

The Great Barrier Reef. 311 



come into contact ; who had also read of that plucky over- 

 land exploration of the brothers Jardine, which solved the 

 hitherto undecided question as to the course of certain rivers 

 which emptied themselves into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and 

 of the elder Jardine's settlement at Cape York, where he 

 had through weary months to hold his own against the 

 dangers that walk at noonday and the arrows that fly in 

 darkness. 



Somerset harbour we entered in the midst of a tropical 

 storm that made the little pearl-shelling vessels rock like 

 paper boats. We remained long enough to learn something 

 of this same pearl-fishery. One informant proved that it is 

 a most thriving business, and deplored that, by some astonish- 

 ing oversight, the Queenslanders allow the entire profit of 

 the enterprise to go to another colony. Nearly the whole 

 of the froats hail from Sydney, some of whose merchants are 

 making rapid fortunes out of the trade, upon which, added 

 my complainant, there is no tax ; not even a boat license, 

 he says, is imposed by the Government of Queensland. 

 The vessels engaged in the business are smart little fore- 

 and-aft schooners, and last year there were taken from the 

 port of Somerset not less than 200 tons of pearl-shells, the 

 selling price of which would be about ^200 per ton. One 

 firm in Sydney received seventy-two tons, and I heard of 

 one Birmingham house that had already bought ,30,000 

 worth of the material. 



As it often happens with other important industries by 

 which large fortunes are made in a short time, the pearl 

 shelling capabilities of Queensland were discovered by 

 accident The hardy seamen and native divers engaged in 

 the beche-de-mer trade, about four years ago, brought up an 

 occasional pearl oyster, and as the matter was talked about 

 in the straits it was remembered that the blacks along the 



