476 MODERN SEA FISHING 



universal effulgence, becomes almost a thing of beauty. The 

 grassy heights, the undergrowths that dot them, the fenced-in 

 allotments whose sward has never yet been upturned, the land 

 under cultivation, the patches of untouched bush, the clumps 

 of banana around the cottages or large suburban residences, 

 the numerous reaches in the river with their profusion of 

 hill and wood all these are at such a time freshly welcome, 

 though to most of the party they have been for years familiar 

 enough. 



There is no fishing generally the first night. Flat Rock is 

 sixty miles and more from Brisbane, and, with darkness setting 

 in by six o'clock, it is as much as we can do to reach Amity 

 Point in time to cast anchor for the night. The excursionists 

 in the comfortable saloon well know how to spend a pleasant 

 evening : cards, conversation, and books but chiefly cards 

 help to pass away the time. 



Soon after casting anchor we discharge a few rockets and 

 burn blue lights a bit of pleasantry on our own part that is at 

 once answered by shouts of applause and laughter from the shore. 

 Amity Point is inhabited by blacks who assist in the oyster and 

 dugong fishing conducted there ; and our pyrotechnic display 

 appears to have brought them out of their bark huts and down 

 to the beach. Half a dozen of us accordingly go ashore in the 

 captain's gig to procure what is very practically the sinews of 

 war for the coming campaign to wit, baits ; to see the blacks 

 around their own camp fires ; and to enjoy a quiet stroll upon 

 the white sand, under the wonderful stars of the Antipodean 

 hemisphere. We are carried through the surf on the shoulders 

 of good-humoured natives, whose teeth literally gleam through 

 the darkness when no other part of their faces can be discerned. 



We find three newly-caught dugong being skinned and cut 

 up for their hides, oil, and flesh. These curious creatures in 

 the early days of the colony could be procured by whaleboats 



