OCCURRENCE OF A SUBMERGED FOREST. 173 
of some creeping plant, is made fast to the peg at one end, while 
the other is secured to the canoe. When within distance, the 
bowman leaps out, strikes the Dugong, and returns to the canoe 
with the shaft in his hand. On being struck, the animal dives, 
carrying out the line, but generally rises to the surface and dies 
in a few minutes, not requiring a second wound, a circumstance 
Surprising in the case of a cetaceous animal, six or eight feet in 
length, and of proportionate bulk. The carcass is towed on shore 
and rolled up the beach, when preparations are made for a grand 
feast. The flesh is cut through to the ribs in thin strips, each 
with its share of skin and blubber, then the tail is removed and 
sliced with a sharp shell as we would a round of beef.” 
On the other hand, Mr. J. K. E. Fairholme,! says, the Dugong 
was captured by the blacks in Moreton Bay “by placing large nets 
across through which they knew the animals would pass from the 
feeding grounds.” 
Except on one of two hypotheses the presence of these bones in 
the Shea’s Creek deposit is difficult of explanation, viz., either 
that the Dugong had strayed some considerable distance from its 
accustomed feeding ground, or else a carcase had floated in from 
Seawards and become stranded. It could hardly have frequented 
such an inlet as Shea’s Creek must then have been for feeding 
purposes, if the resemblance of the deposit to those now accumul- 
ating in the Parramatta River, and elsewhere under ' like con- 
ditions be any criterion for “ Dugongs are much more strictly 
marine than Manatees, and their food is therefore chiefly restricted 
to sea-water alge.” If, however, it be admitted that this Dugong 
was stranded alive at Shea’s Oreek, or at any rate at that part of 
Cook’s River Estuary now represented by that odoriferous locality, 
the natural inference is that conditions more akin to those of the 
north-east Queensland coast existed there at that period. 
(5) Traces of Man’s Presence.—(a) Tomahawks.—On the north 
Side of the second dam, 2,700 feet from Rickety Street, two 
1 Proc. Zool. Soc., 1856, pt. xxiv., p. 353. 
* Ogilby, Cat. Austr. Mam. (Austr. Mus.), 1892, p. 63. 
