20 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



full. Most of them were provided with a little 

 bit of wood cut in the shape of a spatula, and 

 with these they separated from the rocks, at great 

 depth, very large Sea ears (Haliotis). Perhaps 

 they chose the biggest, for all they brought up 

 were of great size. On seeing the large Lobsters 

 (Panulirus) we were afraid they would have 

 wounded these poor women terribly with their 

 large claws, but we soon found they had taken 

 the precaution to kill them as soon as they caught 

 them. They quitted the water only to bring 

 their husbands the fruits of their labour, and 

 frequently returned almost immediately to their 

 diving till they had procured a sufficient meal for 

 their families. At other times they stayed a little 

 time to warm themselves, with their faces towards 

 the fire on which the fish were roasting, and other 

 little fires burning behind them, that they might be 

 warmed on all sides at once. It seemed as if they 

 were unwilling to lose a moment's time, for while 

 they were warming themselves they were employed 

 roasting fish, some of which they laid on the coals 

 with the utmost caution, though they took little 

 care of the Lobsters, which they threw anywhere 

 into the fire ; and when they were ready they 

 divided the claws among the men and children, 

 reserving the body for themselves, which they some- 

 times eat before they returned into the water. 



The English in their little settlement at Sydney 

 were not indifferent to the competition with France, 

 and in 1797 George Bass, a surgeon in the Royal 

 Navy, made his adventurous voyage in an open 

 whale-boat across what is now known as Bass's 

 Straits, but was then supposed to be merely a 

 deep bay in the Australian continent. From the 

 existence of currents and other signs Bass concluded 



