I had a good opportunity of witnessing the mode of fishing with the seine practised by the natives of the Louisiade. One of these nets, apparently of the usual dimensions, measured 130 feet in length, with a depth of a yard only. The upper border is supported, when in the water, by numerous small thin triangular floats of light wood, and the lower margin is strung with a series of perforated shells--chiefly single valves of Arca scapha--serving as sinkers. The cordage is of a white colour, very light, and neatly laid up, the meshes are an inch wide, and the centre of the net ends in a purse-like bag. A party of eight men poled along the shallow margin of the reef in their canoe, using the seine at intervals. When a shoal of fish is seen, three men lay hold of the net and jump out into the water--it is run out into a semicircle, the men at the extremes moving onwards with one person in advance on each side splashing the water with long poles and stones to drive the fish towards the centre. The canoe now makes a sweep and comes up to the opening, when the net is closed in upon it, and hauled inboard with its contents. This mode of fishing would appear to be practised also at some of the islands of Polynesia, for similar seines are exhibited in the ethnological gallery of the British Museum from the Feejees and elsewhere. In addition to the seine, we had occasionally observed in canoes alongside the ship a small scoop-net with a very long handle, and once procured a fishing hook of singular construction. This last is represented by the right hand figure of the accompanying woodcut. It is seven inches in length, made of some hard wood, with an arm four and a half inches long, turning up at a sharp angle, and tipped with a slightly curved barb of tortoise-shell projecting horizontally inwards an inch and a half.
STONE-HEADED AXE AND FISHHOOK.
POISONOUS FISH.
During the afternoon one of the crew of a boat upon the reef, while incautiously handling a frog-fish (Batrachus) which he had found under a stone, received two punctures at the base of the thumb from the sharp dorsal spines partially concealed by the skin. Immediately severe pain was produced which quickly increased until it became intolerable, and the man lay down and rolled about in agony. He was taken on board the ship in a state of great weakness. The hand was considerably swollen, with the pain shooting up the arm to the axilla, but the glands there did not become affected. The pulse fell to as low as 40 beats in the minute, with a constant desire to vomit. Large doses of opium in the course of time afforded relief, but a fortnight elapsed before the man was again fit for duty.
SEARCH FOR A WATERING-PLACE.
June 23rd.
I accompanied Mr. Brown, the master, who was sent to examine and report upon a watering-place said to have been found a day or two ago on South-east Island, about four miles north from the ship. We found the coast thereabouts fringed with mangroves, a gap in which, margined by forest trees, indicated the place which we were in search of. The ebb-tide was scarcely beginning to make, yet a narrow band of shingle off the entrance of the creek had barely water enough upon it to allow the boat to cross. Beyond the bar we got into deep water, and after pulling up for 300 yards found it only brackish. Our further progress, however, was impeded by the narrowing of the creek, which besides was blocked up with dead trees and some rocks in its bed a few yards ahead of us. The fresh water being thus unattainable without much trouble, and the bar at the entrance adding to the difficulty of watering the ship there, we turned back to search elsewhere. While standing along shore to the eastward, opposite an opening in the low hills behind the coast we observed another breach in the mangroves backed by trees of a different description, and thought it worthy of examination. Tacking inshore we found a small bight, with shoal water, on a bank of mud extending right across, beyond which the entrance of a creek fringed with mangroves was discovered. Our hopes were still further raised, when, ascending about 200 yards, with a depth of two and three fathoms, the surface water was found to be quite drinkable. While passing the entrance on our return a great lizard, about five feet in length, rushed out from an adjacent swamp across a narrow strip of sandy beach and plunged into the water after receiving an ineffectual charge of small shot. The boat's crew pronounced it confidently to have been a young alligator, but, although in a very likely haunt for these animals, it was probably only a monitor.
ROUND ISLAND.