130 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



with the salt, but with the violence and impetus of a 

 downpour of ten inches during the night, each torrent 

 had cut a channel through which it raced from the 

 seclusion of the jungle to the free, open sea. Twice 

 in the twenty-four hours the impassive flowing tide sub- 

 dued the impertinence of each of the brawlers, smothered 

 its gurgling, and forced it back among the ferns 

 and jungle and banana-plants which crowded its 

 banks. 



The largest stream at high water was four feet deep. 

 As I prepared to wade across, George, the black boy, 

 shouted over his shoulder towards a slowly swaying 

 cloud in the deep pool overhung with foremost flounces 

 of the jungle. The cloud was a shoal of sea mullet. 

 Save for a clear margin of about three feet, the fish 

 filled the pond an alert, greyish -blue mass edged with 

 cream-coloured sand. There were several hundred 

 fish, all bearing a family resemblance as to size as 

 well as to feature. It was slack water. The fish were, 

 no doubt, about to move down -stream to the sea, for 

 all headed that way when the disturbing presence of 

 man blocked the passage. A thrill went through the 

 phalanx, and it swayed to the left and then to the 

 right. The movement spontaneous and mechanical 

 slightly elongated the formation, and three scouts in 

 single file slid down to reconnoitre, and with a nervous 

 splash as they scented danger, dashed back and blended 

 imperceptibly with the mass. 



' iWe catch plenty big fella mullet I ' George ex- 

 claimed, as he gleefully splashed the water, and the 

 cloud contracted and shrank back. The stream was 

 about ten feet wide. The equipment for sport con- 

 sisted of a tomahawk and a grass -tree spear so fraij 



