298 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Melville Island to the Gull' of Carpentaria, where the east wind 
them and assisted their return, when they revisited all the points oi 
the coast, anchoring in every bay where they hoped to find fish. 
were in the first days of April ; the east monsoon was definitively 
established ; the Malay fishermen were returning in their circuit, aiA 
in passing, they came to exercise their industry in Raffle’s Bay. A 11 
hour alter their arrival they were all at work, and the laboratory f° r 
the preparation of their fish was established within our view. 
roadstead had no longer the aspect of a vast solitude : wreaths () * 
smoke crowned the summit of Observatory Island, where, as if hy 
enchantment, several large sheds bad sprung up, while numerous vessel®* 
supplied with divers, were proceeding to fish for Holothurias, which 
were passed immediately to the furnaces erected for curing them. 1® 
the course ol my voyage I have often remarked little walls constructed 
ol dry stones, consisting of several half-circles joined one to the other* 
I had often, but vainly, tried to discover the use of these little struc- 
tures : I was now enlightened. The Malays arrived. Their boat® 
were scarcely anchored when several large boilers, in the shape 
a half-sphere, the diameter of which might be about forty inches* 
were placed upon the stone walls of which I have spoken, and no^ 
served as improvised furnaces. Near to them are sheds, composed ot 
four strong posts driven into the earth, supporting roofing covered 
with hurdles, on which it is probably intended to dry the fish. During 
their sojourn in this bay, the fishermen, having fine weather, made u° 
use of these sheds, having probably only prepared them as a p re ' 
caution. 
“A crowd of men actively employed in establishing their laboratories 
gave an unaccustomed appearance to the bay, which could not fad t0 
attract tho savage inhabitants of the main land. Aery soon, indeed 
we could see them hastening from all sides, and nearly all reached the 
little island, either by sw’imming or wading through the sheet 
shallow water which separates it from the main land. I only saw ou e 
pirogue, made of the hark of a tree badly put together, which gave » 
passage to three of these visitors. When night arrived, the Malay 8 
had finished all their preparations ; some of them remained to guard 
what they had left on shore, all the others returned to their boats. 
“ lu the interval, a boat from the Astrolabe being wanted to carry 
some visitors from the island, I profited by the occasion to visit o» e 
