occasionally assisted, flitting hither and thither like eerie witches
amidst the dense pall of black smoke--all these made up a picture which
is indelibly imprinted on my mind.

As a rule, hosts of hawks and eagles are to be seen flying over the black
man's camp, but on the occasion of a bush fire they follow its train,
well knowing that they will obtain prey in abundance. With regard to the
fishing parties, these went out either early in the morning, soon after
sunrise, or in the evening, when it was quite dark. On the latter
occasions, the men carried big torches, which they held high in the air
with one hand, while they waded out into the water with their spears
poised, in readiness to impale the first big fish they came across.

When the spearmen _did_ strike, their aim was unerring, and the
struggling fish would be hurled on to the beach to the patient
women-folk, who were there waiting for them, with their big nets of grass
slung over their backs. Sometimes a hundred men would be in the shallow
water at once, all carrying blazing torches, and the effect as the
fishermen plunged and splashed this way and that, with shouts of triumph
or disappointment, may be better imagined than described. In the daytime
a rather different method was adopted. Some acres of the shallow lagoon
would be staked out at low water in the shape of an inverted V, an
opening being left for the fish to pass through.

The high tide brought the fish in vast shoals, and then the opening would
be closed. When the tide receded, the staked enclosure became, in
effect, a gigantic net, filled with floundering fish, big and little. The
natives then waded into the inclosure, and leisurely despatched the fish
with their spears.

Nothing was more interesting than to watch one of these children of the
bush stalking a kangaroo. The man made not the slightest noise in
walking, and he would stealthily follow the kangaroo's track for miles
(the tracks were absolutely invisible to the uninitiated). Should at
length the kangaroo sniff a tainted wind, or be startled by an incautious
movement, his pursuer would suddenly become as rigid as a bronze figure,
and he could remain in this position for hours. Finally, when within
thirty or forty yards of the animal, he launched his spear, and in all
the years I was among these people I never knew a man to miss his aim.
Two distinct kinds of spears were used by the natives, one for hunting
and the other for