harp
shell as we would a round of beef. The blubber is esteemed the most
delicate part; but even the skin is eaten, although it requires much
cooking in the oven.

(*Footnote. A slender, branchless, cylindrical, articulated seaweed, of a
very pale green colour, was pointed out to me by a native as being the
favourite food of the dugong.)

COOKING IN THE OVEN.

This oven is of simple construction--a number of stones, the size of the
fist, are laid on the ground, and a fire is continued above them until
they are sufficiently hot, the meat is then laid upon the bottom layer
with some of the heated stones above it, a rim of tea-tree bark banked up
with sand or earth is put up all round, with a quantity of bark, leaves,
or grass on top, to retain the steam, and the process of baking goes on.
This is the favourite mode of cooking turtle and dugong throughout Torres
Strait, and on the east coast of the mainland I have seen similar
fireplaces as far south as Sandy Cape.

CULTURE OF THE YAM.

A great variety of yam-like tubers are cultivated in Torres Strait.
Although on Murray and Darnley and other thickly peopled and fertile
islands a considerable extent of land in small patches has been brought
under cultivation, at the Prince of Wales Islands the cleared spots are
few in number, and of small extent--nor does the latter group naturally
produce either the coconut or bamboo, or is the culture of the banana
attempted. On the mainland again I never saw the slightest attempt at
gardening.

The principal yam, or that known by the names of kutai and ketai, is the
most important article of vegetable food, as it lasts nearly throughout
the dry season. Forming a yam garden is a very simple operation. No
fencing is required--the patch of ground is strewed with branches and
wood, which when thoroughly dry are set on fire to clear the surface--the
ground is loosely turned up with a sharpened stick, and the cut pieces of
yam are planted at irregular intervals, each with a small pole for the
plant to climb up. These operations are completed just before the
commencement of the wet season, or in the month of October.

When the rains set in the biyu becomes the principal support of the Cape
York and Muralug people. This is a grey slimy paste procured from a
species of mangrove (Candelia ?) the sprouts of which, three or four
inches long, are first made to undergo a process of baking and
steaming--a large heap being laid upon heated st