370 
Dugong  Oil. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Phakm 
t    Aug.  1,  1872. 
of  the  sea  in  which  the  Arabs  fish  is  from  fifteen  feet  to  thirty-five 
feet.  Although  the  Greeks  are  most  expert  divers,  the  majority  of 
them  use  the  spear.  They  employ  small  and  light  boats,  just  suffi- 
cient to  carry  a  spearman  and  an  oarsman.  The  boat  is  rowed  gently 
along,  while  the  spearman  searches  the  bottom  of  the  sea  by  means 
of  a  tin  tube  of  fourteen  inches  in  diameter  by  nineteen  inches  in 
length,  at  one  end  of  which  is  placed  a  thick  sheet  of  glass.  This 
tube  is  slightly  immersed  in  the  water,  and  enables  the  fisherman  to 
view  the  bottom  undisturbed  by  the  oscillations  of  the  surface.  The 
spears  used  by  the  Greeks  are  shorter  than  those  employed  by  the 
natives  and  Sicilians,  but  with  wonderful  adroitness  they  are  enabled 
to  reach  sponges  covered  by  sixty  feet  of  water.  They  hold  in  their 
hands  from  three  to  four  spears,  and  dart  them  so  quickly  and  with 
such  precision,  one  after  the  other,  that  before  the  first  has  time  to 
disappear  under  the  surface  the  second  strikes  its  upper  extremity, 
and  thus  gives  it  additional  impetus  to  reach  the  sponge  aimed  at. 
The  Sicilians,  also,  fish  with  a  spear  and  in  small  rowing  boats,  but 
do  not  understand  the  employment  of  the  tube,  and  have  not  acquired 
the  knack  of  the  Greeks  in  using  three  or  four  spears  ;  they  conse- 
quently seldom  secure  an  equal  quantity  of  sponges,  although  they 
are  always  more  successful  than  the  Arabs.  The  produce  of  the  fish- 
ery  is,  it  is  stated,  susceptible  of  considerable  augmentation  by  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  fishermen,  and  a  new  sponge  is  reproduced 
within  a  year  wherever  one  has  been  removed. — Scientific  American,. 
July  13,  1872. 
DUGONG  OIL. 
Among  the  many  attractive  portions  of  the  International  Exhibi- 
tion, none  is  perhaps  more  worthy  of  attention  than  the  Queensland 
Annexe,  which  has,  we  believe,  been  erected  at  the  cost  of  that  young; 
but  vigorous  colony.  The  evidence  of  great  material  wealth  in  gold, 
copper,  coal,  wool,  cotton,  sugar  and  tobacco,  to  say  nothing  of 
arrowroot,  tea,  coffee,  etc.,  are  enough  to  show  us  that  much  may  yet 
be  expected  of  this  portion  of  Australia.  On  one  table  are  exhibited 
a  large  number  of  tins  of  preserved  meat,  and  a  case  containing 
specimens  of  the  bones,  flesh,  skin,  meat  and  oil  of  the  dugong. 
As  we  have  received  several  letters  recently,  containing  inquiries 
respecting  this  animal  and  the  economical  products  obtained  from  it, 
