NOIITH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGUAPIIY KOTH. d 



witnessing on the Lower Nornianby River (Princess Charlotte 

 Ba}'). Gliding silently below the surface of the water, he keeps 

 close to the bottom ; if it is too wide, he loses no time in coining 

 up for a breath of fresh air and down again : should he come 

 across one of these saurians, he imniedintely stirs up around him 

 the dark mud on tlie river bed, and makes good his escape very 

 much on the same lines as a cuttle-fish when in danger. Similar 

 precautions are taken in this same district when a black is 

 diving for lily-seeds in any suspected pool, etc., there always 

 being some friend of his or hers watching, either from the banks 

 or an overhanging tree ; the latter, on seeing the shadow or long 

 streaky film of fine bubbles indicating the approach of the 

 reptile, immediately splashes the water surface violently with 

 some heavy stick, etc., and so gives the signal to the individual 

 lif-Iow, who quickly makes up the bank by ci'awling and kicking 

 up the mud as already descril)ed. The Princess Charlotte Bay 

 Natives never consider it safe to swim even silently on the 

 surface of these waters, however clear they may be, when croco- 

 diles are about. In the neighbourhood of the Proserpine River, 

 the blacks will sometimes drag a heavy hooked club attached to 

 a long ro])e across the stream to make sure that there is nothing 

 lurking below to endanger their crossing. 



A river in flood is met by diving across close to the bottom, 

 where the natives say the current is never so strong. In taking 

 the water for diving from a height, I have only observed the 

 position of feet fiist. 



4. At the mouth of the Mitchell River, and some of the rivers 

 to the south of it, as well as^ I am told, on a few of the creeks to 



Fig. 1. 



the northward, the cut trunk of some very light tree {I White 

 Mangrove) is utilised as a float. Such a log is cut to about 



