Snakes were always killed with sticks, whilst birds were brought down with the wonderful boomerang.
As a rule, only sufficient food was obtained to last from day to day; but on the occasion of one of the big _battues_ I have described there would be food in abundance for a week or more, when there would be a horrid orgy of gorging and one long continuous _corroboree_, until supplies gave out.
The sport which I myself took up was dugong hunting; for I ought to have mentioned that I brought a harpoon with me in the boat, and this most useful article attracted as much attention as anything I had.

The natives would occasionally put their hands on my tomahawk or harpoon, and never ceased to wonder why the metal was so cold.
Whenever I went out after dugong, accompanied by Yamba (she was ever with me), the blacks invariably came down in crowds to watch the operation from the beach.
But, you will ask, what did I want with dugong, when I had so much other food at hand?
Well my idea was to lay in a great store of dried provisions against the time when I should be ready to start for civilisation in my boat.

I built a special shed of boughs, in which I conducted my curing operations; my own living-place being only a few yards away.

It was built quite in European fashion, with a sloping roof.
The interior was perhaps twenty feet square and ten feet high, with a small porch in which my fire was kept constantly burning.

When we had captured a dugong the blacks would come rushing into the sea to meet us and drag our craft ashore, delighted at the prospect of a great feast.
The only part of the dugong I preserved was the belly, which I cut up into strips and dried.
The blacks never allowed their fires to go out, and whenever they moved their camping-ground, the women-folk always took with them their smouldering fire-sticks, with which they can kindle a blaze in a few minutes.