TURTLES 311 



eight or nine feet. In catching them the natives go out to sea 

 in the early morning, when the turtles come to the surface to 

 enjoy their morning nap, and at which time the sea is usually 

 very smooth. A kind of harpoon, about twelve feet long, shod 

 with a piece of barbed iron is used, and to this a strong rope, a 

 couple of hundred yards in length, is attached. Great care and 

 caution has to be used in approaching the sleeping animal, for, 

 if struck, it dives down immediately, and the fisherman will not 

 leave go of the rope, but dives down with it, if the water is deep. 

 The natives seem to be able to stop an extraordinary time under 

 water. As soon as the turtle is secured, the captors make for 

 the shore, and all the people gather together to share in the 

 feast. Nobody must bring anything from a house to the spot, 

 for the animal must be wrenched open and cut in pieces with 

 knives belonging to the canoe, it must be cooked in sea-water 

 in the shell of the turtle itself, and served in scoops or other 

 vessels from the canoe, or in pieces of turtle-shell. None of the 

 flesh is allowed to be brought into a house to be cooked or eaten 

 there. All these and several other precautions are ancestral 

 customs and must be religiously observed, or the turtles would 

 disappear. 



A curious account is given by the natives of the north-west 

 coast of a fish which they call Hcvmby, whose length is said to be 

 about that of a man's arm, and its girth about that of his thigh. 

 Its dorsal fin, they say, is just like a brush, and it has a liquid 

 about it, sticky like glue, and when it fastens on to another fish 

 from below, with this brush on its head, the fish cannot get 

 away, but is held fast. On account of this peculiarity, the 

 people use the hamby to fish with. When they catch one, they 

 confine it in a light cage, which they fasten in the sea, feeding 

 it daily with cooked rice or small fish ; and when they want to 

 use it, they tie a long cord round its tail and let it go, following 

 it in a canoe. When it fastens on a fish they pull it in and 

 secure the spoil. I wonder whether this fish has any connection 

 with one found on the east coast, which is called Lddintavla, and 

 is said by Mr Connorton to be covered with a kind of slime, so 

 that when many of them are together, it looks as if they are 

 floating in a thick lather of soap. 



Two or more kinds of oysters are found on this north-west 

 coast ; one of these is called by the people Sdja, which may be 



