Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/81

Rh but if ever a people like to eat nasty things it is the Chinese. The balloon fish (Tetraodon ocettalus) has flesh that is said to be poisonous also. There is as well on the islands a death-dealing tree, and the wild cherry, as it is called, is said to produce paralysis and blindness—so that there are serpents in this paradise. There are many sorts of sharks, great blue-spotted octopuses, water-snakes, turtles, tortoises, countless edible fishes, countless fish too gorgeous in colour to seem desirable, such as the parrot fish. There are wonderful sponges, pearl shells with their pearls, and the before-mentioned clams. The oysters are in huge quantities, and even cover thickly the branches of the mangrove trees which grow near or out of the water on islands or mainland. Some day perhaps a great revenue will be drawn from the canning of fish and oysters, and the exploiting of all the Barrier resources. Are there not millions of Chinese ready to devour dried fish, dugong, trepang, shark's fins, and other delicacies going to waste here?

And there is the sea-serpent—why not? Anyway, the Moha-Moha has been seen at closequarters by eight or nine people, and received the name Chelosauria Lovelli, after its discoverer Miss Lovell. It was a sort of cross between a turtle, a tortoise, and a sea-serpent. It has feet like an alligator, a smooth grey carapace five feet high, a forked tail, perhaps twelve feet long, and a neck to match, neck and tail being glossy and shining with scales, or markings, silver-grey shading to white. It raises its head or tail five or six feet out of the water. It was discovered on 8th June 1890, at Sandy Cape, and viewed at a few feet distance. There cannot be only one Moha-Moha, and I live in hopes of seeing it stuffed in a museum yet.

I spoke of the mystery and romance of this wonderful Barrier Reef. Once a boat, belonging