THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF AUSTRALIA. 331 



It is gregarious in its habits, and is found in herds numbering 

 from ten or a dozen to thirty or forty individuals, mostly females. 

 Its food consists almost exclusively of the Zoster a-like marine 

 grass, Posidonia australis, which grows in great abundance about 

 the reefs of the intertropical coast line. 



The chief value of the animal, which is eaten by the natives, 

 depends upon the oil it yields, which, for medicinal purposes, used 

 to realise first hand 20s. per gallon, but which now fetches about 12s. 

 per gallon. It is captured both by netting and spearing. The 

 Dugong spear used in Torres Strait is a formidable weapon, being, 

 as originally described by Prof. A. C. Haddon, a pole from twelve 

 to fifteen or more feet in length, with its butt-end club-shaped 

 and hollowed for the reception of a loose-fitting barbed dart, to 

 which a long line is attached. The opposite end of the shaft is 

 usually perforated, and decorated with tufts of cassowary-feathers, 

 ovula shells, or rattling seed-pods. 



Through the kindness of Messrs. W. & H. Allen & Co., the 

 publishers of this work, we are enabled to give a reproduction of 

 an excellent photograph, taken by Prof. Haddon, of a native 

 chief of Jervis Island, Torres Strait, with two Dugongs killed by 

 him with the long spear above described : — 



" When close enough," says Prof. Haddon, " the man bearing the spear 

 jumps into the water, at the same time harpooning the Dugong as it is in 

 the act of breathing. The latter immediately dives down, and runs out 

 the rope which is fastened to the dart, the man having to be careful not to 

 get his head entangled in the loops of the rope, as deaths have occurred 

 from this accident. The man returns with the spear-shaft to the canoe. 

 Other men immediately dive into the water, and when the Dugong once 

 more rises to breathe, they tie a second rope round its tail, and then, 

 whenever it attempts to rise, the men by diving at the same time, pull it 

 down with the rope, and in a very short time it is suffocated. Death 

 always occurs through asphyxia." 



With this extract we must conclude our notice of this very 

 beautiful and instructive volume. The amount of information 

 which it contains concerning the animal-life to be found on and 

 around the Great Barrier Reef of Australia is considerable, 

 and while, from the style in which it is written, the volume is 

 attractive to the general reader, it furnishes in its systematic 

 and accurate details a very important contribution to zoological 

 science. 



