X THE DUGONG 141 
after her rescue her mother tongue came back to her, 
and some years afterwards she could barely remember 
a word of the language of the native tribe with whom 
she had lived. 
This house, like other Queensland houses, is built on 
piles with a wide verandah all round, and the long and 
lofty rooms opening one into the other. Hanging 
against the wall in this room are a few little relics from 
the Quetta^ waiting some day to be claimed. The 
flag, which is in the Memorial Church at Thursday 
Island, was picked up on Murray Island, a hundred 
miles away, where it had been carried by the strong 
currents. 
There is plenty of good shooting here, wild-fowl and 
numbers of quail, and the most beautiful varieties of 
doves and pigeons. The birds have nearly all bright 
plumage. Rifle -birds are here in numbers; their 
feathers are like black velvet, and the head and neck 
look a dazzling, metallic green in one light, but blue 
and purple in another. There are mullet, whiting, 
schnapper, jinflsh, herring, bream, and others, besides 
turtles, oysters, and crabs weighing sometimes six 
and seven pounds each, which the black gins catch 
among the mangrove trees. 
In front of the house there is a Dugong stage 
erected. Now I am sure that you don't know what 
creature this is. It looks part pig, part seal, and part 
whale, and grows about seven or eight feet long ; its 
hide is an inch or more thick ; it is a graminivorous 
creature, and the natives hunt it with harpoons in shallow 
water where it comes to browse on the grass banks, 
and with its long protruding lips plucks ofl* the 
long thin blades of grass which could not be kept in 
the mouth were it not that the roof is covered with 
short, bristly hairs. The male has two long front tusks. 
Digitized by LnOOQ IC 
