o 



28 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



It is also much appreciated by manj' Europeans, especially at the outlying Barrier and Torres 

 Strait fishing stations, where it is commonly cured and used as " bacon." 



The capture of the dugong is conducted on distinct principles, in different parts of the 

 Queensland coast-line. In Moreton and Wide Bays, nets of great strength, having a mesh of 

 a yard's width, when measured diagonally from knot to knot, or eighteen inches on the square, 

 are stretched, at night, across the tracks the herds are wont to follow to their pasture-grounds. 

 A little further north, at Repulse Bay, just above Mackay, a .systematic dugong fishery is pro- 

 secuted by a European, with the exclusive aid of the mainland aborigines. The method of capture 

 and other details associated with this fishing, related to the author by the proprietor of the 

 station, may be appropriately recorded. The natives pursue the animals, moonlight nights being 

 most favourable, in their frail bark canoes, with heavy dugong harpoons, to which long lines are 

 attached. Two men are included in one canoe, the business of one being to keep a look out for 

 dugong, while the other bails the cranky boat. The endeavour, in the first instance, is to spear 

 the. animal through its fleshy tail, whereupon it is apt to twist itself up, and get entangled in 

 the line. A second spear is then thrust through its muzzle, Vi'hich stops its breathing, and thus the 

 animal is speedily suffocated and dispatched. The price, or value in goods, paid by the station 

 proprietor to the natives for each dugong captured, is five shillings ; but of these the purchase)- 

 only requires the oil-producing livers, and the hides, bones, and teeth, leaving the natives the 

 carcases to feast upon. The hides, if well-cured, realise a price of 4-gd. per lb., the large tusks of 

 the male about half-a-crown per pair, while the bones make the best charcoal for sugar refining. 

 The price realised for the oil, as previously recorded, ranges from 12s. to 20s. per gallon. After 

 many years' experience, it has been found at the Repulse Bay station that the old cows yield the 

 most oil, the quantity being sometimes as much as eight or ten gallons, but on the average only 

 four or five. The winter months, with respect to the amount of oil obtained, are the most 

 profitable ones for the prosecution of this fishery. 



In the more northern districts of the Barrier, and in Torres Strait, the dugong does not 

 form the subject of a systematic fishery, with a view to export trade in its hide and oil, but 

 is killed almost exclusively by the natives for the supply of their commissariat. It is most 

 commonly speared from a canoe, or, in Torres Strait more particularly, from a light wooden 

 staging that is temporarily erected, where the animals have been observed to repair to feed. 

 The dugong spear used in Torres Strait is a formidable weapon, being, as originally described 

 by Macgillivray and more recently by Professor Haddon, a pole from twelve to fifteen or more 

 feet in length, with its butt-end club-shaped and hollowed for the reception of a loose-fitting 

 barbed dart, to which the long line is attached. The opposite end of the shaft is usually 

 perforated, and decorated with tufts of cassowary feathers, ovula-shells, or rattling seed-pods. 



The author is enabled to reproduce, through the courtesy of Professor A. C. Haddon, a most 

 excellent photogiaph, taken by him, of a Torres Strait, jervis Island, native, armed witii the 



