Some, as they
swim and dive, collect the fish into a heap on the bottom of the sea
until they have a parcel worthy of being taken to the attendant dinghy,
alongside which they will come with arms so full as to restrict movement
to a singular wriggle of the shoulders. What would be an extremely
awkward burden for a white man on shore, the expert black boy carries as
he swims with case, in the course of his daily round and common task.
During the Princess Charlotte Bay cyclone one of the survivors, after an
absence of nearly twenty-four hours, came ashore. He explained that the
boat of which he had been one of the crew was "drowned finish," and that
the sea had taken him out towards the Barrier. He swam for a long time,
and at last got tired and went to sleep, and for the best part of that
frantic night he slept as he swam. Then the wind changed, and he came in
with it, landing very little the worse. Others, on the same occasion,
swam for fifteen and twenty hours; but "Dick" was the only one who
went far out to sea, had a night's rest, landed fairly fresh, and seemed
to accept the experience as a matter of course.
Again, three boys and a gin--Charley, Belle Vue, Tom and Mary--were
sailing out to a reef in a little dingy, when they sighted a turtle
basking on the surface.
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