In the western rivers district of the Northern Territory, after the water has dried up in the creeks, leaving only shallow pools behind, the imprisoned fish are driven towards small inlets by means of long bundles of grass and twigs held horizontally in the water. In this way they are pushed forward on to the bank, and the water filters back to the hole. The fish are retained by the brushwood, from which they are easily extricated by the hunters.
The Carpentaria tribes build ingenious races at suitable sites, as for instance at a point where a river drains a billabong. By means of a series of embankments, the water is conducted along a number of constricted channels to long hollow logs, through which it flows, and, subsequently, empties itself over stacks of brushwood. The fish are entangled in the brushwood, whence they are removed by the hunters to a place of safety.
Crawfish are traced in shallow pools by keeping a constant look-out for the ends of their antennæ, which stick out above the surface of the turbid water; the native seizes these, and, with a jerk, hurls the crustaceans on to the bank.
PLATE XVI
1. Wongapitcha women carrying dogs which they hold across their backs to enjoy the warmth of the animals’ bodies.
2. Kolaia man standing in the characteristic bird-like attitude, Cambridge Gulf.
In the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory, where there are suitable constrictions in shallow tidal-inlets and creeks, the natives sit in a line across the opening at ebb-tide after the following fashion: Each person squats with his legs doubled in the knees, the thighs resting well apart and in contact, one on either side, with those of his neighbours, who are seated just as he. When the last of the water ebbs out, the fish endeavour to make through the line of the fishers, but the moment one invades the angle contained by an aboriginal’s thighs, it is immediately pounced upon, caught, and thrown across to the women waiting on the shore.
In place of the human line, very often a net is spanned across an ebbing inlet, being kept in a more or less vertical position by a number of stakes, which are driven into the sand. These nets are made of vegetable fibre twine, strung or knitted together, after a loop-within-loop pattern, into pieces many yards in length.
Barriers are also built across shallow inlets, which upon the recession of the tide may occasionally retain large numbers of fish. Such structures are plentiful in the Berringin territory along the north coast, and in the Carpentaria Gulf country.