Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/85

80 of the crows and gulls. As soon as the result of a good haul has been examined the men pick up their spears, &c., and stalk off to the camp in a most majestic manner, leaving the women and children to bring on the wet, therefore heavy net, as well as the spoil thereof. In due time the latter straggle into the camp by twos and threes, groaning and whining under their respective burdens like so many overladen camels traversing some dreary and arid waste within the limits of the torrid zone.

When a small assemblage, such as two or three families, happen to be encamped in near proximity to a lake, they fix a net by means of stakes in zig-zag lines, about twenty yards from the shore, or perhaps a little further should the lake be a shallow one, and from this net daily supplies are drawn, consisting principally of perch and cat-fish. Occasionally a monster cod becomes enmeshed, when, of course, the net suffers considerably, and in most cases with the loss of the fish which did the damage. An untoward accident of this kind gives rise to much aboriginal language of a demonstrative description, as it entails the labour of taking up the net for repairs, which otherwise would in all probability not be moved for a month or more. Nets so staked are visited morning and evening, and on each occasion from eight to a dozen fish are taken, varying from two to ten pounds weight.

In the Swan Hill district the Murray River runs through an immense area of reedy plains. On the immediate banks of the river, for as far as these reedy plains extend, there is an artificial looking dike, having an elevation of three or more feet above the plains which shelve away behind it,