s construction. The large mats
used as sails, also for sleeping under in wet weather, are made by the
women from the fallen leaves of the pandanus--the common basket from the
rush-like leaves of Xerotes banksii ? --and the water basket from the
sheath of the leaf of the Seaforthia palm.

The food of these blacks varies with the season of the year, and the
supply is irregular and often precarious. Shellfish and fish are alone
obtainable all the year round--collecting the former is exclusively a
female occupation, but fishing is chiefly practised by the men. Fish are
either killed with a plain pointed spear, often merely a stick sharpened
at the end, or are taken in deep water with the hook and line. Their
hooks are made of a strip of tortoise-shell so much curved as to form
three-fourths of a circle, but from their shape and the absence of a barb
they cannot be so effective as those of European make: indeed these last
were at Cape York preferred by the natives themselves. The line is neatly
made from the tough fibres of the rattan, which are first scraped to the
requisite degree of fineness with a sharp-edged Cyrena shell, then
twisted and laid up in three strands.

Turtle forms an important article of food, and four different kinds are
distinguished at Cape York and the Prince of Wales Islands. Three of
these can be identified as the Green, the Hawksbill, and the Loggerhead
species, and the fourth is a small one which I never saw. This last, I
was informed by Giaom, is fished for in the following extraordinary
manner.

MODE OF CATCHING TURTLE.

A live sucking-fish (Echeneis remora) having previously been secured by a
line passed round the tail, is thrown into the water in certain places
known to be suitable for the purpose; the fish while swimming about makes
fast by its sucker to any turtle of this small kind which it may chance
to encounter, and both are hauled in together!

The green turtle is of such consequence to the natives that they have
distinguished by a special name taken from the animal itself (sulangi
from sulur) the season of the year when it is most plentiful; this, at
Cape York, usually extends from about the middle of October until the end
of November, but the limits are not constant. During the season they are
to be seen floating about on the surface of the water, often in pairs,
male and female together. A few are caught at night on the sandy beaches,
but the greater number are captured in the wa