HUNTING TURTLE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 149, 21 December 1923, Page 20

HUNTING TURTLE

ON THE BARRIER REEF

EXCITEMENT IN THE WATER

In September last we made up a party consisting of four whites and 14 aborigines, with the object of securing a number of live turtles for food, writes Dr. W. Ivens, in the Melbourne "Argus." Our destination was the Bat Reef, which lies 15 miles east of Port Douglas and 35 miles north of Cairns, Northern Queensland, and is a part of that great system of reefs which makes up the Barrier Reef. Bat Reef is circular in shape with a deep entrance on the northeast side. At low tide the fringing reef is bare, and one can walk on it, but no part of the reef is above high water, and there are no stretches of sand at all. It is just one great mass of coral. Inside the reef is a lagoon! with shoals and deep water patches and outgrowths of coral masses and isolated coral rocks. One or two rocka on the fringing reef stand high up, and are visible from some distance. The reef itself must be nearly 20 miles in circumference. At half tide a launch can make a passage over it. We reached it from the south at ebb tide, and had to make our way round to the entrance on the north-east.

We left Mission Bay, Cape Graf ton, in two launches at 7 p.m. By that time it was, of course, dark, and the stars were out. . The tropical day is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and darkness rushes in after sunset.' Peter, an aborigine, was steering our launch, and he set a course by the stars for Upolu Bank, 20 miles away, where we were to sleep that night. We had no chart or compass, but in two and a half hours the bank loomed up right ahead, its sands showing creamy in the clear moonlight. Peter had made no mistake in the direction, and had duly allowed for the ebb tide. The aborigine's sense of direction seems to be equally good whether on land or sea. He can indicate unhesitatingly the required position when asked. Upolu Bank is just a steep bank of coral sand lying north and south, a couple of hundred yards long, 20 yards .wide at the southern end, and at high tide only a few feet above the water. ' We collected wood and boiled our billy, then we spread our blankets od the sand and tried to sleep in the dear moonlight. However, the novelty of the situation, and the cries of the birds banished all hope of sleep. As the sun came up we saw Oyster Key, another aand bank, and a nesting place for terns, two miles to the north-east. Further east again was a smaller bank, evidently in process of formation. Each bank has a line of coral reef stretching away from it eastward. We breakfasted and by 6.30 were on our way to Bat Reef, which lay further north about 15 miles off. In two hours we passed Pixie Bank, a tiny pebble bank just raised above the water. A few snipe,, were resting on it.

In half an hour we saw a big rock, which marked the southern end, of Bat Reef. The tide was too far out 'by this time to allow of our crossing over the reef into the lagoon, so we had perforce to thrash our way against the ebb to the entrance on the north-east. The day was calm and windless. The heat was intense, and the rays of the sun glared at us as they were reflected from the surface of the water. We anchored and dined off fillets of a big kingfish, which we had just caught. We then cruised up and down i and chased several turtle, but failed to get near to any. The westering sun made the vision very I 1. We had been telling the hew chums of our party about the numbers of turtle on Bat Beef. Our failure to secure any that aftt..ioon made them ready to dis- I count our stories of previous trips and the numbers caught as mere fishermen's yarns. "Plenty turtle stop," said Peter. "You wait. In morning we go on top." "On top" meant up eaefc, where ! the lagoon was shallow with a candy bottom making the vision good. All native peoples everywhere speak of east as "up" and west as "down," owing, of course, to the apparent movements of the <un. • WRESTLING WITH A TURTLE. We anohored for the night in a deep patch, and threw in. our fiebing lines. I Our luck was good, the catch consisting of. grey and red snapper, trevalli, rock cod, barracoota, all of them big fish. The night was fine and clear, and we slept as best we were able in our close quarters. We breakfasted at daylight on dugong and fried fish, and wished for nothing better. Then we made off "on top." Keen eyes at the masthead of the larger launch had sighted a turtle, swimming in the shallows "on top." "After him," was the cry. He turned, and twisted, and dodged,... we turning I with him and outpacing him. The,.vis- j sion was excellent, and his dark shadow ! was clearly visible even to us lower down, but he had no chance of escaping the keen eyes of the man up aloft. Now we described circles, now we darted ahead in pursuit, again the tiller was put hard up, and round we swung. fie is lost behind the coral growths and picked up again. Now he is visibly tiring, and we can see the convulsive movements of the flappers. Peter stands ready at the bows of our launch, slipping off his clothes. "How are you going to catch him, Peter?" "Where's your harpoon!" It seemed too big a risk to be taking. We had come for turtle, and harpooning them was surely the safest ■ way! "No more harpoon," says Peter, thrusting out his arms. "We wraatle him." Visions of De Rougemont floated before our minds. Judging by one'e * own I performances in the water, the chance [ of securing a turtle by "wrestling" it was not to 'be seriously considered. How- j j ever, others were slipping off their clothes as we drew abroast of the turtle, in readiness to help Peter, who was the self-constituted master of ceremonies. Now we range alongside the turtle, and, judging his distance well, Peter dives right on to it. "He's got him," tEey cry. The engine is stopped, but onty wnen the engineer has sufficiently recovered from his excitement! Peter's head appears above the water astern of us, and we can see that he is actually grasping a big turtle, one of his hands being inserted under the front o! the turtle's shell just behind the neck, while the other -is under the tail, piece, and the turtle lies half over and powerless. A second man swims off with a rope, which he fastens round the flipper, and then we pull our first catch alongside and haul- it aboard. No light weight, either, for it is a very largo turtle, and has barnacles, growing on it, a sign of aga, and it must ' weigh several hundred poundsOne admires the skill of the black men and their accuracy of judgment in knowing when to jump on to the turtle, and in getting a firm hold of the turtle back. It was all one to them whether the water, was shallow or.deep, the result was the same, the turtle was, held and turned half over,and rendered helpless. Peter in particular was, a master of the art. Seven times, altogether that morning did he dive off the launch after turtles that we chased, and only once did he miss. The continued diving in itself is a proof of wonderful, physical stamina. His clothes were slipped _on and off a good many times that morning. Apart from feelings of delicacy the ra-

sumption of the clothing was made necessary by the fact that these 1 people are very susceptible to changes in temperature, much- more so than are peoplo of white skins. Only once did Peter miss, but of the others who tried their hands ■at it, some dived over the turtle, or else they failed to get a firm hold of the shell. "He too slippery," said they. But to show that others beside Peter had the necessary skill, Archie had a shot, and made a good capture. DEPREDATORY SHARKS. We caught eight turtles in.all that morning. One we harpooned, but the wires drew, and we left the harpooner, who had dived as he struck, squatting on a Jump of coral, while we gave further chase. The turtle had gone into a deep patch, and three or four dived down and tried to put a rope on the flippers as it lay on the bottom, but without success. After two attempts Peter succeeded, and we hauled up our eighth and last turtle. We had caught as many as we could carry. In some places the turtles were as thick as hares in a field. Did we follow one, .another crossed his track, and yet a third, until we were quite at a loss to know which was our original one. We ran full speed after a black shape, which turned out to be a shark. Sharks were everywhere around ua, dark, sinister-looking things, ever on the watch, prowling round. "Hey! Look out! Him no good tnat fellow. He watch out too much," said the boys. Monster stingrays (stingarees) churned their way through the shallows, stirring up the sand, their wicked tails with terrible lash showing up clear against the bottom. "Chinaman, that fellow," contemptuously said Peter, alluding to the fact that the Chinese eat the stingray. One turtle, after being caught and roped, managed to get away. The boys splashed after it in the shallows, but we overtook it, and Peter dived, and we held it tight this time. The tide came in over the reef like an overrunning flood, and we had to desist and make our way back to the anchorage. The turtles were all stowed safely in the larger launch, and we dined off steaks cut from one that had died. With turtle and dugong and.fish our fourteen natives were having, a royal feast. Turtle is the delicacy par excellence, whether for lord mayors or for aborigines of Australia. The various helmsmen that night on the big launch sat with one hand on the tiller and the other holding the frying-pan. Fried turtle was the order of the night. We ourselves were not averse from a supper of turtle cooked on our primus stove. We left .an hour after sundown, getting across the reef at half-tide, and steered for the high hills at the back of our home, doing the thirty-five miles in five hours. The big launch arrived next day with the jSeven turtles all alive. Just after crossing the reef we ran into a great patch, which showed up black in' the moonlight. A stranger might have thought we were rushing on to the rocks. But it was only thick scum aiid weeds from the reef, and we went straight through the middle 'of it, leaving, a clear path behind. The launch we were in had been the property of Mr. Bamfield, the hermit of Dunk Island. A great feast followed the arrival of the turtle, and oiir noses suffered much, foi; turtle is strong-smelling Btuff. Some 1 of our friends on shore said that the smell was enough to make them break their friendship with us! The famous turtle soup is not made from the flesh, but from the gelatinous substance which forma the belly of the turtle, and 'from the covering of the neck, and nippers. This is cut into strips, boiled, and then sun-dried. In the final stage it looks like glue. The flesh is easily sun-dried, and keeps well. It serves as forcemeat balls for the soup,: and properly should be done up for the market in sausage* The shell of this particular turtle (the greeir back) is of no value. The tortoise shell of commerce is made of the patei of the back of the hawk bill turtle, the flesh, of which is not edible.