310 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



blacks of North Queensland. For a trifling consideration 

 they will successfully undertake feats which prove that 

 they are almost as much at home in deep water as upon 

 land, and when put to the test their strength and hardihood 

 are extraordinary. Boys employed on b6che-de-mer boats 

 become almost amphibious. Some, as they swim and dive, 

 collect the fish into a heap on the bottom of the sea until 

 they have a parcel worthy of being taken to the attendant 

 dinghy, alongside which they will come with arms so full as 

 to restrict movement to a singular wriggle of the shoulders. 

 What would be an extremely awkward burden for a white 

 man on shore, the expert black boy carries as he swims 

 with ease, in the course of his daily round and common 

 task. 



During the Princess Charlotte Bay cyclone one of the 

 survivors, after an absence of nearly twenty-four hours, 

 came ashore. He explained that the boat of which he had 

 been one of the crew was " drowned finish," and that the 

 sea had taken him out towards the Barrier. He swam for 

 a long time, and at last got tired and went to sleep, and 

 for the best part of that frantic night he slept as he swam. 

 Then the wind changed, and he came in with it, landing 

 very little the worse. Others, on the same occasion, swam 

 for fifteen and twenty hours ; but " Dick " was the only one 

 who went far out to sea, had a night's rest, landed fairly 

 fresh, and seemed to accept the experience as a matter of 

 course. 



Again, three boys and a gin — Charley, Belle Vue, Tom 

 and Mary — were sailing out to a reef in a little dingy, when 

 they sighted a turtle basking on the surface. Charley and 

 Belle Vue jumped overboard and seized the turtle. It was 

 a monster, and so strong that they called for help, and 

 Tom plunged in to their assistance. Mary, frightened of 

 being alone in the boat, also sprang overboard, taking her 

 blanket with her, and the boat speedily sailed and drifted 

 beyond reach. Charley and Belle Vue at once swam to a 

 beacon marking a submerged reef about a mile away, but 

 Tom and Mary, being caught in the current, were swept 



