202 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



herbage the nests were so thick that it was almost 

 impossible to walk along the sands without treading 

 upon eggs. Fortunately most of the eggs were fresh. 



We took away from Bramble Cay a large stock of 

 eggs, much to the delight of my native boys, whose 

 eyes fairly goggled with excitement as they saw the 

 number of birds and of birds' eggs. They took off 

 their loin clothes to make bags for holding the eggs. 



Another source of wild delight to the boys was to 

 see the great number of clam shells on the edge of the 

 shore. On the coast of Papua the population is so 

 thick that the clams have almost been eaten out, and 

 in some cases the natives have to dive for them. The 

 fishing grounds also have been thinned out very 

 seriously. This is so much the case that the different 

 tribes on the coast of New Guinea now have their 

 fishing grounds sharply defined, and poaching and 

 trespassing off your own ground is strictly forbidden. 



Those of my boys who had come from the New 

 Guinea coast had never seen before in their lives so 

 much tucker as they did on their way to Thursday 

 Island. It was not only that they had the great 

 supply of sea-birds' eggs at Bramble Cay, but at all 

 the little islands which we encountered there were 

 huge supplies of fish. I recollect once noticing my 

 cook, a native boy who was a very clever little chap, 

 lying on his belly in front of a little pool near the 

 shore. " Me get one small fish ! " he said with a 

 grin as I stood over him, and pulled out a huge rock 



