BEACHCOMBING 61 



or to be drowned by the implacable yet merciful tide. A 

 makeshift rudder well worn bespoke strenuous efforts to 

 steer a troubled boat to shelter, but this crude signal staff, 

 deftly arranged, told of present agony and stress. It might 

 have been the emblem of a tragic event that the Beach- 

 comber single-handed was not able to investigate. As a 

 matter of fact, it was only a temporary datum of one of His 

 Majesty's surveying ships engaged in attempting to set the 

 bounds of the Barrier. 



Rarely do we sail about without enjoying the zest of the 

 chance of getting something for nothing. Not yet has the 

 seaman's chest, brass-bound, with its secret compartments 

 full of " fair rose-nobles and bright moidores," been lighted 

 upon ; but who can say ? Perhaps it has come ashore but 

 now, after leagues of aimless wanderings, and awaits in 

 some cosy cove the next Beachcombing expedition. That 

 from the ill-fated Merchant came hither years before my 

 time, and was, in any case, pathetically unromantic. 



Peradventure there are many who deem this solitary 

 existence dull ? Why, it is brimful of interest and sensation. 

 There are the tragedies of the bush to observe and elucidate ; 

 all cannot be foreseen and prevented, or even avenged. A 

 bold falcon the other day swooped down upon a wood- 

 swallow that was imitating the falcon's flight just above my 

 head, and bore it bleeding to a tree-top, while I stood 

 shocked at the audacity of the cannibal. A bullet dropped 

 the murderous bird with its dead victim fast in the talons. 

 There are comedies, too, and you have the wit to see them, 

 and in these Beachcombing expeditions expectation fairly 

 effervesces. 



One lucky individual a mere amateur casually 

 picked up a black-lip mother-of-pearl shell on an island 

 some little distance away. It contained a blue pearl, the 

 price of which gave him such a start in life, that he is now 

 an owner of ships. May not other tides cast up on other 

 shores other oysters whose lives have been rendered miser- 

 able by the presence of pearls ? 



Byron says " Even an oyster may be crossed in love." 



