THE SEA FISHER IN FOREIGN PARTS 477 



and harpooned, but they have been gradually driven to more 

 remote waters. Dugong are now principally taken in a net with 

 immensely wide meshes. The nets are laid in subaqueous 

 thoroughfares through which the experienced fisherman knows 

 the creatures will pass on their search for marine grasses ; the 

 animal becomes entangled, struggles himself into inextricable 

 toils, and, being unable to rise to the surface to breathe, 

 drowns. The dugong is well named the sea cow, for its head 

 is not unlike that of a polled bullock, though its nose is con- 

 siderably broader, and furnished with a sensitive terminal, by 

 which it may discover and crop the herbage of the submarine 

 pastures to which it flocks. The body roughly resembles that 

 of a gigantic seal, and dugong are sometimes taken weighing 

 a ton and a quarter. The animal is very shy, however, and has 

 to a great extent deserted the old haunts, and must now be 

 sought north of Torres Straits. 



Now let us return to our party on board the Kate. We 

 sleep, some on deck, some below in the saloon, some in the 

 hold ; and though under the sunshine we might dispense with 

 any description of coat, at midnight the thickest is not too 

 heavy. At dawn next morning there are signs of movement 

 on board ; the early sportsmen are preparing for action. Day 

 is awaiting the signal to rush impetuously upon the heels 

 of night, and in these latitudes night has to be pretty sharp if 

 it would clear away before the full-orbed sun is close upon it. 



We are soon under weigh. The Kate, once out of the 

 shelter of Amity Point, proves herself a remarkably frisky lass, 

 much given to dancing to the piping of the wind, and familiarly 

 responsive to any wave that chooses to flourish its arms around 

 her waist. Then it begins to rain, and the sea begins to rise, 

 and the prophets begin to prognosticate an unpleasant day, 

 and we are, in short, doomed to fishing under considerable 

 difficulties. 



