Part 11 (2/2)

Whether this is a conscious stratagem by which the turtle hopes to s, or merely a caprice--one of those idle fancies which the fee 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 lirass 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 theainst 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 nueneral habit has been observed Several of the islands are coloe 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 towith 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 fro are hatched only those on top are able to clae of the faet 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 tie 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 anoh-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” ier 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 nuht 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, reen 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 nuer to secure an abundance of fresh ain for the the place, and the turtle, being unable to right themselves, perished

Personal observation and inquiries fro turtle on the Barrier Reef convince et astride a turtle in the water Onehis 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 becoside a boat, where it is secured with the help of others Boys who accoh 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 shalloater falls a co hustled it soon loses heart and endeavours to hide its head, ostrich-like, when it is easily captured None unacquainted with the skill hich 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 circu at a casual glance a seaes abruptly turned up The head is large, the eyes deeply embedded in their sockets, and the ani the head much more extensively developed than usual The ”death's head” staring froruesome 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 faoes, is confined to the neighbourhood of one group of islands To others this is known as the ”bastard tortoiseshell” The back is not actually seae 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 di factor in their exter to and fro of steaht would scare away those which re too familiar to be fearsoh which the passing of steah not in such numbers as in the early days It would see continue one of the last resorts of this strange, uncouth, paradoxical mammal

Half hippopota between a pachyder is a herbivorous marine mammal, commonly known as ”the sea cow,” because of its resemblance in sorazes on rass (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 na 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 for 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 fe When theit to her breasts, she is careful as she rises to breathe, that it, too, ether present a strangely hus are to be found in soularly fore 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 irass

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 uished fro pork

The freshly flayed hide is fully half an inch thick, and when cured and dried reserey, soreen in colour, hite blotches and sparse, coarse bristles, the animal has no co in unison with graceful undulatory ht flashes in helioscopic rays fro and lurching along, gaood-humoured, contented children, the herd rounds, occasionally splashi+ng htily with powerful tails to , sportful water-babes Adong for its young and its love for the companionshi+p of its fellows When one of a pair is killed, the other haunts the locality for days Its suspirations seehs, and its presence melancholy proof of the reality of its bereave is carried under one or other of the flippers, the darows, it leaves itswith automatic precision every twist and lurch of her body, its own helplessness and its implicit faith in the wisdo exe as they do turtle, but the sport de is a wary animal and shy, to be approached only with the exercise of artful caution An inadvertent splash of the paddle or a ame is aith 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 theth and trend of currents and the locality of favourite feeding-grounds Fragrass so 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 ont to , and nets are still employed by theong is worthily esteemed, and oil from the blubber--sweet, and limpid as distilled water--is said to possess qualities far superior to that obtained fro 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 gae another harpoon into it Soht hich the creature tows until exhausted

So contractible and tough is the skin, that once the point of the harpoon is e 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 anih three-quarters of a ton

It is stated that the blacks towards Cape York having secured the anith 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 ar and finally s since an opportunity was given of exa We had harpooned a calf perhaps a year and a half old, and as it rose to the surface in the first struggle for freedo carbine, 25-35, carrying a metal patched bullet There was no apparent wound, and on the second ti instantaneous death When the animal came to be skinned, it was found that the first bullet had coh, 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 ht 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 ani rises to the surface at frequent intervals for air, and the ancients in the rounded heads of the s, who sought to lure the unwary to their mansions beneath the waves Hence the scientific title ”Sirenia” for the fas Unpoetical people as the coastal blacks of Queensland are, yet they were ahbours the shy creatures upon whose existence was founded the quaint and engaging legends of the mermaid

But noe make prosaic bacon fro tresses which she ont to coloated over her co strains, so soothing, so sweet, yet so deceiving--those wet and tangled locks, where are they? Is the whole real bald? The hair of the mermaid of to-day is coarse, short and spiky, with inches between each sprout For a coed 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 uns with at the possibility of readers away from the Coral Sea, and to who as to the form and character of beche-de-mer, let it be said that the co fro by an inch and a half in diah and repulsive in appearance, and sluggish in habit, it has great power of contractibility Itout its slow length until it resee, 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 , 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 shalloater Soh-water, for then the beche-de-e 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 fatho 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 rove 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 gour to appreciate this delicacy, which is said to beit is al 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 forhly-prized on the Chinese hbourhood 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 consignin, 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 botto a co absolutely worthless for aining favour in that h called fish by tradesgle, nor hop, skip nor ju in apparently absolute and unconscious idleness like its distant relative, the star-fish Nor does the creature possess any h and prickly, and are said to irritate the hand that grasps them

Others either in nervousness, or a result of shock to the systeht the beholder, shoot out interlutinous, 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, whichto trespass on the preserves of scientific inquirers