AT FOOT OF THE SNOW MOUNTAINS 205 



inexhaustible patience and perseverance. He will 

 track the 'possum by its claw-marks on a tree-trunk, 

 or by observing the flight of mosquitoes if no claw- 

 marks are visible. He will decoy pelicans within 

 his reach by imitating the disturbance of water from 

 the jumping of fish by throwing mussel- shells into 

 a pond or splashing it with his fingers. He will 

 creep or swim up to ducks with grass round his 

 head and pull the birds one by one under water, 

 breaking their necks and letting them float till he 

 has enough for his needs. He will find and capture 

 snakes by watching the movements of their com- 

 panions, the butcher birds. He will catch a bee, 

 stick a piece of feather or down on it, let it go, and 

 follow its flight until he finds its hive and honey. 

 He will walk into the sea at a place where a white 

 man cannot see a single shell and in a few minutes, 

 by digging in the spots of yielding sand with his feet, 

 find enough cockles for his meal. He can find food 

 where a white man would starve to death. 



This ingenuity is seen almost as much in fishing as 

 in hunting. Hooks made of shells or tortoise-shell, 

 harpoons, spears, baskets, cages, nets, hollow log 

 traps, weirs, dams, fences and poisoning are all 

 employed as a means of obtaining fish. He will, 

 indeed, use one fish to catch another. The remora or 

 sucker-fish, with a string attached to its tail, is used 

 to help the blackfellow to turtle, dugong, or to other 

 food-fish. 



