192 OUE HERITAGE THE SEA 



fisherman and his friends, for, as in the Apostolic 

 days, all things in those isles were apparently held 

 in common. In Noumea, New Caledonia, among 

 natives far more primitive or less civilized, whichever 

 epithet may be preferred, I saw the very antithesis of 

 this curious plan. For some reason, which I could 

 not fathom, the splendid fish of New Caledonia, as 

 far as I could see, would not under any circumstances 

 take, could not be cajoled into taking, a hook ; so 

 the natives used to procure, I do not know how, 

 cartridges of dynamite which had the property of 

 exploding as soon as they were flung into the water. 

 Armed with a supply of these, a party of natives 

 would sally out to the inshore side of the barrier 

 reef, and, having assembled in what they considered 

 a favourable spot, would hurl one or two cartridges 

 into the smooth water. A tremendous explosion would 

 follow, and when the agitated waters had resumed 

 their calm, the surface would be seen strewn with 

 the bodies of dead and stunned fish, which were picked 

 up and flung into the bottoms of the canoes. In a 

 very short time a full load of fish was thus procured, 

 and the fishermen made the best of their way to 

 market with their spoil. I could not ascertain how 

 they used to capture those wily fish before they 

 learned the properties of dynamite and were able to 

 procure the powerful explosion ; but I found that 

 here alone, of all the out-of-the-way places I have 

 visited in the South Seas, I was utterly unable to 

 catch a single fish anywhere around the shores of the 

 great island, although it seemed an ideal place for 

 fishing. 



Australia ! how can I do justice to the plenitude 



