164 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



white blotches and sparse, coarse bristles, the animal has no 

 comeliness, and yet when a herd frolics in the water, rising in 

 unison with graceful undulatory movements for air, and 

 the sunlight flashes in helioscopic rays from wet backs, the 

 spectacle is rare and fine. Rolling and lurching along, 

 gambolling like good-humoured, contented children, the herd 

 moves leisurely to and from favourite feeding-grounds, occa- 

 sionally splashing mightily with powerful tails to make 

 fountains of illuminated spray great, unreflecting, sportful 

 water-babes. Admiration is enhanced as one learns of the 

 affection of the dugong for its young and its love for the 

 companionship of its fellows. When one of a pair is killed, 

 the other haunts the locality for days. Its suspirations 

 seem sighs, and its presence melancholy proof of the reality 

 of its bereavement. 



For some time after birth the young is carried under 

 one or other of the flippers, the dam hugging it affec- 

 tionately to her side. 



As the calf grows, it leaves its mother's embrace, but 

 swims close beside, following with automatic precision every 

 twist and lurch of her body, its own helplessness and its 

 implicit faith in the wisdom and protective influence of its 

 parent being exemplified in every movement. 



Blacks harpoon dugong as they do turtle, but the sport 

 demands greater patience and dexterity, for the dugong is 

 a wary animal and shy, to be approached only with the 

 exercise of artful caution. An inadvertent splash of the 

 paddle or a miss with the harpoon, and the game is away 

 with a torpedo-like swirl. To be successful in the sport the 

 black must be familiar with the life-history of the creature 

 to a certain extent understanding its peregrinations and 

 the reason for them the strength and trend of currents 

 and the locality of favourite feeding-grounds. Fragments 

 of floating grass sometimes tell where the animal is feeding. 

 An oily appearance on the surface of the sea shows its 

 course, and if the wind sits in the right quarter the keen- 

 scented black detects its presence when the animal has 

 risen to breathe at a point invisible to him. He must 



