THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 135 



delicacy. From 250 to 300 tons of the prepared fish, valued at 

 nearly ^30,000, are annually exported from the reef by the 

 Chinese, in whose hands the trade entirely is. They are prepared 

 by being gutted, boiled for about twenty minutes, and then dried; 

 sometimes they are smoked in addition, and are undoubtedly 

 very palatable. Some very large Holothurians are found on our 

 Victorian coasts, and would probably be just as edible as their 

 northern congeners. They belong to the Echinoderms or prickly- 

 skinned animals, along with the star-fish and sea-urchins. 



An animal which it is most necessary to avoid when walking 

 over the reef is the Giant Clam, Tridacna gigas, a shell-fish 

 which often grows to over a ton in weight. Should one accidentally 

 put his foot into the open shell of this creature as it lies open 

 amongst the coral awaiting its food it is more than likely that it 

 would break his ankle with the great pressure which it exerts 

 when closing its thick and solid shell, wliich it invariably does 

 when interfered with, besides which he would be slowly but surely 

 drowned as the tide rose, since it would require the use of a 

 sledge hammer and chisel or a strong crowbar to force open the 

 shell sufficiently for his release. 



A peculiar animal found along the Queensland coast is the 

 Dugong or Sea-Cow, Ualicore auslralis, which sometimes weighs 

 as much as 16 or 17 cwt. The male Dugong is furnished with a 

 pair of tusks set in its head somewhat like those of the Walrus, 

 but not so protuberant. The oil of this animal has been largely 

 used in place of cod liver oil for lung and nerve troubles, and 

 was some years ago a universal household remedy, but of late 

 years has fallen somewhat into disfavour owing to its adulteration 

 with shark oil. The cow Dugongs contain a greater quantity of 

 oil than the bulls, and are so assiduously hunted that, unless 

 some protection is afforded them, it is only a matter of time when 

 they will be exterminated. From the fact that the Dugong sits 

 upright in the water when suckling its young, holding the calf to 

 the breast with the forearm or flipper, and also to the human 

 facial expression which they bear, has arisen the stories of the 

 mermaids of the old Dutch navigators. 



One of the methods adopted by the natives for their capture is, 

 when they discover where the Dugongs come in to browse on the 

 Seagrass, an alga, Posidoina australis, which grows on the mud- 

 banks near the shore, to erect a staging on which to stand and 

 then on moonlight nights to take up their position on the staging 

 with a harpoon and coil of rope. The harpoon consists of a long 

 pole with a hollow in one end, into which is fitted a wooden head, 

 which is attached to the middle of the pole by a grass rope. 

 Upon espying a Dugong they plunge the harpoon into it, where- 

 upon the animal immediately rushes off; the harpoon head 

 becomes dislodged from the pole, but, being tied to the pole at its 



