INSULAR AUSTRALASIA. 



1299 



silver streak of water gleaming in the sun. The natives are also expert fishermen, using 



for the purpose a three-pronged fish-spear as well as the 

 nets on which they chiefly depend. They are made of tin- 

 tough fibre of a tree called man- 

 yan-ye, employing the same knot as 

 European fishermen use, with much 

 the same shuttle. The nets used in 

 the capture of dugong and turtle are 

 of great length and 

 weight, and require 

 the aid of canoes to 

 be laid with effect. 

 The most curious, 



MULLET AND DUGONG FISHING. 



however, is that used in the capture 

 of the mullet generally found in shoals 

 in the brackish water at the mouths 

 of rivers. These nets hang down per- 

 pendicularly several feet in the water, 

 and are attached along their full length 

 to a narrow raft. Mullet are known 

 to jump over an ordinary net, but they 

 are retained by these rafts, and the 



f 



FISHING WITH SPEAKS. 



