THE MERMAID OF TO-DAY 165 



know also of the affection of the female for her calf, and be 

 prepared to play upon it implacably. In some localities 

 the blacks were wont to manufacture nets for the capture 

 of dugong, and nets are still employed by them under the 

 direction of white men ; for the flesh of the dugong is 

 worthily esteemed, and oil from the blubber — sweet, and 

 limpid as distilled water — is said to possess qualities far 

 superior to that obtained from the decaying livers of cod 

 fish in the restoration of health and vigour to constitutions 

 enfeebled and wasted by disease. 



Using a barbless point attached to a long and strong 

 line, and fitted into a socket in the heavy end of the har- 

 poon shaft, the black waits and watches. With the utmost 

 caution and in absolute silence he follows in his canoe the 

 dugong as it feeds, and strikes as it rises to breathe. A 

 mad splash, a wild rush ! The canoe bounces over the 

 water as the line tightens. Its occupant sits back and steers 

 with flippers of bark, until as the game weakens he is able 

 to approach and plunge another harpoon into it. Some- 

 times the end of the line is made fast to a buoy of light 

 wood which the creature tows until exhausted. 



So contractible and tough is the skin, that once the point 

 of the harpoon is embedded in it, nothing but a strong and 

 direct tug will release it. Some blacks substitute for the 

 barbless point four pieces of thin fencing wire — each about 

 4 inches long, bound tightly together at one end, the 

 loose ends being sharpened and slightly diverged. This is 

 fastened to the line and inserted in the socket of the haft, 

 and when it hits it holds to the death, though the animal 

 may weigh three-quarters of a ton. 



It is stated that the blacks towards Cape York having 

 secured the animal with a line attached to a dart insufficient 

 in length to penetrate the hide and the true skin, seize it 

 by the nose, and plug the nostrils with their fingers until it 

 drowns. Here, too, the natives have discovered that the 

 nose is the vulnerable part of the dugong, and having first 

 harpooned it in any part of the body, await an opportunity of 

 spearing it there, with almost invariably speedy fatal effects. 



