Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/370

312 feet long, besides which it is tied to a loose line of three or four fathoms. The use of this is undoubtedly to enable the staff to serve as a float to show where the turtle is when struck, as well as to assist in tiring it till they can with their canoes overtake and haul it in. That they throw this dart with great force we had occasion to observe while we lay in Endeavour's river, where a turtle which we killed had one of these pegs entirely buried in his body just across its breast; it seemed to have entered at the soft place where the fore-fin works, but not the least outward mark of the wound remained.

We saw near their fire-places plentiful remains of lobsters, shell-fish of all kinds, and to the southward the skins of those sea animals which, from their property of spouting out water when touched, are commonly called sea-squirts. These last, however disgustful they may seem to an European palate, we found to contain, under a coat as tough as leather, a substance like the guts of a shell-fish, of a taste, though not equal to an oyster, yet by no means to be despised by a hungry man.

Of land animals they probably eat every kind that they can kill, which probably does not amount to any large number, every species being here shy and cautious in a high degree. The only vegetables which we saw them use were yams of two sorts, the one long and like a finger, the other round and covered with stringy roots; both sorts very small but sweet. They were so scarce where we were that we never could find the plants that produced them, though we often saw the places where they had been dug up by the Indians very recently. It is very probable that the dry season, which was at its height when we were there, had destroyed the leaves of the plants, so that we had no guide, while the Indians, knowing well the stalks, might find them easily. Whether they knew or ever made use of the cocos, I cannot tell; the immense sharpness of every part of this vegetable before it is dressed makes it probable that any people who have not learned the uses of it from others may remain for ever ignorant of them. Near their fires were