plash is seen, a struggle heard, and a fish is slowly and
cautiously drawn towards the canoe pierced through with the spear. If it
is a large one, the native at once plunges into the water, still
retaining his hold of the spear, and soon reappears with the trophy in
his arms.

Among the rocks under the cliffs, or among logs or roots of trees, or on
a clayey bottom, large fresh-water lobsters (poo-ta-ron-ko) are procured
in the same way, weighing from two to four pounds each, and of a most
delicate and excellent flavour. I have frequently been out with a single
native, and seen him spear from ten to sixteen of these in an hour or
two.

It has a singular and powerful effect upon the imagination, to witness at
midnight a fleet of these canoes, gliding about in the distance like so
many balls of fire, imparting a still deeper shade to the gloom of
darkness which surrounds the spectator, and throwing an air of romance on
the whole scene. Occasionally in travelling at night, and coming suddenly
upon the river from the scrub behind, I have been dazzled and enchanted
with the fairy sight that has burst upon me. The waters have been alive
with brilliant fires, moving to and fro in every direction, like meteors
from a marsh, and like those too, rapidly and inexplicably disappearing
when the footsteps of strangers are heard approaching.

A few other methods of catching fish are sometimes resorted to, such as
stirring up the mud in stagnant ponds, and taking the fish when they come
up almost choked to the surface. Groping with their hands or with boughs,
etc. etc.

There is also a particular season of the year (about September), when in
the larger rivers the fish become ill or diseased, and lie floating on
the surface unable to descend, or drift down dead with the current.
Fishes weighing nearly eighty pounds are sometimes taken in this way. The
natives are always looking out for opportunities of procuring food so
easily, and never hesitate to eat any fish, although they may have been
dead for some time.

I have never seen the natives use hooks in fishing of their own
manufacture, nor do I believe that they ever make any, though they are
glad enough to get them from Europeans.

The large fresh-water lobster is sometimes procured by diving, in which
case the females are generally employed, as the weather is cold, and
night is the best time to procure them. It is extraordinary to see a
party of women plunge into the water on a