Motor power for the canoe is a shovel-shaped piece of bark 5 inches by 3 1/2 inches, each man having a pair.  Ever and anon the aft man ejects leakage by a rapid succession of dexterous back strokes of his paddle.

Naked and unashamed, the blacks are well equipped for sport.  They may have three or four harpoons of their own manufacture, besides a live fire-stick lying on a piece of bark sprinkled with sand, or they may carry a couple of dry sticks for raising a fire by friction.  The haft of the harpoon is probably red or orange mangrove (BRUGUIERA RHEEDI), heavy and tough.  It has been duly seasoned and straightened by immersion in running water and exposure to fire.  At the heavy end it is hollowed out to a depth Of 4 inches.  The point is preferably of one of the black palms (ARCHONTOPHOENIX JARDINEI), and a barb is strapped to it with the fibre of the “Man-djar” (Hibiscus tiliaceous) and cemented with “Toon-coo.”

I have never known one of these barbs to break or come loose, so adept are the blacks in securing them.  The point is about 6 inches long, and on the barbless end is tightly wound successive layers of fibrous bark, until its size is adjusted to the socket in the haft.  Above the swathing of bark a strong line is made fast; the padded end is fitted into the socket, the line is made taut along the whole length of the haft, and secured by three or four half hitches about a foot from the thin end.  A neat coil of perhaps 50 yards of line lies in the bottom of the canoe.  Probably each of the blacks will have his fishing-line, for sometimes the turtle do not rise according to expectations.  At high tide these feed among the rocks close to the shore, at low water out among the coral on the reef, and the hunters wait and watch and fish silently and with all passivity.  Then, when maybe they have caught schnapper, red bream and parrot-fish, they drift among the turtle, and the sport begins.

In sight of the game the sucker which has been adhering to the bottom of the canoe is tugged off and thrown in its direction.  As a preliminary the disc and shoulders of the sucker are vigorously scrubbed with dry sand or the palm of the hand, to remove the slime and to excite the ruling passion of the fish.  It makes a dash for a more congenial companionship than an insipid canoe.  The line by which it is secured is made from the bark of the “Boo-bah” (Ficus FASCICULATA) and is of two strands, so light as not to seriously encumber the sucker, and yet strong enough to withstand a considerable strain.  Two small loops are made in the line about an interval Of 2 fathoms from the sucker, to act as indicators.