends. A letter was laboriously composed. It was a short piece
+of wood, narrow and flat; an undulating groove ran from end to end on
+one side, midway was an intersecting notch. These were the principal
+characteristics, but there were other small marks and scratches. Bearing
+this as his credentials, a messenger departed, and in a week or so
+members of camps hundreds of miles away had seen the letter and were in
+possession of all the details of the sad event, the messenger in the
+meantime having returned. The letter was duly credited with having
+conveyed the particulars. Is it not obvious, however, that the news had
+been transmitted orally, and that the crude carvings on the stick merely
+indicated an attempt to give verisimilitude to the intelligence--the
+wavy line indicating the creek, and the notch the fatal waterhole. If
+not, then a black's message-stick is a model of literary condensation,
+their characters marvels of comprehensiveness and exactitude.
+
+Another letter is before me--one of the best specimens with regard to
+workmanship I have ever seen. Upon one edge of a piece of brown wood 6
+inches long, 1 inch broad, flat and rounded off at the edges and ends,
+there are five notches, and on the opposite edge a single notch. Close
+to the end is a faint, crude representation of a broad arrow, below
+which is a confusion of small cuts, in a variety of angles, none quite
+vertical, some quite horizontal. On the reverse is a single--almost
+perpendicular--cut, and a bold X, and near the point, two shallow,
+indistinct diverging cuts. So far no one to whom the letter has been
+submitted has given a satisfactory reading. Blacks frankly admit that
+they do not understand it. They examine it curiously, and almost
+invariably remark--"Some fella mak' em." No attempt to decipher it is
+undertaken, because no doubt it was never intended to be read. Yet a
+plausible elucidation is at hand. The single notch, let it be said,
+represents a black who wishes to let five white fellows (who have made
+inquiries in that direction) know that a corrobboree is to begin before
+sundown, the setting sun being represented by the broad arrow, which
+seems to dip over the end of the stick. The guests are expected to bring
+rum to produce a bewildering, unsteady effect upon the whole camp--none,
+big or little, but will stagger about in all directions and finally lie
+down. On the other hand the guests are not to bring "one fella"
+policeman with handcuffs (the cross), otherwise all will decamp--the two
+last are seen vanishing into space. By a rare coincidence this very free
+interpretation could be made to apply to an actuality at the time
+the "letter" was received, but as a matter of fact it came from quite a
+different source to the black fellow who had engaged to let some
+students of the aboriginal character know when the next corrobboree
+would take place. It still remains undecipherable. My investigations do
+not support the theory that the blacks are capable of recording the
+simplest event by means of a system of so-called picture-writing, but
+rather that message-sticks have no meaning apart from verbal
+explanations. Blacks profess to be able to send messages which another
+may understand, but the tests applied locally invariably break down.
+
+Another message-stick was made on the premises by George, but not to
+order. A genuine, unprompted natural effort, it is merely a slip of
+pine, 4 inches long, a quarter of an inch broad and flat, upon which
+are cut spiral intersecting grooves. George's birthplace is Cooktown,
+and his message-stick resembles in design that brought by Mattie from
+Bo'sun of Cooktown for Mickie of the Palms. Now George professes to be
+able to write English, but he is so shy and diffident over the
+accomplishment that neither persuasion nor offer of reward induces him
+to practise it. When he produced the "letter," more than usual
+interest was taken in it, for it seemed to offer an exceptional
+opportunity for ascertaining the extent of his literary pretensions. I
+asked him--"Who this for, George?" George looked at the stick long
+and curiously with a puzzled, concentrated expression, as one might
+assume when examining a novel and interesting problem demanding prompt
+solution. With an enlightening smile he in time replied--"This for
+Charlie."
+
+"Charlie" is the name of a boy who recently visited the island, but who
+hitherto had not been known by George.
+
+"Well, what this letter talk about?" A very long pause ensued during
+which George appeared to be putting his imaginative powers to frightful
+over-exertion. His forehead wrinkled, his lips twitched, his head moved
+this way and that, once or twice a gleam of inspiration passed over his
+face, and then the expression of the deep and puzzled thinker came on
+again. Finally he said--"Y-e-e-s. Me tell 'em, sometimes me see Toby."
+
+Toby is the tallest of the survivors of Dunk Island, another
+acquaintance of George's, who refers to him as a hard case, for it is
+said Toby's affections are very fitful and uncertain.
+
+"Then that letter tell 'em something more?" The strenuous pause, the
+desperate plunge into thought again, and George continued--"This for
+Johnny Tritton, before alonga Cooktown; now walk about somewhere down
+here. Might be catch 'em alonga mainland!"
+
+This message-stick was freshly made, and its meaning, had it possessed
+any, might have been repeated pat. But it was evident that the boy was
+putting a devastating strain upon an unexuberant and tardy wit when he
+endeavoured to ascribe to it a literary rendering. His hesitancy and
+contradictions were at least amusingly ingenuous.
+
+Exceptional opportunities were available in this neighbourhood recently
+for the formation of an opinion upon the value of message-sticks for the
+transmission of intelligence. The bushman who on horseback carried His
+Majesty's mails inland among the settlers and to distant stations, was
+frequently also entrusted with the delivery of message-sticks by blacks
+along the route. Invariably the stick was accompanied by a verbal
+communication--a request for some article (a pipe, a knife,
+looking-glass, handkerchief) or an inquiry as to the whereabouts or
+welfare of some relative or friend. The mailman quickly found that the
+often elaborately graven stick was to no purpose whatever without the
+verbal message. Frequently the sticks would become far more hopelessly
+mixed up than the babes in PINAFORE; but as long as he recollected the
+message aright, not the slightest concern or dissatisfaction was
+manifested.
+
+HOOKS OF PEARL
+
+In this neighbourhood the making of pearl-shell fishhooks is one of the
+lost arts. The old men may tell how they used to be made, but are not
+able to afford any satisfactory practical demonstration. Therefore, to
+obtain absolutely authentic examples, it was necessary to indulge in the
+unwonted pastime of antiquarian research. During an unsystematic,
+unmethodical overhauling of the shell heap of an extensive kitchen
+midden--to apply a very dignified title to a long deserted camp--
+interesting testimony to the diligence and patience of the deceased
+occupants was obtained. It was evident that the sea had been largely
+drawn upon for supplies, if only on account of the many abortive and
+abandoned attempts at fishhooks in more or less advanced stages of
+completion. The brittleness of the fabric and the crudeness of the tools
+employed had evidently put the patience of the makers to severe task,
+who for one satisfactory hook must have contemplated many disappointments.
+The art must be judged as critically by the exhibition of its failures
+as by its perfections, as Beau Nash did the tying of his cravats.
+"Those are our failures," the spirits of the departed, brooding
+over the site of the camp, might have sighed, as we sorted out crude and
+unfashioned fragments. Presently the discovery of a small specimen
+established the standard of perfection--a crescent of pearl, which alone
+was ample recompense for the afternoon's research. Smaller than the
+average hook, it represented an excellent object-lesson in patience and
+skill. Many other examples, some complete, have since been found, and
+have been arranged for illustration to exhibit the process of
+construction in several stages. Do they not confirm the opinion that the
+maker of shell fish-hooks suffered many mishaps and disappointments, and
+that he had high courage in discarding any that evidenced a fault?
+
+The method of manufacture was to reduce by chipping with a sharp-edged
+piece of quartz a portion of a black-lip mother-of-pearl shell to a disc.
+A central hole was then chipped--not bored or drilled--with another tool
+of quartz. The hole was gradually enlarged by the use of a terminal of
+one of the staghorn corals (MADEPORA LAXA) until a ring had been formed.
+Then a segment was cut away, leaving a rough crescent, which was ground
+down with coral files, and the ends sharpened by rubbing on smooth
+slate.
+
+Discs were also cut out of gold-lip mother-of-pearl shell, but by what
+means there is no evidence to tell. When such a prize as a gold-lip
+shell was found, it was used to the last possible fragment. Most
+frequently the black-lip mother-of-pearl was the material whence the
+hooks were fashioned, and, when none other was available, the hammer
+oyster. In one case an unsuccessful endeavour had been made to fashion a
+hook from a piece of plate-glass, obtained, no doubt, from the wreck of
+some long-forgotten ship. The fractured disc lying among other relics of
+the handicraft spoke for itself.
+
+Not only have many samples of partially-made hooks been found, but also
+the tools employed in the process. The sharp-edged fragment of quartz used
+to chip away the shell, the anvil of soft slate upon which the shell
+rested during the operation, the quartz chisel for chipping the central
+hole, the coral terminals, resembling rat-tail files, and the smooth stone
+upon which the rough edges of the hook were ground down and finished.
+
+Hooks without barbs and manufactured of such materials as pearl-shell and
+tortoiseshell may throw light upon the Homeric quotation "caught fish
+with the horn of the ox." In those far-off days, bronze wire rope,
+similar in design to the steel rope which is of common use in the
+present time, was employed. Ancient Greeks, though they anticipated one
+of the necessities of trade nowadays, depended upon fish-hooks
+resembling those just being abandoned by the Australian blacks. Fish are
+guileless creatures. They are captured today with hooks of the style
+upon which fishermen of the Homeric age depended.
+
+From the appearance of the camps, and the age of the islander who took
+part in the various searches, and who was ready to admit that though
+pearl-shell hooks were used when he was a piccaninny he had never seen
+one made, I judge the age of these relics of a prehistoric art to be
+between thirty and forty years.
+
+This boy has supplied samples of hooks made by himself with the aid of
+files, etc., in imitation of the old style, being careful to explain
+that the old men made them much better than any one could in these
+degenerate days of steel. Two of these modern hooks bound to bark lines
+are illustrated. What was the origin of the peculiar pattern of the
+pearl-shell fish-hooks? To this question, those who maintain that no
+handiwork of man exists which does not borrow from nature, or from
+something precedent to itself, may find a satisfactory answer offhand.
+As it weathers on the beach, the basal valve of the commonest of the
+oysters, of these waters occasionally assumes a crude crescent. Indeed,
+several of these fragments have at odd times attracted attention, for
+they have so closely resembled pearl-shell hooks in the rough that
+second glances have been necessary to dispose of the illusion that they
+were actually rejects from some old-time camp. Is it not reasonable to
+suppose that the original design was copied from this elemental model,
+as, in like manner the boomerang is traceable to a leaf? The pattern is
+so profoundly persistent in the minds of the blacks of to-day, that in
+fashioning a hook from a piece of straight wire they invariably form a
+crescent, though the superiority of the shape approved by civilisation
+must have been exemplified to them times out of number. In this
+particular the blacks seem unconsciously to follow the idea of their
+ancestors as birds obey instinct in the building of nests and in
+migratory flights.
+
+Piccaninnies at this date remind us of the genesis of the boomerang as
+they sport with the sickle-shaped leaves (or rather PHYLLODIA) of the
+ACACIA HOLOCARPA as with miniature boomerangs. The piccaninny of the
+remote past chuckled gleefully as the jerked leaf returned to it. As a
+boy he fashioned a larger and permanent toy, surreptitiously using his
+father's stone tomahawk and shell knife, while the old man was after
+wallaby with a waddy. As a young man, hunting or fighting, he found his
+boyish toy a very effective missile. Even for a straight shot it had a
+longer range and far higher velocity, with less strength expenditure,
+than the waddy or nulla-nulla; and its homing flight had practical if
+not frequent uses. In his childhood, adolescence and maturity the black
+of to-day so graphically summarises a chapter in the history of his race
+that he who runs may read.
+
+In the origin of the boomerang and the shell fish-hook we have
+instances, hardly to be doubted, of direct inspirations from Nature,
+proofs of the art and the infinite patience with which she sets her
+copies and expounds her texts.
+
+WILD DYNAMITE
+
+All the blacks of my acquaintance have had the rough edges of savagedom
+worn down. Consequently I lay no claim to original research or to the
+possession of any but common knowledge of the race at large. Learned
+societies and learned men have done and are doing all that is possible
+to acquire and accumulate information of the fast vanishing race. I
+merely record odd incidents, which may or may not prove useful and of
+interest, or which may bear repetition. An occasional gleam of
+satisfaction is vouchsafed even to casual and superficial students of
+human nature.
+
+The supply of bait run out one day when we were fishing off the rocks
+with throw-lines. Mickie said--"We catch 'em plenty little fella fish
+with wild dynamite!" I asked him what he knew about dynamite. "Not
+white fella's dynamite. Wild dynamite--I show you."
+
+Growing on the blistering rocks, with roots, down in the crevices, was a
+lowly vine, or rather a diffuse, creeping shrub with myrtle-like leaves
+and racemes of white flowers. "That fella wild dynamite," said Mickie,
+as he tore up several strands of the plant and bunched them, leaves and
+all, in his hand. He made a small bundle, and going to an isolated pool
+in the rocks in which were small fish he beat the leaves with a
+nulla-nulla, dipping the bruised mass frequently in the water. In a few
+minutes the fish were darting about erratically, apparently making
+frantic efforts to get out of the water. One by one they became
+stupefied and helpless, floating belly up. Mickie filled his hat with
+them, and as the soporific effects of the juice of the leaves passed
+off, the remaining fish recovered and were soon swimming about again as
+if nothing had happened. Mickie had seen dynamite used to kill fish
+wholesale, hence his adaptation of the name of the plant known to him as
+"Paggarra," and to botanists as DERRIS SCANDENS.
+
+Another method by which the blacks secure fish in pools left by the
+receding tide is to scrape off the inner bark of the "Koie-yan"
+(FARADAYA SPLENDIDA) with a shell and spread it evenly on the bottom of
+a shallow pit in the sand, and place thereon stones made hot in the
+fire, or they may rub the powdered bark on hot stones. While still warm
+the stones are thrown into the water, when the fish become helpless.
+They die if left in water so impregnated; while the effects of the
+DERRIS SCANDENS is merely temporarily soporific. How blacks became
+acquainted with this process of speedily extracting the toxic principle
+of the FARADAYA, and as speedily dissipating it, is unknown. One
+generation passes on the knowledge to the other without explanation,
+and it is accepted as a matter of course, without comment or inquiry.
+
+A CAVERN AND ITS LEGEND
+
+Caves and caverns in the rocks and the tops of the mountains are not
+favourite resorts of blacks. According to them nearly every mountain has
+its mysterious lagoon, which none but old men have visited, but which
+teems with fish and waterfowl. When direct inquiries are made as to the
+precise locality of any particular lagoon, invariably inconclusive
+evidence is tendered. "Old man, he bin see 'em;" and, the old man is
+never forthcoming for cross-examination. The origin of the romance, no
+doubt, is to be attributed to the desire of the blacks to account to
+themselves for the water which glitters on the face of the rocks far up
+the mountains. One boy gave an exceptionally graphic description of a
+lagoon on the top of one of the highest peaks of Hinchinbrook Island, in
+which all manner of sea fish revelled. When doubt was expressed as to
+the possibility of sea-water and sea-fish getting up so far "on top" and
+it was suggested--"What you think, that old man humbug you?" "Yes,"
+was the ready response; "me think that old fella no tell true. Him
+humbug." Some blacks possess something wiser than knowledge.
+
+On the northern aspect of Dunk Island, where the sea swirls about the
+buttresses of the hills, there is a cavern only approachable by boat. The
+mouth is overhung by vines and ferns, and through the moss which covers
+the lintel water trickles and splashes with pleasant sound. When the
+bronze orchid lavishly decorates the rocks with its crinkled flowers of
+dull gold, the entrance has a specific character; and quite another when
+the glossy leaves of the umbrella-tree form the relief and its long
+radiating spikes of dull red, bead-like flowers attract the brilliant
+sun-bird, and big blue and green and red butterflies. Even when the sea
+is lustrous the cavern, with all the artfulness and grace of the
+decorations of its portals, is a black blotch--the entrance to something
+unknowable and unknown--at least to the blacks. None had ever ventured
+near it and they never will. They tell you how it came to be made. How a
+long, long time ago, a big man, "all a same debil-debil," took out with
+his mighty fingers a plug of rock and put it "on top alonga
+Hinchinbrook." Now the particular decapitated pinnacle of Hinchinbrook
+is 20 miles away, and out of all proportion. But these facts do not
+affect the legitimacy of the legend. There is the hole, and there on the
+top of the far-away mountain the prodigious plug demonstrative evidence
+too obvious to be set aside on any such plea as the eternal fitness of
+things. Is not the blue point of the mountain a defiantly triumphant
+fact? Is not the legend authenticated by tradition and confirmed by
+topography?
+
+Why, therefore, doubt it for a moment?
+
+And the hole--it goes a long, long way under the mountain. It is a bad
+place, a very bad place. No one has ever been there. Suppose any fella
+go inside, bi'mby that fella sick, bi'mby that fella die.
+
+Braving all the honest traditions, one fine day I took a lantern in the
+boat and induced the boys to row to the entrance of the cave. Neither
+would venture in; indeed, they did all they could to dissuade me,
+protesting that evil was sure to befall. A minute's exploration showed
+that the cave did not extend 30 feet, and that it was dry, and resonant
+with "the whispering sound of the cool colonnade," with no suggestion
+of unwholesomeness or weirdness. But the blacks still pass it by. The
+legend is as indestructible as the odour of attar of roses. Although the
+boys persist in their account of the origin of the cave, it is known to
+them as "Coo-bee co-tan-you," which signifies "that hole made by the
+meteor," or, literally, "falling-star hole."
+
+Romance, too, follows the Hinchinbrook pinnacle. Some local blacks
+regard it with awe, believing that it covers a deep hole in the mountain
+in which the winds and rain are pent up. When a malignant "debil-debil"
+lifts the peak away the elements escape, roaring and hissing with
+anger and mischief. When tired, they retire sulkily to the hole, which
+the "debil-debil" blocks with the monstrous rock. Fine weather then
+prevails, and the rock, which has been hidden away among the mists by
+the fiend, becomes visible once more.
+
+A SOULFUL DANCE
+
+Of the many corrobborees that I have witnessed, the most novel in
+conception was performed on Dunk Island by blacks who came from the
+neighbourhood of Princess Charlotte Bay, some 200 miles to the north.
+
+The imitation of the frolicsome skip and wing movements of the native
+companion is one of the typical dances of the aboriginals frequenting
+open plains where the great birds assemble. In its performance the
+men--decorated with streaks and daubs of white and pink clay, and
+wearing in their hair down and feathers--form a circle, and bowing their
+bodies towards the centre, chuckle in undertones to the pianissimo
+tapping of boomerangs and the beating of resonant logs. In strict time,
+to a crescendo accompaniment, the performers throw out their arms,
+extend their necks downward and upward, simultaneously utter squawks in
+imitation of the bird, and finally whirl about, flapping their arms,
+ceasing instantly by a common impulse. The ballet is modelled in
+accordance with a study of Nature.
+
+The corrobboree of the Princess Charlotte Bay boys also owes its origin
+to Nature, but Nature in one of her most unpoetical moods--a mood as
+typical of Constantinople as of their native shores, for its motive is
+nothing more than an everyday dogfight.
+
+Shall the uncultured blacks not have their own way when they seek
+entertainment, holding "as it were the mirror up to Nature," and finding
+that it reflects the commonest of all themes? They among all the nations
+of the world alone have discovered what to them is music and the poetry
+of motion in an occurrence that has no geographical limitations, is not
+restricted by language, nor to be withered by age.
+
+While the orchestra taps its boomerangs and claps its hands and grunts,
+two boys in mere nature progress towards the fire in a series of stiff,
+stilty jumps, the legs from the hips to the ankles being rigid; then the
+knees shake in a rapid succession of spasmodic jerks; the actors emit
+sounds resembling the preliminary growling and snarling of a couple of
+angry dogs. Action and utterance develop in speed and time as the fight
+begins in earnest, and the art of the performance consists in its
+duration--the powers of sustained effort, the accuracy of time maintained
+between the orchestra and the actors, and the fidelity to nature of the
+vocal effects. A singularly uncouth subject for an opera or even a
+ballet--the snarling, scuffling and snapping of quarrelsome dogs whose
+fury is working up to a climax, and it soon becomes as monotonous to
+unaccustomed ears as the masterpieces of some German composers to those
+whose musical education is below the required standard; but the boys
+will spend the best part of the long night in its unvarying repetition.
+
+Once a variation did take place. "Yellowbelly" (pronounced decently
+"Yellowby") danced first in the company of giggling "Peter;" and then
+fat "Charley" and big "Johnny," shy "Mammeroo" and little deaf
+"Antony," in turns, his body glistened with perspiration, and his eyes
+sparkled with the joy of a phenomenal accomplishment. All beholders were
+filled with wonder and gratification. It was Yellowby's night out. The
+spirit of Terpsichore was upon him. His enthusiasm amounted to
+exultation. He was astonishing not only the silent and subdued natives
+of Dunk Island, but even his own familiar friends. Never had any seen
+such a classic interpretation of the theme, such brilliant leg movement,
+nor heard such realistic growling and snapping and intermittent yelps,
+such muffled, sob-like inspirations. Yellowby danced as dances the
+artist, so graphically interpreting the subject that the bewildered
+orchestra forgot itself. All were borne away in spirit to the scene of
+some far-off, familiar camp, where the scents of decayed fish and
+turtle-bones, and of a multitude of uncleanly dogs commingled with the
+bitter smoke of mangrove wood fires, where amid the yells of gins and
+the screeches of piccaninnies and the walloping of men, two mangy curs
+noisily wrestled. It brought home sweet home to each of the exiles, so
+vividly that all sat still and transfixed, and as the last chord of the
+orchestra "I trembled away into silence," Yellowby, panting and
+sweating, gasped as he fell flat on the sand--"No good you fella
+corrobboree like that fella, belonga me fella." But for the collapse of
+the orchestra, due to his own inimitable art, he would have danced till
+dawn.
+
+A SONG WITHOUT WORDS
+
+Mickie is a famous vocalist, although his repertoire is limited. He
+sings lustily and with no little art, putting considerable expression
+into his phrases, and ever and anon taking a sharp but studied rest to
+increase his emphasis, when he will burst forth again with full-throated
+ease. His masterpiece is not original. Indeed he claims no title to the
+gifts of a composer. "Jacky," a Mackay boy, taught Mickie his
+favourite romance, and it came to Jacky in a dream. Mickie explains--
+"Cousin alonga that fella die. Jacky go to sleep. That fella dead man all
+a same like debil-debil--come close up and tell 'em corrobboree close up
+ear belonga Jacky."
+
+"What that debil-debil say?"
+
+Mickie--"No talk--that fella. Just tell 'em corrobboree. No talk."
+
+It was just a song without words--the final phrases being three guttural
+gasps, diluendo, which Mickie says represent the wail of the "debil-debil"
+as he retires into the obscurity of spirit-land.
+
+Mickie sings this song of inspiration most vigorously, when Jinny, his
+portly spouse, comes to "wash 'em plate" in the evening, and she
+explains with a fat chuckle--"Mickie corrobboree loud fella. He fright.
+He think subpose he corrobboree blenty debil-debil no come up."
+
+ORIGIN OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
+
+Blacks are students of natural events. The winds have their specific
+titles, and they catalogue all the brighter and more conspicuous stars
+and planets, while their astronomical legends are quaint and
+entertaining.
+
+According to Mickie, the Southern Cross is of earthly origin. He thus
+"repeats the story of its birth."
+
+"You see that fella. That one me call 'em dooey-dooey--all a same
+shubel-nose shark, like that fella you bin shoot longa lagoon. Two
+fella, more big, come close up behind dooey-dooey, two fella black boy.
+Black boys bin fishing alonga reef close up alonga where red mark,
+alonga Cape Marlow--you know. They bin sit down alonga canoe. Bi'mby
+spear 'em that dooey-dooey--beeg fella, my word! That dooey-dooey when
+catch 'em spear he go down quick, come up under canoe capsize 'em. Two
+fella boy swim about long time by that reef; no catch 'em that canoe.
+Swim; swim l-o-n-g way; no catch 'em beach; go outside; follow canoe all
+time. One fella say--'Brother, where we now?' 'Long way yet. Swim more
+far, brother.' Bi'mby two fella talk--'Where now, brother?' 'Long way
+outside. Magnetic close up now. We two fella swim more long way. Bi'mby
+catch 'em Barrier.' One fella catch 'em hand--'Come along, brother,
+youn-me go outside.'
+
+"Two fella boy swim-swim-swim. Go outside altogether; leave 'em Barrier
+behind. Swim; finish; good bye; no come back! Swim where cloud catch
+'em sea. Swim up-up-long way up! You see now. Sit down up there
+altogether. Dooey-dooey first time; two fella boy come behind!"
+
+Does not this stand comparison with that referred to by the SCIENTIFIC
+AMERICAN in answering the question, "Why do you refer to the Great Bear
+as feminine?" We must go back into the age of classical mythology for
+the reason. It was known to the Egyptians, who called it hippopotamus.
+The people of southern Europe saw in the same stars the more familiar
+figure of a bear, and the legends which grew up around it were finally
+given permanent shape by Ovid in his METAMORPHOSES. As he tells the
+story, Callisto, an Arcadian nymph, was beloved by Jupiter. Juno, in
+fierce anger, turned her into a bear, depriving her of speech that she
+might not appeal to Jupiter. Her son, Arcas, while hunting, came upon
+her, and failing to recognise her in her metamorphosed form, raised his
+bow to shoot. Jupiter, moved by pity, prevented the matricide by
+transforming the son into a bear, and took them both up to the heavens,
+where they were placed among the constellations.
+
+CROCODILE CATCHING
+
+Though they have a wholesome dread of crocodiles generally, the blacks
+of the Lower Tully River (some 5 miles down the coast) have, in a
+limited circle, the reputation of indulging in the sport of catching
+them for food. Natives of the locality tell me that the last occasion of
+the death of a crocodile in the manner to be described was very many
+years ago. Some would have you believe the practice is of common
+occurrence. The story goes (though for its truth I do not vouch), that
+having located a crocodile in a reach of the river when the tide has run
+out, the blacks form a cordon across, and harry it by splashing the
+water and maintaining a continuous commotion. The crocodile is poked out
+of secluded nooks beside the bank and from under submerged logs, never
+being allowed a moment's peace. When it is thoroughly cowed (and it is
+an undoubted fact that crocodiles may be frightened into passiveness), a
+rope of lawyer vine is passed round a convenient tree and held by half a
+dozen boys, while a running noose is made on the other end. A daring
+black dives into the water, and cautiously approaching the bewildered
+creature, slips the noose over its head and backs away. Should he turn
+his face, the blacks say the crocodile would immediately seize him. The
+party on the bank hauls on the line, and in spite of protests and
+struggling the game is landed, to be chopped and beaten to death with
+tomahawks and nulla-nullas. Then follows a feast, the inevitable
+surfeit, and the dire conclusion that crocodile as "tucker" is no good.
+The flesh is said to be "All a same turtle. Little more hard fella!"
+My investigations lead to the opinion that a crocodile was once caught
+in the manner described, and that upon a single instance the proud feat
+has been multiplied by the score.
+
+SUICIDE BY CROCODILE
+
+It has been said that Australian blacks never commit suicide. An
+instance which goes in proof of the contrary occurred not many months
+ago. All the creeks and rivers flowing from the coastal range to the sea
+are more or less infested with crocodiles. In crossing creeks, blacks
+take every precaution against surprise, rafts of buoyant logs strapped
+together with lawyer vine being used. These rafts are continually
+drifting across to the island, proving how general is their use. Maria
+Creek (about a dozen miles or so up the coast) is well known to be a
+popular resort of the crocodile, and at the mouth, where the blacks wade
+at low-water, an unusually big fellow had his headquarters. A member of
+the Clump Point tribe, painfully afflicted with a vexatious skin
+disease, was fishing at the mouth of the creek when his hook fouled. To
+a companion he said he would dive to get it clear. His friend
+endeavoured to dissuade him, reminding him of the crocodile which they
+had, seen but a short time before. But the boy, worn with pain and weary
+with never-ending irritation, said if he was taken--"No matter. Good
+job. Me finished then." He dived, and there was a commotion in the
+water. The boy appeared on the surface, making frantic appeals for help,
+while the crocodile worried him. He escaped for a moment, and his friend
+clutched his hand and drew him to the bank, only to have him torn from
+his grasp. The blacks believe the crocodile took the fish bait in the
+first instance and lured the boy to dive. The boy certainly knew the
+risk he ran when he did so.
+
+A new, if not altogether agreeable, sensation is added to the gentle art
+if it is realised that a cruel and stealthy beast is engaged in a
+similar pastime, with the fisherman as the object of its sport.
+
+DISAPPEARANCE OF BLACKS
+
+The rapid disappearance of blacks from localities which held a
+considerable population causes wonder. In the early days--less than a
+couple of decades past--they swarmed on the mainland opposite Dunk
+Island. Now the numbers are few. Within sight of Brammo Bay is the scene
+of an official "dispersal" of those alleged to have been responsible
+for the murder of some of the crew of a wrecked vessel, who had drifted
+ashore on a raft. One boy bears to this day the mark of a bullet on his
+cheek, received when his mother fled for her life, and vainly, with him
+an infant perched on her shoulders.
+
+In those days "troublesome" blacks were disposed of with scant ceremony.
+An incident has been repeated to me several times. A mob of "myalls"
+(wild blacks)--they were all myalls then--was employed by a selector to
+clear the jungle from his land. They worked, but did not get the
+anticipated recompense, and thereupon helped themselves, spearing and
+eating a bullock, and disappeared. After a time the selector professed
+forgiveness, and, the fears of the blacks of punishment having been
+allayed, set them to work again. One day a bucket of milk was brought to
+the camp at dinner-time and served out with pannikins. The milk had been
+poisoned. "One fella feel 'em here," said my informant, clasping his
+stomach. "Run away; tumbledown; finish. 'Nother boy runaway; finish.
+just now plenty dead everywhere. Some fella sing out all a same
+bullocky." Possibly this may be greeted as another version of the
+familiar story of poisoned flour or damper. It is mentioned here as an
+instance from the bad old days when both blacks and whites were offhand
+in their relations with each other. Such episodes are of the past. The
+present is the age of official protection, and perhaps just a trifle too
+much interference and meddlesomeness.
+
+Two blacks of the district confessed upon their trial that they had
+killed their master for so slight an offence as refusal to give them
+part of his own dinner of meat. On the other hand, an instance of the
+callousness of the white man may be cited. In a fit of the sulks one of
+the boys of the camp threw down some blankets he was carrying, and made
+off into the scrub. It was considered necessary to impress the others,
+and unhappy chance gave the opportunity. A strange and perfectly
+innocent boy appeared on the opposite bank of the creek. The "boss"
+was a  noted shot, and as the boy sauntered along he deliberately fired
+at him. The body fell into the water and drifted down stream. One of the
+boys for whose discipline the wanton murder was committed related the
+incident to me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+GEORGE: A MIXED CHARACTER
+
+
+George, who considered himself as accomplished and as cultivated as a
+white man, was assisting his master in the building of a dinghy.
+Contemplating the work of his unaccustomed hands in a rueful frame of
+mind, the boss recited, "Thou fatal and perfidious barque, built in
+eclipse and rigged with curses dark!" "Ah," said he, "you bin hear that
+before, George?" "No," replied the boy; "I no bin hear 'em. What
+that? Irish talk?"
+
+A few days after, George peered into one of the rooms of the house, the
+walls of which were decorated with prints, among them some studies of
+the nude. He sniggered. "What you laugh at, George?" "Me laugh along
+that picture--naked. That French woman, I think, Boss!" He was
+evidently of opinion that all true and patriotic Irishmen talk in verse,
+and in throaty tones, and that the customary habit of French ladies is
+"the altogether."
+
+Proud of his personal appearance, George shaved regularly once a week,
+borrowing a mirror to assist in the operation. He was wont to apply the
+lather from pungent kerosene soap with a discarded tooth-brush which he
+had picked up. Long use had thinned the bristles woefully, but the brush
+was used faithfully and with grave deliberation. One morning he came and
+said--"Boss, you got any more brush belonga shaving? This fella close
+up lose 'em whisker altogether."
+
+
+The sensational episodes of his trooper days provided George with
+unending themes. He gave an account to a friend of the suppression of a
+black rogue, a faithful report of which is presented as an example of
+unbowdlerised pidgin English.
+
+George--"You bin hear about Mr Limsee have fight? My word, he fight
+proper; close up killed. We three fella ride about. Cap'n--big strong
+boy that--me and Mr Limsee. Wild boy--boy from outside; Myall--beggar that
+fella--longa gully. Hit Mr Limsee. He bin have long fella stick, like
+that one Tom take a longa fight--short handle. Heavy fella that--carn
+lif 'em easy, one hand. Mr Limsee tumbledown. Get up. That boy kill 'em
+one time more hard. My word, strong fella boy that. Catch 'em Mr Limsee--
+tchuk longa ground, hard fella--like that. Me and Cap'n come. Mr Limsee
+alonga ground yet--'Hello! Mr Limsee, you bin hurt?' 'Yes, my boy
+I hurt plenty. Not much; only little bit. That fella boy hit me alonga
+sword. You catch that fella. Hold 'em.' Me and Cap'n say--'You no run
+away, you boy.' 'Me no fright.' He have 'em spear. Me tell 'em--'You
+no runaway. Me catch you.' He say--'Me no fright, you fella.' Me say
+--'You no runaway. I shoot you.' He say all a time--'Me no fright. Me
+fight you.' Me say--'You fool, you carn fight alonga this fella bullet.
+He catch you blurry quick.' That fella stop one place. We two fella go
+up alongside. Cap'n he say--'Hold up your hand. Le' me look your hand?'
+He hold up hand. Quick we put 'em han'cup. That fella no savee han'cup
+before. He bin sing out loud--loud like anything. We two fella laugh
+plenty. Mr Limsee tie 'em up hand longa tree, and belt him proper. Belt
+him plenty longa whip. My word, that fella sing out--sing out--sing out.
+Mr Limsee belt him more. All time he sing out. Bi'mby let 'em go. He bad
+fella boy that altogether. We fella--go home along camp. Mr Limsee feel
+'em sore tchoulder. Nex' day that boy--very tchausey fella--come up along
+camp. He say--'Me want fight that fella Cap'n.' Cap'n come up. That
+fella catch 'em, Cap'n tchuk him hard alonga ground. Get up; tchuk him
+two time. Head go close up alonga stone. Two fella wrastle all about
+long time. Cap'n strong fella. That boy more strong. Knock 'em about
+like anything. Bi'mby come back he have spear--three wire spear--long
+handle. Tchuk 'em spear. Catch 'em Cap'n longa side--here. Wire come out
+nother side--here. He carn stay--tumble down. Good boy that; my mate long
+time. Some fella go alonga house tell 'em Mr Limsee--'That boy bin kill
+you, fight long a camp. Cap'n catch 'em spear longa inside.' Mr Limsee
+come down. He say--'Cap'n, my boy, I think you finish now; me very sorry
+for you.' Bad place for spear longa side. Hollow inside. Suppose spear
+go along a leg and arm, no matter. Suppose go inside, hollow place
+inside, you finish quick. Plenty times me bin see 'em man finish that
+way. Mr Limsee he very sorry. We catch that boy. Put han'cup behind,
+lika that way. My word he carn run away now. Chain alonga leg. Mr Limsee
+bi'mby send 'em down Cooktown. That fella no more come back. He go along
+Sen'eleena (St Helena penal establishment). Me bin think he bin get two
+years. Cap'n he carn stay. Two days that fella dead. He bin good mate,
+me sorry. Mr Limsee he very sorry. Good fella longa boy."
+
+
+Once George illuminated his conversation with an aphorism. Describing a
+battle between the Tully River blacks and those of Clump Point, in which
+his mate, Tom of Dunk Island (leader of the Clump Point party), had been
+severely wounded, he said--"'Nother fella boy from outside, come up
+behind Tom. He no look out that way. That boy tchuk 'em boomerang.
+Boomerang stick in leg belonga Tom. Tom no feel 'em first time. He stan'
+up yet. Bi'mby when want walk about, tumble down. Look out. Hello! see
+'em boomerang alonga leg. He no more can walk about."
+
+The boss remarked--"Might be long time, Tom feel 'em leg sore."
+
+George--"Ah! me like see 'em kill alonga head. Finish 'em one time.
+Danger nebber dead." Whether George wished to enforce the opinion that
+in battle nothing short of death was glorious, or that Tom though
+wounded was still valorous and would live to fight again, was not clear,
+but "Danger nebber dead," probably represents the only aboriginal
+aphorism extant.
+
+
+George is not the least superstitious. He takes everything for granted.
+Rain, in his opinion, comes from a big tank up above somewhere. Asked as
+to his belief in the personal "debil-debil," of whom the mainland boys
+have such dread that few will stir out after dark, he said with a
+guffaw--"Me nebber bin see one yet. Suppose me see 'em, me run 'em!"
+George is, therefore, as yet unable to give a description of the fiend;
+but from hearsay authority declares that it possesses three eyes, two in
+the ordinary position, and one at the back of the head. It is believed
+that the third eye insures the "debil-debil" against all possible
+surprises, thus preserving the mystery of identity.
+
+Though he has not a shadow of respect for the "debil-debil," George
+has a firm faith in the existence in the neighbourhood of Cooktown of a
+camp of what he calls "groun' gins." His experience with these
+mysterious subterranean sirens he thus describes--
+
+"Little bit outside Cooktown camp belonga groun' gins. Me and Sargen' go
+look big corrobboree; my word. Some gins come out alonga groun' from
+hole. When go down, groun' close up himself, like winda. My word, me
+fright. Me shake. One good fella nice gin come up. Sargen' say--'You go
+corrobboree dance along that fella.' Me say--'We go home now, me fright.
+We want go alonga town. This no good place.' Sargen' laugh little bit.
+He say--'No, my boy, you no fright. All right here. You dance alonga
+that fella gin--good nice gin.' Me go up. Me feel 'em fright. Feel 'em
+cold inside. Too much fright. My word; han' belonga that fella gin--cold
+like anything. That gin say--'Where you from?' Me say--'Me come from
+alonga town.' That gin say--'What you look out?' Me say--'Me look out
+bullocky, musser 'em cattle. Tail 'em up. Look out weaner alonga
+paddick. Plenty hard work.' Me dance little bit alonga that gin. Not
+much. Too fright. Bi'mby that gin go down below. Groun' shut 'em up. All
+day down below. Come up night time. Carn come up alonga sun. Soft fella
+that. Suppose come up alonga sun, sun kill 'em. Too sof' altogether."
+
+Cooktown blacks, according to George, use a much lighter sporting spear
+than that in vogue in these parts. Instead of a slender sapling
+(preferably of red mangrove), straightened and toughened patiently over
+the fire, he would provide himself with the scape of a grass tree
+(XANTHORRHEA ARBOREA), true and straight as a billiard cue, light, and 8
+or 10 feet long. Into a socket in the thicker end he would insert a
+single 1/4-inch steel point, 18 inches long, or three pieces of No. 8
+wire, with the sharpened points slightly spread.
+
+The merit of his weapon was the subject of frequent debate, the Dunk
+Island natives arguing in favour of a heavier spear, but George showed
+that his was effective as well as economic. During a discussion, George
+told the following story, which, it will be noticed, has in some
+details, its parallel in a tragic incident in the history of England. No
+attempt is made to refine George's language:--
+
+"This fella spear kill plenty. Kangaroo, wallaby, fish--kill 'em all
+asame. He go ri' through longa kangaroo. One time me see 'em catch one
+fella boy. Brother belonga me--Billy--strong fella that. One time we go
+after kangaroo. Billy walk about close up, me sit down alonga rock; me
+plant me'self. 'Nother boy close up. He plant. We no see that fella.
+Bi'mby me see little fella wallaby feed about. Me bin whistle alonga my
+brother. 'Here wallaby. Come this way; quiet!' my brother come up.
+'Tchuk spear, miss wallaby, catch 'em that other fella boy, here. He bin
+sing out--cry like anything. My brother fright. That boy sing out--'Billy,
+you; what for you spear me.' Billy run away, that boy sing
+out--'Billy. No, you run away. Come up; pull out spear, quick fella!'
+Billy run away. Me sit down quiet. No make noise. Me hear that fella cry,
+cry, sing out like anything. He carn walk about. Me go quiet along a
+grass long way. Come round 'nother side. That boy no bin see me. Bi'mby
+me see gins--big mob. Sing out--'One fella boy bin catch 'em spear. He very
+bad. Close up dead now.' Billy plant himself long way. Boys and gins
+come up, where boy sing out. 'Carry 'em alonga camp.' Me go long way,
+where auntie belonga me sit down. That spear cartn pull 'em out. He got
+hook. All a time that boy sing out, 'Pull out spear.' Bi'mby Billy come
+back. He very sorry. He say--'Me no wan' spear you. Me no look out you.
+Me wan' catch 'em wallaby.' That boy say, 'All ri, Billy. You good mate
+belonga me.' Three days that spear inside yet. Me come alonga camp. That
+boy look 'em all ri'. Me say--'Me very sorry. Me think you dead now.' He
+say--'Me no dead. Me feel all ri'. Me want pull out spear.' Old men
+pull out hard. Carn shift 'em. Old men say--'We cut 'em now.' Get knife,
+sharpen 'em, cut 'em, cut 'em, cut 'em. Three strong boys pull 'em
+spear. Pull 'em hard altogether. Pull out plenty beef longa that hook.
+That boy no sing out. My word. He carn stop. Two weeks dead. Gins no bin
+bury 'em. What you think? Cut 'em up beef from bone; put beef in bark,
+put white paint alonga bark, tie 'em up and hung up 'em a longa
+dilly-bag. My word, puff! Bi'mby you se-mell 'em stink."
+
+
+George was not pressed to display his accomplishments. He chose during
+many months to hold himself in reserve, and to live up to the reputation
+of being quite a scholar, as far as scholarship goes among blacks. But
+in accordance with expectations, his pride and enthusiasm got the better
+of him. He produced two scraps of paper, on each of which were a number
+of sinuous lines and scrawls, saying
+
+"You write all asame this kind?"
+
+"No," I said, "I no write like that."
+
+"This easy fella? All the time me write this kind."
+
+"Well, what you write?" George's attention at once became concentrated,
+and gazing steadfastly on the paper for a minute or so for the
+marshalling of his wits, said--"This fella say Coleman Riber, Coen Riber?
+Horse Dead Creek, Massac (Massacre) Riber, Big Morehead, Kennedy Riber,
+Laura Riber." These are the names of some of the streams north from
+Cooktown, George's country. On the other scrap of paper, according to
+him, the names of some of the islands in this neighbourhood were
+written. Though the papers were transposed and turned upside down,
+George could read them with equal facility. The list of rivers would be
+read for the islands, and the islands for the rivers, quite
+indifferently, and with entertaining naivete. But he treasured the
+papers, and continued to delude his fellows with the display of what
+they considered to be wonderful cleverness.
+
+YAB-OO-RAGOO, OTHERWISE "MICKIE"
+
+"Mislike me not for my complexion."
+
+
+He said that his name was Mickie, and that he was an Irishman, and a
+native of the great Palm Island--40 miles south. He hath no personal
+comeliness--his face is his great misfortune. Though he asserts with
+pride his nationality, he admits that his mother, now among the stars,
+"sat down alonga 'nother side," and his complexion, or rather what is
+seen of it through an artless layer of charcoal and grease, applied out
+of respect to the memory of his deceased brother-in-law, shows no Celtic
+trace. Yet he has a keen appreciation of fun, has ready wit, and,
+according to his own showing, is not averse to a shindy, so that,
+perhaps his given name is at least characteristic of his assumed race. A
+flat overhanging forehead, keen black eyes, a broad-rooted, unobtrusive
+nose, a most capacious mouth, beard and whiskers thin and unkempt, and a
+fierce-looking moustache, a head of hair which in boyhood days had
+probably been a mass of crisp curls, but now shaggy tufts, matted and
+uneven, altogether a shockingly repulsive physiognomy, and yet an
+"honest Injin" in every respect and one who would always look on the
+happy side of life, but for twinges of neuralgia--"monda" he calls
+it--which rack his head and face with pain. I saw only the peaceful side
+of Mickie's nature, and therefore this chronicle will be unsensational
+as well as imperfect. There is a tradition that the Palm Island blacks
+are of a milder, less bellicose disposition, than those of the mainland
+opposite. Many years ago when a party of bushmen, fresh from the
+excitement and weariness of the Gilbert rush, reposed for a few days on
+the soft grey sand of Challenger Bay, the spot was invaded by a band of
+mainland natives. In the early dawn the peace-loving Palm Islanders
+awoke the friendly whites with the news that a "big fella mob" was
+coming across in canoes. Under ordinary circumstances they would have
+fled to the jungle-covered hills until the invaders had retired, but the
+knowledge that the whites had a couple of guns, and a good supply of
+shot, inspired a high degree of temporary courage. Possibly the
+extraordinary courage of the islanders in thus awaiting the attack put
+the invaders on their guard, for they would not approach nearer than 50
+yards. A closer range was desired, for there was a special barrel loaded
+with coarse salt, and the invaders were innocent of clothing. However, a
+round of duck-shot had some effect, though the blacks who escaped the
+pickling slapped themselves in a defiant and grossly-contemptuous
+manner. Each who did so, however, grieved, for another round was fired,
+and each hero must have depended upon the good offices of his brother in
+distress in picking out the pellets. This is said to be the last
+occasion on which the placid Palm Islanders saw an enemy land upon their
+shores. Mickie did not remember the invasion, or if he did so, he was
+not anxious to demonstrate that his ancestors were not cast in the
+heroic mould. Probably all recollection of the escapade is lost to the
+natives of the Palms, and I am driven to accept the white man's
+uncorroborated version of it.
+
+Mickie is very proud of his well-conditioned spouse, "Jinny"--"Missus
+Michael," as Mickie calls her when in the sportive vein--and Jinny, or
+"Penti-byer," her maiden name, reciprocates the regard, and sees that the
+dilly-bag, which does duty for the larder, is supplied with yams, nuts,
+roots and shell-fish, Mickie being responsible for the fish--speared in
+the lagoon at low tide--and the scrub-fowl eggs, and the ivory white
+grubs, etc., upon which they live when there is no "white fella" sitting
+down. When Providence sends a "white fella," they appreciate flour, tea,
+sugar, potatoes, meat, and all sorts of game, from cockatoos to
+flying-foxes. Once Mickie was asked how he managed to win the favour of
+such a fine gin. "Unkl belonga her giv'em me," he replied. There was no
+marriage ceremony. There was no knocking out of a tooth, or the
+administration of a stunning blow on the head with a nulla-nulla, no
+eating of maize-pudding from the same plate, no drinking brandy
+together, no "hand fasting," nor boring of the bride's ears by the
+bridegroom, no tying of hands, nor smearing with each other's blood, nor
+binding together with ropes of grass; simply, "Unkl belonga her giv
+'em me!" Once in his possession, however, and Mickie proceeded to set
+his mark on his bride, so that should any dispute arise as to identity,
+he at least would have authentic brands. With an apparently studied
+array of cicatrices, each 3 inches long and half an inch wide, on her
+arms and shoulders, Mickie marked Jinny for his own. The couple have one
+girl--Mickie prefers to use the word "daw-tah"--and his child had been
+but lately received into the bosom of the family, after several years'
+exile among the whites. It is somewhat of a trouble that "Minnie" had
+almost forgotten her native tongue, and that her parents have to yabber
+to her in English. According to them it will be a year before Minnie
+regains lingual facility. In the meantime great pains are being taken
+with her education, and her accomplishments promise to be varied,
+though entirely unornamental. She will in time be able to recognise at
+a glance the particular kind of decayed timber in which the delicious
+white grub resides, will know that the nut of the cycad has to be
+immersed in a running stream before it is "good fella," and how to grind
+the kernel into flour, and how to mould the dough into a German
+sausage-shaped damper; she will be able to walk about the reef, picking
+up blacklip oysters and clams, without lacerating the soles of her feet,
+and to make a dilly-bag, and, finally, to enjoy a smoke.
+
+Mickie appreciates a joke. When Jinny complained that the scrub caught
+her brand new pipe and had broken it short off, Mickie with an
+extravagant grimace softly urged her to go along Townsville and buy
+another.
+
+He is also superstitious. After dark he will not move a yard from his
+camp without a flaring torch of paper bark, a fiery aspersorium for the
+scaring of the "debil-debil." His opinions on the supernatural are
+unsatisfactory. He does not know what the "debil-debil" is like, or
+what form the ill-will of that mystic being would take--nothing but "that
+fella sit down alonga scrub," and that he has "long fella needle alonga
+hand"; and so he carries and waves about his paper bark torch to scare
+this viewless and dreaded enemy.
+
+Mickie's views as to the future are not quite explicit. "Suppose me go
+bung, me go alonga sky. Bi'mby jump up 'nother fella." He is not at all
+certain whether the transformation would be into a white man or not; in
+fact he appears absolutely indifferent. Another time he will say--"Suppose
+me go bung. Good-bye, finish; no come back. Plenty fella alonga
+Palm Island go bung. He no come back." Daylight disperses all his fears.
+In point of fact he has nothing to fear. His foes are dead, and there is
+no poisonous snake or offensive animal on the Palms. Once he sprang
+suddenly and excitedly into the air as we tramped through the long grass
+on the edge of the sweetly-smelling jungle, with the exclamation,
+"Little fella snake!" Being reminded that he had boldly asserted that
+there was no bad snakes on the island, Mickie replied--"That fella no
+bad. Only make foot big." He never missed a chance of securing a
+hatful of grubs, which, together with the chrysalides and the full-grown
+beetle (brown and glossy) were devoured after being warmed through on
+the ashes. When the tomahawk in the process of cutting out damaged a
+grub, Mickie with a leer of satisfaction would eat the wriggling insect
+with a feigned apology--"Me bin cut that fella." Baked in the ashes the
+chrysalids have a wholesome, clean appearance, with a flavour of
+coco-nut, and the "white fella" always came in for his share.
+
+Mickie's bush craft, his knowledge of the habits of birds and insects
+and the ways of fish, is enviable. Signs and sounds quite indeterminate
+to "white fellas" are full of meaning to him. Of course, by failure to
+comprehend such things, no doubt he has many a time gone hungry, and the
+keenness of his appetite has so sharpened his perceptions that he is
+seldom at fault now. The scratching of a scrub fowl among decayed leaves
+is heard in the jungle at an extraordinary distance, and a splash or
+ripple far out on the edge of the reef tells him that a shark or
+kingfish is driving the mullet into the lagoon, where he may easily
+spear them. He can tell to a quarter of an hour when the fish will leave
+off biting; he hears the scamper of the iguana in the grass when the
+"white fella" fails to catch a sound, and knows when the giant crabs
+will be "walking about" in the mangroves. He is trustworthy and
+obliging, and ready to impart all the lore he possesses, an expert
+boomerang thrower, a dead shot with a nulla-nulla, and an eater of
+everything that comes in his way except "pigee-pigee." Having long had
+the pleasure of his acquaintance, I can cordially wish him a
+never-failing supply of "patter" and tobacco, and surcease of "monda";
+and what more can the heart of a blackfellow desire--save rum?
+
+TOM: HIS WIVES--HIS BATTLES
+
+Tom has been thrice married--at least he has possessed three wives. For
+a few months he had two at a time, and placidly endured the
+consequences.
+
+Of the bride of his youth history has no word--for Tom is the only
+historian of that period, and he ever bears sorrows in silence.
+
+Nelly, whose country borders the beach of the mainland opposite, could
+not speak his language when he fought for her fairly and honourably, and
+won her from her first man. Though reared but a little over 2 miles
+apart, these twain have totally different words for the same objects.
+During married life each has added to the vocabulary of the other.
+
+When we took possession of the island, Nelly would glide into the jungle
+like a frightened snake and hide for days. She was wild, suspicious,
+uncleanly, uncouth--a combination of all the shortcomings of the savage.
+Now she lights the fire every morning, kneads the bread, makes the
+porridge and the coffee, feeds the fowls, washes plates and clothes,
+scrubs floors, and generally does the work of a domestic. She is
+cheerfully industrious, emphatic in her admiration of pictures, and
+smokes continuously, preferring a pipe ornamented with "lead," for she
+has all the woman's love of show. From the most quarrelsome and vixenish
+gin of the camp she has been transformed into a decent-minded
+peacemaker--always ready to atone for the misbehaviour of others, and to
+display without a trace of self-glorification the virtue of
+self-sacrifice. Nelly is never happier than when working about the
+house, except when she saunters off on a Sunday morning, in the glare of
+a new dress, and with the smoke curling from her ornamented pipe,
+beneath a hat which, in variety of tints, shames the sunset sky.
+
+Students of ethnology who may scan these lines may find food for
+reflection in the fact that Tom and Nelly offer exceptions to the rules
+that the totems of Australian blacks generally refer to food, and that
+those whose totems are alike do not marry. Tom's totemic title,
+"Kitalbarra," is derived from a splinter of a rock off an islet to the
+southeast of Dunk Island. "Oongle-bi," Nelly's affinity, is a rock on
+the summit of a hill on the mainland, not far from her birthplace. The
+plea of the rocks was not raised as any just cause or impediment to the
+match when Tom by force of arms espoused Nelly. "Jimmy," Tom and Nelly's
+son, born in civilisation, bears a second name, that of a deceased
+uncle, "Toola-un-guy," the totemic rendering of which is now unknown.
+Another "Jimmy," a native of Hinchinbrook, is differentiated by
+"Yaeki-muggie," the title of the sandspit of one of the Brook Islands.
+
+The confusion of tongues between Tom and Nelly may be briefly
+illustrated--
+
+           TOM ("Kitalbarra").  NELLY ("Oongle-bi").
+
+Sun.        Wee-yee.               Car-rie.
+Moon.       Yil-can.               Car-cal-oon.
+Sky.        Aln-pun.               Moogah-car-boon.
+Mainland.   Yungl-man.             Mung-un.
+Island.     Cul-qua-yah.           Moan-mitte.
+Sea.        Mutta.                 Yoo-moo.
+Fire.       Wam-pui.               Poon-nee.
+Water.      Cam-moo.               Pan-nahr.
+Rain.       Yukan.                 Yukan.
+Man.        Mah-al.                Yer-rah.
+Woman.      Rit-tee.               Ee-bee.
+Baby.       Eee-bee.               Koo-jal.
+Head.       Poo-you.               Oom-poo.
+Foot.       Pin-kin.               Chin-nah.
+Leg.        Waka.                  Too-joo.
+Hand.       Man-dee.               Mul-lah.
+Fish.       Tar-boo.               Kooyah.
+Bird.       Poong-an.              Toon-doo.
+
+The big-eyed walking fish of the mangroves, which the learned have named
+PERIOPHTHALMUS KOELREUTERI, Tom knows as "manning-tsang," and Nelly as
+"mourn!"
+
+During one of his bachelordom interludes a smart young gin known as
+"Dolly" attracted Tom's fancy. He had just "signed on" for a six
+months' cruise with the master of a beche-de-mer schooner. Dolly smiled
+so sweetly upon Tom that Charley, her boy, raged furiously. Tom--never
+demonstrative, always cool and deep--obtaining an advance from his
+captain, bought, among a few other attractive trifles, an extremely
+gaudy dress, and having artlessly displayed the finery, took it all on
+board the schooner, which was to sail the following morning at daylight.
+
+During the evening Dolly strolled casually from the camp and the society
+of the fuming Charley, and disappeared. Tom had quite a trousseau, new
+and bright, for his sweetheart, when she clambered on board, naked, wet,
+and with shining eyes. Next morning Charley tracked her along the beach.
+An old and soiled dress--his gift--on a little promontory of rocks about a
+mile from the anchorage of the schooner completed the love-story.
+
+This intrigue took place many years ago, but Charley was so deeply
+mortified that he hates Tom to this day, and Tom is an uncomfortable
+fellow for anyone disposed to resentfulness.
+
+We know, because he says so, that Tom fought for her, and that Nelly
+gladly accepted the protection of the staunchest man of the district.
+Tom, in his surly moments, is exquisitely cruel; but Nelly's devotion is
+unaffected. Her vanity led her to flaunt her gaudy hat in the hut. Tom
+reproved such flashness--he invariably selects the gayest shirts
+himself--by burning the hat and all the newly-acquired finery. Nelly
+struck back, and Tom, as her eyes were big and ablaze with fury, threw--at
+the cost of burnt fingers--a handful of hot sand and ashes into her
+face. From Tom's point of view it was a splendid feat--one of those bold
+and effective master-strokes that only a ready and determined sportsman
+could conceive and on the instant carry into effect. Nelly's eyes were
+closed for weeks--well-nigh for ever--and the skin peeled off her face;
+but she consented to the cruel punishment without a murmur after the
+first shriek of agony, and won Tom to good temper and tolerance of her
+vanity by all sorts of happy concessions.
+
+How many such tiffs--tough and smart--has poor Nelly borne? Her grief has
+been so sore that she has torn her hair out by the roots in frenzy and
+stamped upon it; but Tom, surly and impassive Tom, is her lord as well
+as her most exacting master, and in their own way they are devoted to
+one another.
+
+The roughest cross Nelly was called upon to bear was the presence of
+Tom's third wife--"Little Jinny"--the manner of whose wooing and
+home-coming is to be told.
+
+News came from Lucinda Point to Clump Point--passed from one to
+another--that Tom's half-brother (a purely fictional relationship) had
+died, leaving a young widow. According to Tom's rendering of the
+matrimonial laws, he was the rightful heir. The widow was all that his
+half-brother had left that was of the slightest consequence.
+
+Tom, telling the circumstances, asked for a holiday that he might
+personally lay claim to his inheritance. Reminded that he had one wife,
+he frankly declared in Nelly's presence, and she seemed to acquiesce,
+that she was no good; but that the other one was a "good fella" in every
+respect, even to washing plates and scrubbing floors.
+
+His holiday was granted. He went away with money in his pockets,
+blankets, several changes of raiment--among them Nelly's best dress and
+hat, dilly-bags brightly coloured, and weapons--boomerang, two black palm
+spears, a great wooden sword, a shield decorated with a complicated
+pattern in red and white earth, and a flashing new tomahawk.
+
+So he departed, with Nelly's best wishes, and full of hope and
+expectation, promising to return in two weeks.
+
+Two months slipped past, and one evening a forlorn, ragged, lean
+scarecrow of a black boy--without a hat, unshaven, without a blanket, and
+even destitute of a pipe, clambered over the side of the steamer, and
+dropped into the boat without a word. It was Tom!
+
+In shreds and patches the history of his experience was related. He had
+arrived at Lucinda, had charmed "Little Jinny" with his manly presence
+and spruceness and the amount of his personal property, supplemented by
+the display and free bestowal of Nelly's choicest finery, and had, as a
+matter of course, been compelled to fight for her. He had been beaten,
+terribly beaten. One ear had been viciously "marked," a triangular
+slice being missing (a subsequent combat removed all trace of this
+mark), and he showed the meritorious scar of a spear-wound on the arm.
+
+Having failed in the stand-up fight, he had resorted to stratagem, had
+been foiled, and forced to flee, abandoning everything, even to that
+last vestige of independence--his pipe.
+
+We knew that he had been hard pressed, for on going gaily away he had
+volunteered to bring a fat young pig from one of the wild herds of
+Hinchinbrook, and he came back empty-handed. He talks of the pig--how fat
+and very young it was--even to this day. He came with his life--that was
+all, and a threadbare sort of life it was at that.
+
+Several months went by--a black boy recovers condition in a day or two
+as does a starved dog--and Tom had saved money. He never forgets, never
+swerves from a purpose. He is as determined as a dung-beetle.
+
+Another leave of absence was granted. A second raid was made upon
+Nelly's wardrobe--two big bailer shells. Elated, freshly shaved and
+smiling, he was a different sort from the individual who had
+shamefacedly slipped over the side of the steamer, bereft of everything
+but life.
+
+He said he would be back in two weeks, and to the day he appeared. His
+youthful third wife he handed down into the boat, and the boat was full
+of their luggage. Ah, that desolated camp at Lucinda! The young lady's
+trousseau was complete even to lingerie. He had won the fight, and the
+bride and the spoils were his.
+
+Poor Nelly! She welcomed "Little Jinny" effusively, and "Little
+Jinny" gave her a dress and a second-best hat. Life for a couple of
+days at the camp was idyllic. Then they took back the gifts of clothing,
+and turned Nelly out of the hut. She built a separate establishment--a
+dome of dried grass on bent sticks, and in it she wept and upbraided,
+and fired up frequently under the torments of jealousy.
+
+Shrill squabbles were of daily occurrence, until the great Peacemaker
+removed Tom's favourite wife. And who more sorely grieved than Nelly!
+
+
+Will the title bear a few words as to Tom the hunter? Was ever a keener,
+a more patient, a more self-possessed, and consequently a more
+successful, sportsman? He it was who, from a cranky punt (no white man
+would venture out to sea in such a craft,) at three o'clock one windy
+afternoon, harpooned an immense bull-turtle, which towed him towards the
+Barrier Reef, into the track of the big steamers 4 miles to the east. He
+battled with the game all the afternoon and evening, overcame it at "the
+dead waste and middle of the night," and towed it back to the beach,
+landing after thirteen hours' continuous work. Tom accomplished the feat
+in a strong breeze and with a turtle diving and tugging, when he might
+have cut the line at any moment and paddled home comfortably.
+
+He is as much at home on the top of a bloodwood tree, hanging round a
+swaying limb while cutting out a "bee nest," as in a frail bark canoe
+among the sharks on the skirts of a shoal of bonito.
+
+As we neared the beach one day a big sea-mullet came into view. Without
+a moment's hesitation, and as it flashed past the boat, Tom, using
+the oar as a spear, hit the slippery fish with such precision and force
+as to impale it. He will harpoon a turtle as it rushes away from the
+boat, 5 feet beneath the surface, with the coolness of a
+billiard-player, and with unerring accuracy "taking off" for the speed
+of the boat and the refraction of the water. All the ways and habits of
+fish, and their favourite feeding-grounds, are to him as pages of an open
+book.
+
+A groper, more voracious and bolder than usual, followed a safely-hooked
+perch from the dim coral garden, worrying it like a bull-dog. As the
+struggling fish splashed on the surface the groper, abandoning its
+illegitimate prey, swerved swiftly downwards. The retreat was a second
+too late, for Tom had seized the, harpoon lying athwart the boat, and
+though the fish appeared through a fathom and a half of water, a vague,
+fleeting, contorted shadow, he reached it. The barbed point passed
+through it, carrying a foot or two of the line, and a 30-pounder was
+added to our catch at one stroke and without a tremor of excitement on
+Tom's part.
+
+He sailed his punt--12 feet long and 4 feet wide--6 miles, loaded with
+eight adults, eight piccaninnies, five dogs, a cat, blankets for the
+crowd, and all the frowsy miscellanea of a black's camp. It was not a
+boatload that landed on the beach: it was a procession. But Tom would go
+to sea on a chip. His skill as a sailor of small boats is largely a
+manifestation of characteristic caution, his precept being--"Subpose big
+seas come one, one--all right. Subpose come two, two--look out!"
+
+
+
+
+"LITTLE JINNY"
+
+In Life and In Death
+
+
+She was called "Little Jinny" to distinguish her from another of the
+blacks about the place--a great, good-natured, giggling creature who
+laughs perpetually and grows ever fatter. There was nothing in common
+between the two. Indeed they frequently had differences, for "Jinny"
+proper is industrious, obliging, cheerful, and full of fun, while she,
+"Little Jinny," was silent, sulky, and ever averse from toil.
+
+Tom, her man, alternately petted and beat her. She, no doubt, deserved
+both, for she was proud and haughty for a black gin, and as venomous at
+times as a scorpion. His hand is heavy, and when he lifted it in anger
+poor "Little Jinny" suffered--but suffered in silence. Her chastisements
+were not frequent, but they seemed to increase her loyalty towards her
+lord and master.
+
+From a European standpoint, "Little Jinny" had little of which to be
+vain. She had a fuzzy head of hair. Some, like fur, crept down across
+her brows, giving her face a singularly unbecoming cast. I did not
+notice this peculiar uncomeliness until she was dying, and I felt then
+more than ever that she was not to be judged in accordance with our
+standard of beauty--though she had many of our little weaknesses. Her
+ignorance of civilised ways was pathetic, yet she was vain and
+coquettish as the fairest of her sex. And her besetting vanity was
+endeavouring to be a "lady." Work was sordid, for she wore garments
+which made her the leader of fashion. She possessed a pair of--well, a
+bifurcated garment--and her whole life was spent in trying to live up to
+it--or them. She succeeded to a certain extent. Her ways were mincing and
+precise, and she lazed away her days quite artistically. A can of water
+was too heavy for her to carry, less than two hours "spell" at a time
+quite an offence to her ideal of the amount of repose that a lady
+wearing the bifurcated garment should permit herself. She was wont to
+sit in the shade of the mango-tree and pretend to do a little gardening.
+It was all pretence. What she really loved to do was to wander among the
+bloodwoods--with Tom, of course--with next to nothing on, the next to
+nothing being the drawers. There, you have them. Then you saw her at her
+best--or rather worst, for she was a thin sapling of a girl, of a dull
+coppery colour, and the garment was not always snowy-white.
+
+Hers, after all, was an ideal existence. She had plenty to eat, as much
+tobacco as was good for her, and outer raiment that in gaudiness
+outrivalled the flame-tree and the yellow hibiscus. She was the
+favourite of two consorts, and only when her pride and scorpion-like
+attributes got the better of her was she corrected.
+
+Now, just the other morning, Tom announced that "Little Jinny" was sick
+"along a bingey" (stomach), and suggested that salt medicine might do
+her good. It was quite a common occurrence for her to be sick. It was
+such an easy and excellent excuse for a day's holiday, when she would
+bask on the soft grey sand and smoke, gazing across the placid bay and
+waiting for meal-times. So no one took her sickness seriously.
+Subsequent inquiries, however, elicited the fact that "Little Jinny"
+had eaten little or no tucker the day prior to Tom's application for
+medicine on her behalf, and that she was really entitled to sympathy of
+the most practical kind. But no one had the least suspicion of the fact.
+Dinner-time came and she did not appear, though she was strolling about
+the flat below the house, apparently only a "little bit sick," as Tom
+reported when he came up to his work.
+
+"That one all right to-morrow," was the reply to an inquiry.
+
+But at five o'clock Tom visited his hut, and hurried back for medicine.
+"Little Jinny" was very bad. We went down with remedies that seemed
+fit from his diagnosis of the case and description of the symptoms, and
+there lay "Little Jinny," obviously dying. She had never complained nor
+whimpered when Tom's heavy hand had corrected her, though the dried
+trickle of blood had been seen on her forehead, and now that she lay
+a-dying, with her figure strangely swollen, she moaned only when Torn,
+with his heavy hand, sought to squeeze out the dead man, "all the same
+like debil-debil," who was, according to him, the cause of the trouble.
+
+But it was all too implacable and crafty a "debil-debil" for Tom to cast
+out. We did our best with brandy and steaming flannels; but it was all
+so useless, for none understood the sickness, or how to prescribe a
+remedy that might be effective. Our helplessness was grievous. We could
+only repeat the sips of brandy and water, and endeavour to warm the
+chilly little body with steamy flannels.
+
+All did something. Even Nelly, the second best wife, who had had to play
+a very subordinate part in the camp, and whom "Little Jinny" had
+slapped and had abused with all the volubility of spite and temper,
+crouched beside her dying rival, chafing her cold hands and warming her
+cheeks.
+
+And here was the most touching incident of the pathetic scene. We had
+brandy and blankets and flannels wherewith to endeavour to afford
+relief. Poor Nelly had nothing. Her poverty was grim, but she had some
+resource. She had no means of alleviating the suffering save those which
+spendthrift Nature provided--the smooth oily leaf of the "Raroo." She
+used these aromatic leaves, all that she had, with no little art and
+tenderness. Warming them over the fire until the oil exuded, she would
+apply them to the hairy jowl of the girl, and anon to her furry forehead
+and cheeks.
+
+While there is life there is hope is evidently Nelly's creed, and so she
+crunched and warmed the pungently odorous leaves, and rubbed the hands
+that had often smitten her in anger. Poor Nelly sighed piteously as she
+continued her work, while Tom massaged the body of the girl, hoping to
+expel the "debil-debil!" His theory was, and is, that some man whom
+"Little Jinny" had known down about Hinchinbrook had died, and his
+"debil-debil all the same like dead man," had "sat down" in "Little
+Jinny's bingey,"--hence her distended condition.
+
+His efforts to cast out this personal "debil" were futile, and as the
+poor creature lapsed into unconsciousness he would blow gusty breaths
+upon her big black eyes. It was his method of revivification. In my
+ignorance I knew none more to the purpose. But it was all in vain. The
+great eyes of this specimen of uncivilised humanity clouded over, and
+then brightened. She moaned in response to Tom's well-intended but too
+forcible massaging. Nelly applied without ceasing the one means of
+relief that she possessed, the heated "Raroo" leaf, to cheek and
+forehead, while we exhausted our woefully meagre stock of knowledge in
+endeavouring to ease the last moments of the dying.
+
+But poor "Little Jinny's" creditor was not to be denied. He was
+exacting, cruelly exacting, imperious, implacable. He would have the
+uttermost farthing's worth of her poor, crude life.
+
+Nelly might sigh and use the whole armful of "Raroo" leaves; Tom might
+massage, and the others do their best, which was pitiably poor, and
+their uttermost, which was ever so mean and little, the Conquering Worm
+would have its victim. And so with a few long-drawn, gulping sighs, each
+at a longer interval than the last, until the final one, "Little Jinny"
+passed away as the sun touched the dark blue barrier of mountains
+across the channel to the west.
+
+Then Nelly's sighs changed into a wail, in which the other members of
+the camp joined, a penetrating falsetto cry which continued for two
+days, mingled with the strong man's expression of woe, a low, weird yet
+not inharmonious hum. For two days they chanted the virtues of the dead,
+told of her likes and dislikes, and of their grief, crouching beside the
+blanket-covered form. Then they buried her in the smoky hut in which she
+lived, digging a shallow grave in the black sand, and there she rests
+with them.
+
+Tom has put on the mourning of his tribe, and will not for several years
+eat of a certain fish associated with "Little Jinny's" original name.
+Nor can he bear to be reminded of her. The day after she was buried he
+spent the hours between daylight and sunset wandering about wherever
+"Little Jinny" had been wont, obliterating the tracks made by her feet.
+With the keenest of sight, which is one of the superior qualifications
+of the race, he discerned the tracks on the sandy, forest-clad flat, and
+rubbed them out with his foot.
+
+Just as love-lorn Orlando ran about the forest of Arden carving on
+
+"Every tree
+The fair, the chaste, the unexpressive she,"
+
+so this tough, rude savage, spent the, whole day smothering the marks
+that would "sad remembrance bring" of the poor creature for whom he had
+that kind of feeling that in the savage stands for love. Nature would
+have performed the office as effectually, and perhaps more tenderly, but
+Tom's hasty grief drove him remorselessly, until no outward and visible
+sign of the dead girl remained to challenge it.
+
+When I ponder upon Nelly's "Raroo" leaves and Tom's terrible and
+precise earnestness in blotting out the memory of the past, I am
+convinced that this race, despised and neglected of men, can be as
+devoted to one another as truly as we who are so superior to them in
+many attributes.
+
+THE LANGUAGE TEST
+
+Casual investigations confirm the opinion that the language of the
+natives of Dunk, Hinchinbrook and the intervening isles was mutually
+understood. Certainly there are more terms in common with Dunk Island
+and the southern end of Hinchinbrook--40 miles away--than with Dunk Island
+and the adjacent mainland. In pre-white folks days amicable intercourse
+between the natives of the islands and of the mainland was unknown
+though the islanders frequently visited one another. Hence no doubt
+their dominant character and higher order of intelligence generally.
+Literally the insular was a floating population, and derived the
+advantage of intercommunication. That of the mainland was stationary. It
+groped dimly in the jungle, each sept, isolated by bewildering
+differences in language, cramped, narrow, suspicious. Tribes whose
+country came within 2 or 3 miles of the sea never intruded on the beach,
+and the Beachcombers dared not venture beyond recognised limits. To this
+day Tom will not "walk about" inland unless he is in possession of real
+superiority in the matter of arms, or has a following in force. He
+professes fear of the primordial savagery of the "man alonga bush."
+
+LAST OF THE LINE
+
+The last King of Dunk Island--known to the whites as "Jimmy"--was a
+tall, lanky man, irreclaimably truculent, incapable of recognising the
+dominance of those who bestowed his Christian name. Long after most of
+his fellows had submitted in a more or less kindly spirit to the
+o'ermastering-race, "Jimmy" held aloof, and in his savage, self-reliant
+way, deemed himself a worthy foe of the best of them. Often he
+endeavoured to persuade his companions to join him in a policy of active
+resentment. Once, when remonstrated with on account of some offence
+against the rights of property, he assumed a hostile disposition, and
+calling upon others, took up a spear, determined if possible to rouse a
+revolt. Few in number, the whites could not permit their authority to be
+questioned, and a demonstration with a rifle silenced all show of
+opposition. "Jimmy," disgusted with the docility of his fellows,
+departed, uttering wrath and threatenings, and was no more seen in the
+vicinity. This incident took place nearly twenty years ago on the
+mainland. "King Jimmy, the Irreconcilable," died a natural death. He
+does not sleep with his fathers on his native soil, but at Tam o' Shanter
+Point, nor are any of his acts and deeds remembered, save that which
+illustrates his hatred of the whites, and his bold and truculent spirit.
+
+None of those who remain is equal to the last of the royal line in
+stature. Toby stands 5 feet 7 1/2 inches. Tom, 5 feet 7 inches. Brow,
+5 feet 2 3/4 inches, and Willie, 5 feet 2 inches. Tom's expanded chest
+measures 36 1/2 inches, and Toby's, 36; Brow's, 34 1/2, Willie's,
+34 inches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+ATTRIBUTES AND ANECDOTES
+
+
+Blacks possess acquirements which white people cannot successfully
+imitate, are industrious in fashioning weapons and in the invention and
+practice of primitive forms of amusement, and are in many respects
+entertaining subjects to those who apply themselves, though
+superficially, to the study of their habits and customs. On the impulse
+of the moment they are generous or cruel, erratic, purposeless, unstable
+as water.
+
+The cat's cradle of childhood's days, in the hands of a black who has
+practised the pastime, becomes most elaborate. He makes complicated
+designs never dreamt of by the whites--fish, palm-trees, turtles, snakes,
+birds flying, men and women, etc. etc., the variety being endless. Toy
+darts and toy boomerangs are common, and the system of signalling by
+gesture comprehensive and excellent. The Queensland Government has taken
+means for the preservation of knowledge of many of the sports and
+pastimes, as well as the language and habits of the blacks, being
+impressed with the urgency of so doing by the rapid decrease in their
+numbers. Many have been hastened from the world by a new and seductive
+vice. Chinese cultivators of bananas found the blacks useful, and
+rewarded them with the ashes from their opium-pipes. Mixed with water the
+dregs form a warm and comforting beverage, but its effects were
+terrible. The fiery liquors of mean whites, and diseases contracted from
+the depraved, killed off many of the original lords of the soil. Opium
+was supplying the finishing touches when the Australian Federal
+Government, by an act of conscious virtue, forbade its introduction to
+the Commonwealth, save for use as a drug. Indirectly the blacks have
+been saved from demoralisation which threatened to become
+precipitate--that is to say, in those localities where the smuggling of
+opium has been suppressed.
+
+The dwindling away of the race is, however, inevitable. A few anecdotes
+may perhaps throw unaccustomed light upon attributes not generally
+understood, and show that the Australian aboriginal, uncouth savage as
+he is, is not altogether devoid of smartness and good-humour.
+
+COMMON AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
+
+Australian blacks have been referred to as socialists, and even
+communists. Certainly they repudiate thrift, and may therefore be said
+to side with some socialists, and their camp customs embody communistic
+principles. The cunningness and zeal with which they enforce individual
+rights in property may be cited in connection with a food tree. When a
+neighbouring estate was first settled, in the jungle on the site
+selected for the house were several magnificent bean-trees. One was
+about to be felled, when an old man, chief of the camp close by, made it
+known through an interpreter that food-bearing trees were not to be cut
+down. Eventually a bargain was struck, the whole of the trees on the
+spot being purchased from the old man, the pioneers being glad of the
+opportunity of establishing goodwill by a friendly understanding. The
+day following, another patriarch of the camp appeared and made it known
+that he, too, had property rights in the trees, and demanded payment.
+Without formally recognising his claim, but with the idea of
+strengthening the bond of good-fellowship, his price was also paid.
+Again a third old man made a similar demand, explaining that neither of
+the others had the right of disposing of his individual interests. He,
+too, was sent away content. In the course of a day or two a young man
+presented his claim, expounding the law of the country and the camp,
+which was to the purpose that no single person or any number of persons,
+individually or collectively, was or were entitled to barter the rights
+and property of another. The bean-trees especially were subject to the
+law of entail. The old men, the young soothsayer explained, could not
+legally deprive him of his rights to the fruit of the trees that had
+been the property of his as well as their ancestors, though he,
+disingenuously, was quite ready for a personal consideration to forego
+his privileges. He, too, was for peace sake made happy; and it was
+there and then explained by the settlers, definitely and determinedly,
+that no more payment for the particular trees about to be sacrificed on
+the altar of civilisation would be made. In future the laws of the camps
+were to be restricted to the hundreds of other bean-trees in the jungle,
+each of which, if wanted, would be the subject of special negotiation.
+
+THE "DEBIL-DEBIL"
+
+Blacks in their attempts to give verisimilitude to the "debil-debil"
+generally describe that personage as having hands fitted with hooks or
+sharp needles. An intelligent boy of the Cape York Peninsula added a few
+thrilling details on an occasion, when, to allay his fears, his Boss had
+promised to shoot the "debil-debil" should the boy be molested. "No
+more carn shoot that fella, Boss. All asame sum-moke." The boy said that
+the "debil-debil" had arms like the lawyer vine--long and set with
+spurs--and dwelt in the heart of the mountains, in the thickest jungle.
+"Subpose," said the terrified boy, "black fella might hear 'em, that
+debil-debil tching out, altogether no more yabber little bit (keep
+silence). Altogether tell 'um um-boi-ya (medicine man). That one
+trow'um wookoo (message-stick) alonga scrub. He trow'um pire stick,
+ung-kurra, eparra ung neera, arwonadeer (north, south, west, east). He
+sit down little bit. Bi'mby that one ah-anaburra (scrub turkey) he plenty
+'tching out. Altogether black fella make 'um big fella fire. He no more
+sleep. He look out all time. Bi'mby, longa morning he altogether yan. He
+looked out 'nother fella yamber (camp). Ole man plenty time bin yabba me
+debil-debil before long time, bin catch 'em ole man ole woman. He no
+more see 'em. He find 'em little bit yetin (skin) longa yil-gil-gil
+(lawyer vine). Ole man bin yabba some time debil-debil 'tching out like
+it big fella oor-bung-ah (big wind) first time; bi'mby tching out all
+asame youn-me bin hear 'em. Black fella he no more see 'em nuthin. One
+time altogether been see 'em like it sum-moke. Heyan. Debil-debil come
+up. Me no bin see 'em. Me bin hear 'em one time. Me close up ar-tum-ena
+(baby)."
+
+Another boy gave quite a different personality to the "debil-debil!" "Big
+fella. All asame dead man. All bone, no more meat." Eyes of fire were
+added as finishing touches.
+
+CLOTHING SUPERFLUOUS
+
+The parents of our domesticated blacks not only never wore clothes, but
+hardly knew what clothes were. They needed none for warmth. At anyrate,
+blankets or cloaks beaten out of the inner bark of a particular fig-tree
+(FICUS EHRETIOIDS) were the only covering they had. Not every one
+possessed even a fig-tree blanket. During inclement weather they
+squatted in their humpies, or braved the elements "with honour clad."
+Thinking no evil, clothing for decency's sake was superfluous. Clothes
+are worn at the present day, partly as a concession to the
+fastidiousness of the whites, and largely from vanity. Our blacks are
+exceedingly fond of dress; the more glaring and clashing the colours the
+greater the joy of possession.
+
+The party go off in the shimmer of Sunday's finery, and just out of
+sight all will be discarded and "planted," for the favourite costume
+for the walk-about is that of the previous generation. Having spent the
+whole day in blissful innocence of clothes, they return in the evening
+in their gaudy attire, fresh as from a comic garden-party.
+
+BROTHER AND SISTER
+
+As they grow up, brothers assume towards their sisters an attitude of
+reserve almost amounting to repugnance. The boy will not eat anything
+the sister has cooked, nor knowingly touch anything she has handled. The
+more contemptuous and austere his bearing towards her the more proper it
+is. Nelly's brother paid a visit to the island, and she cooked a huge
+damper at the kitchen stove. When it was taken to the camp, hot and
+fragrant, "Billy" at once inquired who had cooked it. Nelly, wishing
+that her brother should not deprive himself of his share, told a white
+lie in the one word, "Missis!" Billy ate heartily and was none the
+worse, while Nelly, who is fond of Billy, notwithstanding his official
+detestation of her, chuckled at the successful deception.
+
+THE RAINBOW
+
+One of childhood's most fascinating fables was, that at the places where
+the rainbow touched the earth would be found a bag of gold and
+glittering gems. Among some North Queensland blacks almost exactly the
+same fairy tale is current. "Muhr-amalee," remarked a boy, pointing to
+a rainbow which seemed to spring from the Island of Bedarra. "That fella
+no good. Hot, burning. Alonga my country too many. Come out alonga
+ground, bend over, go down. Subpose me go close up kill 'em along spear,
+run away and plant. Bi'mby come back, find plenty red stone, yalla
+stone. Fill 'em up dilly-bag. Old man bin tell 'em. Me no go close up
+along Muhr-amalee. Too fright!"
+
+SWIMMING FEATS
+
+In their endurance as long-distance swimmers, and in the ease with which
+they perform various incompatible operations in the water, there are few
+to equal the coastal blacks of North Queensland. For a trifling
+consideration they will successfully undertake feats which prove that
+they are almost as much at home in deep water as upon land, and when put
+to the test their strength and hardihood are extraordinary. Boys
+employed on beche-de-mer boats become almost amphibious. Some, as they
+swim and dive, collect the fish into a heap on the bottom of the sea
+until they have a parcel worthy of being taken to the attendant dinghy,
+alongside which they will come with arms so full as to restrict movement
+to a singular wriggle of the shoulders. What would be an extremely
+awkward burden for a white man on shore, the expert black boy carries as
+he swims with case, in the course of his daily round and common task.
+
+During the Princess Charlotte Bay cyclone one of the survivors, after an
+absence of nearly twenty-four hours, came ashore. He explained that the
+boat of which he had been one of the crew was "drowned finish," and that
+the sea had taken him out towards the Barrier. He swam for a long time,
+and at last got tired and went to sleep, and for the best part of that
+frantic night he slept as he swam. Then the wind changed, and he came in
+with it, landing very little the worse. Others, on the same occasion,
+swam for fifteen and twenty hours; but "Dick" was the only one who
+went far out to sea, had a night's rest, landed fairly fresh, and seemed
+to accept the experience as a matter of course.
+
+Again, three boys and a gin--Charley, Belle Vue, Tom and Mary--were
+sailing out to a reef in a little dingy, when they sighted a turtle
+basking on the surface. Charley and Belle Vue jumped overboard and seized
+the turtle. It was a monster, and so strong that they called for help, and
+Tom plunged in to their assistance. Mary, frightened of being alone in
+the boat, also sprang overboard, taking her blanket with her, and the
+boat speedily sailed and drifted beyond reach. Charley and Belle Vue at
+once swam to a beacon marking a submerged reef about a mile away, but
+Tom and Mary, being caught in the current, were swept past the only
+available resting-place. They were 8 miles from shore. Tom soon began to
+flounder, but Mary, keeping her heart and her precious blanket, cheered
+him on, and, changing her course, took a "fair wind down," as she
+afterwards said, towards a distant point of the mainland. Lifting the
+giant despair from her boy's shoulders with encouraging words, holding
+him up occasionally when he got tired, and clinging all the time to the
+only piece of personal property she possessed, Mary eventually landed in
+a quiet bay. Tom was so exhausted that she had to drag him up on the
+sand, and having made him comfortable with her safe but sodden blanket,
+she hurried into town to report the circumstances to the police. A boat
+was sent to the rescue of Charley and Belle Vue, still clinging to the
+beacon, and the derelict dinghy was picked up. Nothing was lost but the
+turtle.
+
+SMOKE SIGNALS
+
+It is many years since a black boy at Port Darwin remarked casually to
+his master, a Government official there, "Steamer him come on; him sit
+down lame fella," and began to limp across the room. He said that the
+steamer was a long way away; but "blackfella he make 'em smoke;
+blackfella bin tell 'em."
+
+Four days after the steamer GUTHRIE slowly entered the port with her
+machinery badly disabled.
+
+THUNDER FACTORY
+
+A boy who had visited towns, listening intently to a reverberating peal
+of thunder asked--"How make 'em that row, Boss? He got big wheel?"
+
+Home keeping blacks have homely wits. Having no experience of the rumble
+and rattle of traffic they ascribe to thunder a mysterious origin, and
+indicate though with reserve, the very place where it is made. The swirl
+of a creek in the mainland has excavated a circular water hole in a soft
+rock, brick red in colour. This hole is the local thunder factory, and
+the blacks were wont to hang fish hooks across it from pieces of lawyer
+cane, with the idea of ensnaring the young thunder before it had the
+chance of becoming big and formidable.
+
+THE ORACLE
+
+Divination by means of the intestines of animals is practised by the
+blacks in some parts of North Queensland. A young gin died suddenly on
+the lower Johnstone River. Immediately after, the young men of the camp
+went out hunting, bringing back a wallaby. The entrails were removed,
+and an old woman--the Atropos of the camp--stretched them between her
+fingers in half-yard lengths, simultaneously pronouncing the title of a
+tribe in the district. The tribe, the name of which was being uttered as
+the gut parted, was denounced as the source of the witchcraft which had
+occasioned the untimely death of the gin. Vengeance followed as a matter
+of course.
+
+A REAL LETTER
+
+Sam, a boy living in the Russell River scrub, spoke thus to his
+master:--
+
+"One fella boy, Dick, he come up fight along me four days."
+
+"How you know, Sam?" asked the boss.
+
+"Dick, he bin make 'em this one letter," replied Sam, picking up a palm
+leaf from which all the leaflets save seven, had been torn. Three of the
+seven had been turned down at the terminal point, and Sam continued his
+explanation. "He no come Monday, he no come Tuesday, he no come
+Wednesday, he come Thursday," indicating the first upright leaflet.
+
+Sam said that he had an outstanding quarrel with Dick and had expected
+the challenge conveyed by the letter he had picked up on the track that
+morning.
+
+When Thursday came Dick appeared well armed, and the two had an earnest,
+honourable and exhilarating combat and parted good friends.
+
+A BLACK DEGENERATE
+
+A remarkable case is in the early records of the Lower Murray (between
+New South Wales and Victoria), and was quoted long since. A number of
+blacks died in agonising convulsions. Some thirty had succumbed, before
+a dear old German doctor, who wandered up and down the river, a loved
+and welcome guest at every station, happened along when a gin was
+stricken. He diagnosed strychnine poisoning. The greatest mystery
+surrounded the affair, and some of the whites undertook to watch the
+camp. A clue was furnished by the old doctor, who, when attending to the
+dying gin, noticed that one of the men seemed to find her sufferings
+most diverting. He laughed, wandered away, and returned time after time,
+repeating to himself before each outburst--"My word, plenty kick it,
+that fella!" Somebody remembered that this black, who rejoiced in the
+name of Tommy Simpson, had been almost tickled to death when he saw a
+dog dying at the station from strychnine. He was watched, and some of
+the powder he had stolen from a bottle in the store discovered in a
+piece of opossum skin inside a very dilapidated old hat. Taxed with the
+crime, he made free admission of his guilt, but was apparently incapable
+of realising that he had done any wrong. It seemed that his chief reason
+for keeping his secret so long was that he wanted to have the fun all to
+himself. The other blacks were very differently impressed; they
+surrounded Tommy Simpson and speared him until he died. To the last,
+Tommy's ruling frame of mind was surprise, and he went to his death
+quite unable to understand why his fellows should have made such a fuss
+about his little joke.
+
+JUMPED AT A CONCLUSION
+
+Occasionally black boys have the misfortune to do exactly the wrong
+thing with the best intentions. A beche-de-mer schooner sadly in need of
+a coat of paint, ran into a northern port and brought up alongside a
+similar but tidy craft, which at the time was laid up. In obedience to
+natural curiosity the captain went on board the idle vessel and had a
+good look over her, paced off some of her dimensions and mentally
+approved her lines. In the morning he brought out a quantity of black
+paint with which a friend who had taken pity of the weather-beaten
+condition of his vessel had presented him, and ordered his boys to begin
+work. Then he went ashore, spending a most agreeable morning among his
+friends. just before dinner a chum asked him what his boys were doing.
+He replied, "Oh, before I left I set them to work to paint the ship."
+"Do you know what ship they are painting?" asked the friend. "Yes! I am
+jolly well sure it's mine." "Well, you had better go and see how they
+are getting on." He went, and found all hands merrily at work painting
+the strange vessel. They had in excess of industry covered one of her
+neat white sides completely, having jumped at the conclusion that the
+captain had bought her. It was an expensive blunder, and a practical
+lesson in the chemistry of colours. A large quantity of white paint had
+to be bought to smother the black coat, and another lot of black paint
+for his own woe-begone craft.
+
+PRIDE OF RACE
+
+"Harry" was a splendid specimen of humanity. Tall, lithesome, handsome,
+intelligent, proud of superior abilities, prouder of his style. In his
+time he played many parts. A stockrider, when he would appear in a gay
+shirt, tight white moleskins, cabbage-tree hat, flash riding-boots with
+glittering spurs. A bullock driver, when his costume would be more
+subdued, but when he would be fully equipped, even to the chirpy phrases
+in which working bullocks are accustomed to be addressed. Then as a
+vagrant black, when his attire would be nothing at all in camp, and
+little more than a frowsy blanket when visiting the town. But in all of
+his characters he had an unconstrained contempt for Chinese, and
+delighted in ridiculing and frightening them. In the part of a
+bullock-driver he drew up his team in front of a store. The manager
+shouted--"Don't want that load here, Harry! You tak 'em to back store.
+You savee?" The "savee" touched Harry's dignity. "What for you say
+savee? You take me for a blurry Chinaman?"
+
+Class distinction prevails even among the race. "Polly," in her own
+estimation, was highly civilised, and posed haughtily before her
+uncultured cousins. Looking across to the mainland beach one day, she
+said--"Whiteman walk about over there, longa beach." Then, gazing more
+fixedly, and with all possible disdain in her tones--"No; only nigger!"
+
+Nearly all civilised blacks have exalted opinions of themselves. It is
+told that Marsh, the aboriginal bowler, of Sydney, wanted to join the
+Australian Natives' Association, and on being black-balled said--"Those
+fellows, Australian natives! My people were leading people in
+Australia when their people were supping porridge in Scotland or digging
+potatoes in Ireland." When Marsh and Henry met as rival fast bowlers in
+a match between Queensland and New South Wales, it was proposed to the
+former that he should be introduced to the Queenslander. "What!" he
+ejaculated--"that myall? No, thank you. It's quite bad enough to meet
+him on the field. Why, the fellow would want to go in to tea with me.
+Give him a 'possum." These yarns may be too good to be true, but they at
+least illustrate a well-recognised phase of aboriginal character.
+
+"YANKEE CHARLEY"
+
+At rare intervals one finds a black who knows how to drive a bargain.
+"Yankee Charley" came, badly wanting a shirt. The only one available
+was valued at 2s. 6d., and Charley produced 2s., protesting that that
+represented his total capital, the extreme limit of his financial
+resources--his uttermost farthing, as it were. At that sum the Boss
+disposed of the shirt, for the need of the stranger within his gates
+threatened to become shocking, as "Yankee Charley" possessed few of
+the "artificial contrivances that hold society together!" Retiring to
+the scrub, Charley took off his ruined singlet, came back smiling in his
+new shirt, and with delightful candour tendered 6d. for a flash
+handkerchief. He got it for his smartness.
+
+MYALL'S BAKING
+
+When blacks are introduced to the ways of white men, singular, often
+grotesque episodes occur. A big, shy, clumsy fellow endeavouring to put
+on a shirt as a pair of "combinations" does cut an absurd figure, and
+the first efforts of many meddling and unskilled cooks to make a
+"damper" are often pathetic failures. Not long since a beche-de-mer
+fisherman engaged a crew from the tablelands at the back of Princess
+Charlotte Bay. Never having been on board a schooner before, and being
+absolutely innocent of the ways of the whites, they found "damper"
+unpalatable, and flour was given them that they might prepare it after
+their own methods. Some nuts ("koie-ie," CRYPTOCARIA PALMERSTONI, for
+example) blacks toast until the shell (impregnated with resin) starts
+into a blaze and the kernel falls out. The kernels are then chewed and
+ejected until sufficient dough is available for a cake, which is
+flattened out between green leaves and toasted. The dough "rises" as
+though leavened with yeast, but this lightness is considered a fault,
+for the dough is taken out, squeezed between hands moistened with
+spittle until it becomes sodden. Then it is bound again tightly in green
+leaves in long rolls, and buried in the hot ashes till cooked. Such
+cakes are said to be very nice. They must be nutritious for the blacks
+among whom Koi-ie is one of the principal foods are fat and agile
+fellows. These Princess Charlotte Bay boys cooked their flour in a
+somewhat similar way. The result was a sodden, tough, dirty damper, the
+sight of which roused the not usually tender susceptibilities of the
+owner of the boat. Taking pity on the untutored boys, he had a proper
+damper made with soda and acid and a due proportion of salt. It turned
+out a beauty, so spongy and light that it almost lifted the lid off the
+camp oven, in which it was baked. The boys accepted it, but not without
+manifestations of doubt and suspicion. They presently returned in a
+solid and unanimous deputation loudly proclaiming that the boss was a
+humbug, and had cheated them, the bread being full of holes containing
+no "ki-ki" whatever, while they made "ki-ki" as dense as the deck, which
+they tapped with their feet significantly and about which there was no
+palpably hollow fraud. At first the boss failed to understand, for the
+blacks had little even of pidgin English. When he did realise the true
+state of the case he wasted no breath in explanations. The blacks
+catered for themselves in the future, and got fat and saucy on the diet
+of plain flour and water, so cooked that sometimes it was like
+half-burnt deal, and as often a sticky, ropy mess.
+
+EVERYTHING FOR A NAME
+
+To the blacks of North Queensland there is a great deal in a name. When
+a piccaninny is born, the first request is--"You put 'em (or make 'em)
+name belonga that fella!" When a strange boy, a myall, "comes in" he
+wants a name, and until he gets it he is as forlorn as an ownerless dog.
+Anything does, from "Adam" to "Yellow-belly" or "Belle Vue." He seems
+as proud of the new possession as a white boy of his first pair of
+trousers, and soon forgets his original name. "What name belonga you,
+your country?" I asked an alert boy. "I bin lose 'em; I no find 'em.
+Boss, he catch 'em alonga paper!"
+
+THE KNIGHTLY GROWTH
+
+Wallace, in his MALAY ARCHIPELAGO, gives an amusing account of a native
+who was superbly vain of an isolated tuft of hair on the one side of his
+chin, the only semblance of beard he possessed. A black boy on one of
+the inland stations left with a mob of travelling cattle for the south.
+When he returned after many days, two hairs had sprouted from a mole on
+his cheek, and he was for ever fondling them with pride and pleasure.
+
+"Hello! Jacky!" exclaimed the manager of the station, noticing him on
+his return for the first time. "You catch gem plenty whisker now," and
+feinted to pluck out the twin hairs.
+
+Jacky started back in dismay. "You no broke 'em! You no broke 'em!"
+
+Another boy showed that the cruel edge of vanity which prompts others to
+dye their hair is felt by the race. White hairs began to mingle with the
+black of his moustache, and one by one he plucked them out. The
+moustache became thinner and thinner, until the lip was as bare as a
+baby's cheek, while the fraudulently youthful appearance gave obvious
+satisfaction.
+
+HONOUR AND GLORY
+
+As we sat enjoying the cool moonlight, Mickie announced that Jinny
+desired an interview. "All right, Mickie, tell her come along." "No,
+bi'mby. When finish wash 'em plate." That duty disposed of, Mickie--"Now
+Boss." "Well, come along, Jinny. What you want?" "No, Boss; I no want
+talk alonga you, Mickie humbug you. What for you humbug Boss, Mickie?"
+Jinny was bashful, for the subject was momentous, touched her pride, and
+had been depressing her gaiety for many weeks. Presently she came and
+with emphatic deliberation said--"Boss--No--good--Missis--call--out--
+Jinny! Jinny! When want wash 'em plate. More better you hammer 'em that
+fella, all asame Essie!" Jinny did not wish that the missis should be
+chastised, but that she should be summoned to the plate washing with the
+pomp and ceremony of a dinner gong, as the maid used to do in a more
+civilised home.
+
+FIRE JUMP UP
+
+Mickie and Jinny once paid a visit to town, and Jinny, making an
+afternoon call, was invited to have a cup of tea. She said, "Never mind,
+Missis. Fire, he no burn." A gas stove was available, and Jinny jumped
+and exclaimed as the blue flame sprang from nowhere. Wherever the lady
+of the house pleased to apply a match the fire came. Next morning Mickie
+was brought round to witness the wonder, Jinny asking--"Missis. You
+show 'em Mickie fire jump up all about!"
+
+SLOP TEETH
+
+A lady up North was asked by her black maid, whose face had been
+terribly battered by her infuriated husband, to send to the shop for new
+teeth, in payment of which she tendered half-a-crown, promising "two
+bob more" as wages accumulated. This is a fact, and therefore
+comparable with the anecdote which tells that a military bandmaster
+demanded the return of a set of teeth supplied at the regiment's expense
+to a cornet player who had been granted his discharge.
+
+A FASCINATED BOY
+
+Seas swamped a small cutter as she was beating across the bar of a
+Northern river. Exerting themselves to the utmost, the owners, with two
+black boys, managed to save the boat, but all the food on board was
+ruined, and blankets and clothing saturated. Hungry and dejected the
+party prepared to put away the time until the weather calmed. In the
+afternoon, fortune smiled. Another cutter came in sight, and with the
+assistance of those on shore, managed to get into safety and shelter.
+All hands were liberally treated to needful refreshment. "Say when!"
+said the cheery Boss, as he poured a revivifying dose of whisky into a
+pannikin held by the expectant but shivering boy. The elixir gurgled and
+glittered before his fascinated eyes until the pannikin held enough for
+two stiff nobblers, without evoking any polite verbal restraint. "My
+word!" said the Boss, at last, "that boy can't say when."
+
+AWKWARD CROSS-EXAMINATION
+
+Mickie and Jinny being privileged became familiar, and spoke all sorts
+of confidences in the ears of their mistress. Visitors came, an old
+friend and her daughters, a blonde and a brunette. The contrast in the
+types of the girls puzzled Mickie. He took an early opportunity to
+cross-examine one from whom he thought he could obtain confidential
+information. "What Gwen sister belonga Glad?" he asked. "Yes, Mickie"
+"Same mother?" queried Mickie. "Yes, of course." Then came without
+hesitation or reserve the dumbfounding question: "Same father?"
+
+THE ONLY ROCK
+
+Some may sneer when absolute originality is claimed for the following
+little anecdote, for almost a facsimile of it happens to be among the
+most time-honoured of jests. Rounding Clump Point in a light
+centre-board cutter, the Boss, who was steering, asked Willie, whose
+local knowledge was being relied on: "Any stone here, Willie?" "Yes,"
+was the response, "one fella." The words were yet on the lips of the boy
+when the centre-board jumped with a clang. "Why you no tell me before?"
+angrily remonstrated the Boss. Willie--"No more. Only one fella. You
+catch 'em!"
+
+SAW THE JOKE
+
+Our blacks saw "friends" on the mainland beach, and lit two signal
+fires. Mickie said, "Me tell 'em that fella bring basket."
+Cross-examined, he had to admit that the two fires merely signified a
+general invitation to his mainland friends to come across. Then--"That
+fella got 'em basket, me get 'em." A friend doubted the range of the
+black's vision, which was truly telescopic, as we frequently verified
+with a pair of powerful field glasses, but not to be thought inferior in
+this respect, he solemnly declared that he saw Jinny's cousin on the
+beach strike a light for his pipe. At first the irony of the remark was
+not appreciated, then Jinny (after vainly peering across the sea), saw
+the joke and gave a wild exhilarating exhibition of amusement. She sat
+down and rolled about shouting and screeching, hardly able to tell
+Mickie the fun, and when he was let into it the pantomime was the more
+extravagant. The outburst continued throughout the day at intervals,
+Jinny apologising for her boisterousness with reiterations--"Misser
+Johnssing say he been see 'em cousin belonga me light 'em pipe!" Jinny
+still rehearses the story at frequent intervals, and with hysterical
+outbursts.
+
+ZEBRA'S VANITY
+
+To half civilised blacks a racecourse is an earthly paradise; a jockey,
+a sort of demi-god. A lady shut up her house one race day, leaving
+"Zebra" in charge. Returning, she was amazed to find one of the big
+rooms open, and to hear the buzz of a sewing machine. Zebra,
+trouserless, scarcely took the trouble to look round as he informed
+her--"Me make 'em trouser all a same Yarraman (horse)." His desire for
+tight riding breeches was not restrained, and the consequence was in the
+nature of a disaster.
+
+LAURA'S TRAITS
+
+Laura was a bad girl. Like Topsy, she acknowledged her naughtiness, but
+never attempted to reform. A considerable quantity of milk had
+disappeared from a jug, and her mistress asked--"You been drink milk,
+Laura?" "No, missis, me no drink 'em." But the tell-tale moustache of
+cream still lingered on her lips. Laura lived in a quiet home, where
+there were no children, and few dishes to wash. The State Orphanage was
+not far away, and the children thereof paraded every day on their way to
+the State school. Gazing at the long procession marching two by two
+Laura, with a far away look in her eyes, said--"Missis. Me no like wash
+'em plate belonga these fellas!" Laura was wont to be sent to Sunday
+school, where her ways were precise and demure, and where her natural
+smartness gained her credit, and many good conduct tickets. Once she was
+overheard at her devotions--"Please, Mr God, make missis strong woman,
+make missis good woman!" She was sick, and her mistress insisted upon
+administering castor oil, but Laura made a fuss. At last her mistress
+said--"All right, Laura, suppose you no take 'em medicine, I go for
+doctor." "No, no, missis. Me die meself!"
+
+A variety troupe visited the town, and Laura was taken to a performance.
+Among the "freaks" were General Mite and his consort. Laura came back
+with this proud boast--"I bin shake hands alonga piccaniny!"
+
+ROYAL BLANKETS
+
+Nelly was extravagantly fond of pictures; anything, from an illustrated
+advertisement up, pleased her, and when the subject was not very obvious
+to her she would indifferently gaze lovingly upon it upside down. A pair
+of fine photographs of King Edward and Queen Alexandra in all the
+sumptuousness of their coronation robes was shown her, and she was told
+that "fella King belonga whiteman. That fella Queen wife, you know."
+Putting her democratic forefinger on each alternately, Nelly said--"That
+fella man; that fella Missis! My word! Got 'nother kind blanket!"
+
+HIS DAILY BREAD
+
+The Government of Queensland is conscientiously performing the duty of
+smoothing the pillows of the dying race. On the coast several mission
+stations have been established where the blacks of the neighbourhood are
+gathered together and, under discipline tempered with a strong religious
+element, taught to take care of themselves. The system is under the
+supervision of an experienced official, entitled the "Chief Protector
+of Aboriginals," and he tells a story which throws rays of light in more
+than one direction.
+
+A plump boy, who several months before had been consigned to a mission
+station quite out of the neighbourhood, presented himself at the head
+office, and with a rather rueful countenance answered a few of the
+preliminary inquiries of the Protector. Confidence having been gained,
+particular questions were asked.
+
+"Yis," said the boy, "me bin stockrider belonga Yenda. Come down alonga
+town have spell."
+
+"But you belong to Fraser Island mission station!"
+
+"Yis, me bin alonga that place."
+
+"Why you no stop? That very good place."
+
+"Nahr! No blurry good."
+
+"You get plenty tucker--plenty everything that place!"
+
+This provoked a trailing exclamation of dissent and disgust. "N-a-hr!
+Blenty ask it--no get 'em. Ebery morning tell that big fella Boss (with
+an upward jerk of the head) gib it daily-bread. Dinner-time tell it gib
+it daily-bread. One time more alonga tea tell it that big fella Boss gib
+it daily-bread."
+
+"Well, you get plenty."
+
+"N-a-hr! No get 'em. Get 'em corn (with a spit) all asame horse."
+
+Hominy, with prayer, is the standing dish at that station.
+
+HUMAN NATURE
+
+Among the most cunning of civilised blacks was a gentleman, well up in
+years, known as Michael Edward. He had been everywhere and had seen
+everything, and was full of what we call worldly wisdom. His conceit in
+himself led him to eat abundantly, drink all he could and at anybody's
+expense, smoke continuously, do as little work as possible, though
+apparently with lavish expenditure of industry, dress flashily and talk
+big. In pursuit of these things he behaved as should a cute student of
+human nature. Sent by Mrs Jenkins, his then mistress, with a message, he
+arrived as some tempting pastry was taken from the oven. He eyed it all
+with such riotous admiration, that an invitation to taste a tart was
+felt compulsory. Michael Edward assented with a "Yus, please, Missis."
+The tart was but a trifle light as air in his capacious maw, and another
+went the same way with loud smacking of huge lips. Then, with a lively
+sense of the continuance of such favour, he said--"My word, Missis you
+mo' better cook than Missis Jenkin!"
+
+A police magistrate had a blackfellow in his employ very much addicted
+to beer. The black was brought before His Worship charged as a "drunk
+and disorderly." The magistrate lectured him severely, but paid his fine
+on condition that he would never drink again. A month later the culprit
+was again in the court, and the magistrate, who was rather in love with
+his own eloquence, proceeded to read the offender a severe lecture and
+to threaten him with awful punishment At the most impressive point the
+black broke in with--"Go on, Croker! Shut up and pay 'em money. Me want
+finish 'em fence!"
+
+AN APT RETORT
+
+A meeting between a steamer smartly captained and a sailing boat steered
+by a smart black boy familiar with the rules of the road at sea was
+taking place. The steamer having too much way on, the boat narrowly
+escaped being run down. "Why didn't you keep out of the road," yelled
+the captain, "Why do you let the nigger steer?" Tom in reply, "Why you
+no luff up? You got blurry steamer, I no got 'em!"
+
+MISSIS'S TROUSERS
+
+Lady Constance Mackenzie is not the only bold female who rides astride
+in befitting costume. On some North Queensland cattle stations,
+squatters' wives and daughters have adopted divided skirts, and black
+gins employed as stockriders wear shirts and trousers, which are
+returned to the store when not in active service. One bleak evening--and
+it can be bleak on the North-Western Downs--the tender heart of a new
+jackeroo storekeeper was touched by the sight of two black boys quaking
+with the cold, the attire of each being limited to a singlet tugged down
+to its extreme limit.
+
+"You no got trousers?" he asked.
+
+"Baal got 'em!"
+
+"All right. Me give you fella some," and the storeman produced two pairs
+well worn, which were thankfully accepted.
+
+Half an hour later one of the boys returned, bursting with indignant
+language. "What for, you blurry fool. You bin gib it my missis's
+trousers?"
+
+DULL-WITTED
+
+At a western station the manager, in order to save a fence newly
+erected, thought to satisfy the blacks by leaving a loose coil of wire
+here and there for spear heads. But instead of taking that generous
+hint, the natives invariably cut out from the fence what they wanted. On
+another station in the same district, when a fence was under
+construction small coils of loose wire were left every few hundred yards
+as a tribute or free will offering; but in this case they again
+overlooked the loose stuff and cut what they wanted from the strained
+wire.
+
+STRATEGY
+
+Incomprehensibly dull as blacks frequently are they occasionally exhibit
+shrewdness which is all the more remarkable because of its
+unexpectedness. As the station hands were busy erecting buildings in
+newly opened up country, the blacks sent an envoy to engage their
+attention while others of the tribe cut off the iron bracing from the
+paddock gates wherewith to make tomahawks. They succeeded in completely
+despoiling one gate before they were disturbed.
+
+LITERAL TRUTH
+
+A black boy of more than ordinary intelligence, who had been sent to
+fill a couple of tubs with water, sauntered back with a self-satisfied
+air and said--"Me finish 'em!"
+
+The master found that the boy, as a preliminary, had fitted one tub into
+the other.
+
+MAGIC THAT DID NOT WORK
+
+Under the spell of the first sensations of Christianity, Lucy found and
+took unauthorised possession of a gold cross. Retiring to a secluded
+spot on the bank of the river, she hung the cross to a string round her
+neck, imagining it to be a charm, by the magic of which she would become
+a white girl. Twenty-four hours of patient expectancy passed without any
+change in Lucy's complexion, so she lost faith in the golden symbol, and
+bartered it to a Malay pieman for cakes. Then good Christian folks
+charged her with the theft of the cross, and the pieman with receiving
+it, knowing it to have been stolen. Lucy was pardoned, but the pagan
+went to prison.
+
+ANTI-CLIMAX
+
+A boy was asked if he thought Jimmy Governor (a notorious desperado who
+had given the New South Wales police much trouble) ought to be hanged.
+"Baal. No fear hang 'em; too good."
+
+"What you do then?"
+
+"Me! me punch 'em nose!"
+
+LITTLE FELLA CREEK SAILOR
+
+Ponto, a boy well known in North Queensland, and one of the few
+aboriginals whose memory is honoured by tombstones, was once taken by
+his master to Sydney. He saw many wonders, being particularly impressed
+by the appearance of the men-of-war's-men.
+
+A month or so after his return he was away among the mountains with his
+master and a friend who was wearing a jersey.
+
+"You sailor, Bob?" asked Ponto.
+
+"Yes, Ponto. I'm sailor-man."
+
+"No. You no sailor," responded Ponto decisively.
+
+"Yes. I tell you true. I'm sailor."
+
+Ponto: "Ah! me think you no big salt-water sailor. You only little fella
+creek sailor. You no got jacket--flash collar, knife alonga string!"
+
+A FATEFUL BARGAIN
+
+A squatter, travelling on foot with his black boy, came to a river
+almost a "banker," and there was no recourse but to swim. After
+Charcoal had taken a couple of trips with the clothes, the Boss told the
+boy to swim alongside him, in case of emergency. Halfway across, just as
+the Boss was feeling that there was some risk in swimming a flooded
+river in which were many snags, Charcoal cheerily observed--"Suppose you
+drowned finish, Boss, you gib me you pipe?" Summing up all the
+possibilities in a second, the Boss gasped out--"No; you bin get pipe
+when I'm across!" The boy's aid was prompt and effective.
+
+EXCUSABLE BIAS
+
+Two of the beachcombing class resumed an oft-recurring discussion on the
+seaworthiness of their respective dinghies. Tom, the silent black boy, a
+more experienced boatman than either, listened as he watched his own
+frail bark canoe dancing like a feather in response to every ripple.
+
+"Tom!" shouted one of the disputants, "suppose you want to go out in
+big wind and big sea, which boat you take? This one belonga me, or that
+one belonga your Boss?"
+
+Tom glanced at the boats with the eye of an expert, paused in the
+exercise of his judgment, and said with emphasis--"Me take 'em my boat!"
+
+THE TRIAL SCENE
+
+"Boiling Down," a boy with a not very reputable past, had once stood his
+trial for a serious offence. On returning to his free hills, he was wont
+to describe with rare art the trial scene.
+
+Clearing a patch of ground, he would place one chip to represent the
+judge--"big fella master"; a small chip would be His Honour's associate;
+twelve chips were the jurymen; three were the lawyers; a big chip
+between two others was "Boiling Down" with attendant policemen, and
+many scattered about stood for the audience.
+
+Having arranged his properties, the boy would proceed.
+
+"Big fella master, he bin say--'Boinin' Down, you hear me? You
+guinty--you not guinty?' Me bin say 'Guinty!'"
+
+At this point "Boiling Down" invariably broke into such paroxsyms of
+laughter that further utterance was impossible. Often as he attempted
+it, his narrative of the proceedings ended in such violent mirth that
+his hearers could not restrain themselves from joining in. They were
+obliged to acknowledge that he looked upon the affair as the funniest
+incident of his life.
+
+A REFLECTION ON THE HORSE
+
+A boy accustomed to see his master--the owner of a station--jump his
+horse over the gate instead of stopping to open it, tried to follow. The
+horse cantered up grandly, seemed to gather himself for the jump, and
+baulked. The boy shot out of the saddle and over the gate. As he picked
+himself up and shook the dust from his clothes he glared back at the
+horse, saying--"You blurry liar!"
+
+TRIUMPH OF MATTER OVER MIND
+
+Out on a station in the Burketown district an athletic black boy was
+employed. Trained by some friends, Charley developed such fleetness of
+foot that it was decided to enter him in sports which took place at
+Normanton and Croydon. In order that the public might be properly
+surprised, it was planned that Charley should run into second place at
+Normanton, and that at Croydon all possible honours were to be his.
+
+Immediately before starting at Normanton, Charley was told that he was
+not to win, because his backers wanted to make big money at Croydon.
+
+Charley ran a good second most of the way, made a spurt, and breasted
+the tape yards to the good.
+
+Taken aside, his friends angrily remonstrated with him. "Look here,
+Charley, what's the matter? I bin tell you run second. You come
+first--you spoil everything!"
+
+"Carn help it, Dick. Carn help it. Me bin bolt."
+
+THE RUSE THAT FAILED
+
+Miners in isolated camps where writing paper is not always available,
+scribble their orders for rations upon hastily tom margins of
+newspapers. A cute old black fellow named Bill who had frequently been
+entrusted with such notes and had borne away goods presented a scrap of
+paper innocent of writing at the store.
+
+"What? This from Tom?" asked the storekeeper naming one of his customers
+while he ran his eye over the paper.
+
+"Yowi! Tom bin make 'em."
+
+"What this fella talk?"
+
+"That fella talk plour; sugar, tea; two stick Derby," and, as a
+brilliant after thought--"bottle rum!"
+
+"All right, by and bye," remarked the storekeeper.
+
+The old man waited, and when it at last dawned upon him that his dodge
+for the pledging of Tom's credit had failed, stole away, convinced no
+doubt that there was some magic in the making of letters that he did not
+quite comprehend.
+
+THE BIG WORD
+
+A tracker, known as Billy Williams--who had passed out of the police
+service after many years of duty during which he had added largely to
+his burden of original sin and knowledge of English--stole a valuable
+diamond ring from the landlord of an hotel. Detected, and promptly
+brought before two justices of the peace, Billy pleaded guilty, and was
+sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
+
+While escorting him to the lockup, the officer in charge remarked--
+"Well, Billy, you lucky fella. You only get three months. I been think
+you in for a sixer."
+
+Billy--"By golly, Jack, me bin think me be disqualified for life."
+
+MICKIE'S VERSION
+
+Mickie is apt at repeating the sayings of others. Often his rendering of
+a commonplace becomes humorous by reason of a slight verbal twist. As
+the boys toiled to supplant a glorious strip of primeval jungle by a few
+formal rows of bananas, the boss, glancing over the ruined vegetation,
+remarked in encouraging tones
+
+"Well, we are getting on fine! Getting on like a house on fire!"
+
+For half an hour or so the boys hacked and chopped away at the vines and
+trees, and then Mickie swept the scene with a comprehensive glance,
+saying--"We getting on good fella now. All a same burning down house."
+
+HONOURABLE JOHNNY
+
+Johnny was much averse from work. "Work, work, work, all asame
+bullocky," as he put it, rasped on his feelings. At midday he was taking
+his case, while others toiled packing stones on a breakwater. One of
+them called out--"Why you no work, Johnny? You sit down all the time."
+Johnny--"Me bin work close up daylight. You lazy black niggers only
+work when Boss look out."
+
+THE TRANSFORMATION
+
+The wife of a squatter was about to leave the station for a few years,
+that her daughters might have the opportunity of acquiring
+accomplishments unobtainable in the Bush. When the hour of departure
+arrived, the blacks about the place loudly expressed their sorrow. One
+softhearted creature exclaimed amid the tears--"Good-bye, Miss
+Madge--good-bye, Miss Yola; me no see little girls any more. Two fella
+going away, try learn be lady!"
+
+MONEY-MAKING TRICK
+
+A boy who had visited a town and had been taken to a circus, gathered
+the camp together on the night of his return, and having given an
+account of the wonders he had seen, announced that he could make money.
+Satisfaction at such gift being tempered by doubt, the boy took his
+stand before the expectant semicircle, and having admirably mimicked a
+conjuror's patter, shouted--"Money!" A half-crown flashed in the air-to
+be deftly caught and exhibited on the boy's palm.
+
+This trick was repeated nightly. Conscious of the independence that
+money gives, the whole camp became demoralised, until investigation
+showed that the boy had a trained confederate in the person of his gin,
+who, standing apart, on the word, flicked the half-crown in the air. The
+boy lost his reputation as a maker of money, and his sole coin that
+self-same night.
+
+HONOURABLE CHASTISEMENT
+
+At a camp of the Native Mounted Police the sergeant reported a trooper
+for beating his gin. "What you bin doing, Paddy?" asked the
+sub-inspector. "You bin hammer 'em Topsy?" Paddy, at the salute--"Yes,
+sir, please sir, me bin hammer 'em that fella. That fella too flash; me
+no bin hammer 'em all asame black-fella. Hammer 'em all asame white
+man, alonga strap." Considering the customary means a black adopts to
+correct the indiscretions of his spouse, Paddy's offence was judged far
+too trivial for punishment. Topsy, too, was quite vain that Paddy had
+chastised her with all dignity and indulgence of a white man.
+
+"AND YOU TOO"
+
+Two ladies, who were wont to meet at infrequent intervals, spent the
+delightful morning in the settlement of arrears of gossip, while two
+black gins sat in the shade of a mango-tree, smoked incessantly and did
+nothing placidly. At dinner-time the latter began to chatter volubly,
+and the mistress of the house, in an outburst of vicarious energy,
+called from the verandah--"Come, Topsy--come, Rosey. You do nothing all
+day. You two fella talk all the time."
+
+Rosey--"Yes; me fella yabber, yabber, plenty--all asame white woman."
+
+PARADISE
+
+The beliefs of blacks on the subject of "the otherwhere" seem to be
+varied and adjustable to individual likes and predilections. Some indeed
+have no faith whatever in statements as to existence following upon
+death. Others assert that a delightful country is reached after a long
+and pleasant journey, that there reunion with relatives and friends
+takes place, and happiness is in store for all, good and bad alike.
+
+An intelligent boy was asked if after death all went along the same road
+to the aboriginal paradise. He was reminded that he was a good fellow,
+and that one of the members of the camp was notoriously a rogue.
+
+"Mootee go along a you, all asame place? That fella no good. You good
+fella."
+
+"Yes," he answered. "All one track me fella go. Good track--blenty
+tchugar-bag, blenty hegg, blenty wallaby, close up. You no wan' run
+about. Catch 'em blenty close up. Bi'mby me go long way. Me come more
+better country--blenty everything. Father belonga me sit down. He got
+two good young fella gins. My word, good one gins. He say--'Hello! you
+come up? You sit down here altogether. Two fella good gins belonga
+you!'"
+
+This was paradise!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+AND THIS OUR LIFE
+
+
+"I would admonish the world that all persons, indifferently, are
+not fit for this sort of diversion."
+
+
+Whereas the average town-dweller could not endure the commonplaces of
+Nature which entertain me, rouse my wonder, enliven my imagination, and
+gratify my inmost thoughts, so his pursuits are to me devoid of purpose,
+insipid, dismally unsatisfactory. To one whose everyday admission
+(apology if you like) is that he is not as other men are--fond of society
+and of society's occupations, pastimes, refinements, and (pardon)
+illusions--the unsoiled jungle is more desirable than all the prim parks
+and clipped gardens; all this amplitude of time and space than the one
+"crowded hour." Here I came to my birthright a heritage of nothing save
+the most glorious of all possessions: freedom--freedom beyond the dreams
+of most men in its comprehensiveness and exactitude. These few haphazard
+notes refer to the exercise of rare independence. They cannot be otherwise
+than trivial and dull, but they at least fulfil the purpose to which I was
+pledged. They reveal my puny efforts to be none other than myself. So
+tranquil, so uniform are our days, that but for the diary--the
+civilised substitute for the notched stick--count of them might be lost.
+And this extorts yet another confession. One year, Good Friday passed,
+and Easter-time had progressed to the joyful Monday, ere cognisance of
+the season came. Speedy is the descent to the automaton. A mechanical
+mis-entry in the diary threw all the orderly days of the week into a
+whirling jumble. We knew not Wednesday from Thursday, nor Thursday from
+Friday, though we calculated and checked notes of the transactions and
+traits of successive days. To what purpose was the effort to memorise
+one day from another when all were precisely alike in colour and
+uneventfulness? Each day had been blue--radiantly blue--nothing more. And
+the entries in the diary set at naught dogmatic assertions of disproof.
+But the steamer cuts a deep weekly notch. We jolted into it and became
+harmonised once more with the rigid calendar of the workaday world.
+
+Thus we keep the noiseless tenor of our way, finding in life if not
+great and gaudy pleasures, at least content and relief from many of the
+vexations that gnaw away the lives of the multitude. Though it was
+acknowledged a long time ago to be--indecorous--an abominable thing for a
+man to commend his ways; though his mode of living may not commend
+itself to others; though it may seem blank and colourless, thin and
+watery, devoid of expectation, and the hope of fame, name, and that kind
+of success which comes of the acquirement of riches, yet--and in a spirit
+of thankfulness be it said--the obscure and minor part the writer plays
+in the tragic-comedy of life affords gratification. He does what he
+likes to do. He frankly confesses that he sought isolation because of
+the lack of those qualities which make for dutiful citizenship, because
+of indifference to the ordinary enchantments of the kaleidoscopic world,
+not because of any lack of appreciation of the wisdom of the majority.
+He has dared to be what he is, rather than submit to be pulled this way
+and that on the rack of fashion and custom.
+
+Remember that "the measure of choosing well is whether a man likes what
+he has chosen." Other men have other ranks to take, other fates to
+command. Do not politicians and publicists; professional men and princes
+of trade; those who toil for others, with brain or hands; the charitable
+and the miserly; those who pine if removed from the noise and breath of
+the crowd; those who spend their days in meditation and study; those who
+live conscientiously every moment in "the gateway of the life eternal";
+those who are at enmity to law and order; the honest toiler and the
+impostor, the thief and the rogue, each and all respectively find
+pleasure in the particular walk of life he elects to take? "Each to the
+favourite happiness attends." When God gave manna to His people, every
+Israelite found in it what best pleased him. "The young tasted bread,
+the old honey, and the children oil." No doubt an expert burglar feels
+as keen a sense of joy in the planning and execution of a deed of
+darkness demanding originality, skill, daring and resourcefulness, as
+does the humane surgeon in the performance of an operation for the
+salvation of a valuable life, or as does his lordship the bishop in the
+delivery of a homily overflowing with persuasive eloquence. The burglar
+has his appreciation of pleasure, and the others theirs; and so long as
+the pleasures of the individual are not immoral and dishonourable, do
+not trespass upon the rights and liberties of others, let each pursue
+that which allures.
+
+In the long run he will find himself responsible to himself; and if his
+days have been ill spent, and his opportunities slighted, his the
+punishment and the remorse. But--
+
+"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and
+life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more
+elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of a Beachcomber, by E J Banfield
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER ***
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