CHANGES AND STRANGE SCENES 
the purposes of trade. The stores are kept for the 
most part by Chinese, and Japanese and Chinese boats 
call there on their way south to Sydney. The coasters 
also make it a point of call as they pass from Brisbane 
and Sydney on their way to the Gulf of Carpentaria 
and Normanton, the great centre of the Eastern cattle 
trade. 
Thursday Island, so small a dot in the Eastern 
Archipelago that the tiniest mark a geographer can 
make on his map is widely out of proportion to its 
size, rewards the traveller well for a visit. Although 
one can walk round the island in an hour and a half, 
the locality is full of interest, and the pearl fishery is 
very engrossing for the observer. The boats of the 
fishing fleet afford a most picturesque accessory to the 
scene, and the harbour is full of life. Small boats 
dart about everywhere, and there is a continual coming 
and going. ‘The large Chinese and Japanese steamers, 
of from 6000 to 7000 tons burden, are continually 
arriving at and leaving the Government wharf. The 
Kuropeans are most agreeable and hospitable. ‘The 
sea round Thursday Island is a most wonderful colour 
—in parts emerald green and silver, deep blue varied 
with light yellow and brown, and everywhere perfectly 
clear. The tides, which at times flow with the 
rapidity of a mill-race, have been studied, but are not 
yet understood. ‘They are tremendously erratic and 
very dangerous. Sometimes they run at the rate of 
seven miles an hour, and against this steamers can 
make no headway. ‘The Torres Straits indeed, as 
far as Cairns, are the most dangerous seas in the 
world. It is, of course, very warm in Thursday 
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