BLACKS AS FISHERMEN 185 



into a huge loose cable eight inches in diameter. The 

 men run out the cable into the water at right angles 

 to the beach while still the gins, with nervous haste, are 

 adding to its length. If it breaks, a few twists and pokes 

 suffice to repair it. The men at the lead curve in to- 

 wards the beach, and the gins and piccaninnies wade out 

 in line to meet them. Gradually the cable, shocking 

 in its frailty, is worked in, enclosing a patch of the fish 

 in a perilous coffer dam. Tumult and commotion are 

 almost as necessary contributories to the success of the 

 stratagem as is the cable. But before they realise 

 what has happened, they are in such close company 

 that escape is impossible ; dill^^-bags are filled in a single 

 dip, and it ma}^ take half an hour to pick out those 

 "meshed" in the cable. It is all the work of a few- 

 minutes, and the haul often amounts in quantity to a 

 surfeit for the whole camp. 



One of these rude seines which was overhauled was 

 composed largely of the long, leafless, twine-like branches 

 of the leafless parasite Cassytha filiformis (which the 

 blacks term "Bungoonno"), Ipomea pescaprce ("Koree"), 

 Blady-grass ("Jin-dagi"), and the tough sprawling 

 branches of Blainvillea latifolia ("Gallan-jarrah"), the 

 whole being reinforced with withes of Clerodendron 

 imerme ("Missim"), all of which plants grow on the verge 

 of the sea. 



Vast as is the congregation of small fry, it gradually 

 fritters away, martyred to fish, flesh, and fowl. By the 

 time the little terns are thrown upon their own resources 

 the violet frill of the sweet islands is frayed and ragged, 

 and drifts loosely in shabby remnants. 



For large fish — groper, the giant perch, king, bonito, 

 rhoombah, sweet-lips, parrot-fish, sea-mullet, and the 

 sting-rays (brown and grey) — a harpoon and long line are 

 used. When iron is not available a point is made of 



