Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/444

420   region; its flesh is not bad eating, and its oil was formerly in demand as a substitute for cod-liver oil, but some of the fishermen got to mixing it with shark-oil and other abominations, so that its good name was ruined. If you have a taste for turtle-catching, it can be accommodated. We supply the Sydney and Melbourne markets with green turtle, and also put the soup and meat into tin cans and send it to England. There are numerous fishes, some good to eat, and others worthless as articles of food but with all the colors of the rainbow. We have sharks of the largest size, and the stranger should be careful about venturing into the water for a bath."

Their new acquaintance had a great deal to say about the northern part of Queensland, whose praises he was never weary of sounding. He declared that within a very few years Queensland would consist of two colonies instead of one, as the north was inclined to cut loose from the south and set up a government of its own. He thought it did not receive its fair share of the public money, and having paid its