Aboriginal Australians -- Government relations; Dunk Island (Qld.); Natural history -- Australia -- Queensland
In the mud close to the edge of the beach sand one of the most singular
of marine animals exists, and often its empty, horny, flexible,
semi-transparent shell, always tinted green, may be found. It is known
in some works as LINGULA ANATINA, and by the natives of this Isle, by
whom a certain part of it is eaten, as “Mill-ar-ing.” A pinhole in the
mud indicates the presence of the animal, and the hungry black boy,
thrusting his hand with outspread fingers below it, closes the fingers
and withdraws anything but an inviting morsel. To the tongue-shaped
shell is attached a pedicle or stalk, attaining a length of ten inches,
opaque and tough, which is broken off, seared over the fire, and eaten
with apparent relish. It is remarkable that in localities in which this
mollusc is found a seaweed occurs similar in shape and size, the chief
difference in appearance being in the length of the stalk, which in the
plant is thin and membranous.
The Phorous, or carrier, otherwise the mineralogist, is remarkable for
its extraordinary habit of cementing to its exterior stones of irregular
size, and in some cases dead shells of other species, an office
performed by the use of an exceptionally long tongue. Its movements are
said to be very clumsy and erratic, as if its self-imposed burden was
too cumbersome for its strength. Personal observation fails to verify
its staggering gait, for dead specimens only have been found. The
stones are, no doubt, designedly acquired as a disguise and so represent
another form of life insurance. When stationary the mineralogist
successfully baffles observation; but some day, peradventure, in a
moment of preoccupation, it will reveal itself lurching along over the
rough country it favours. How few living things escape the “penalties of
Adam.” Some bear sorrows, some stones.
Among the fixed molluscs are what is known as the winged shells, to
which the “pearl oysters” belong. The name is apt, for the expanded
valves are not unlike the form of a bird in flight. The illustration
shows a rare species, several specimens of which were found attached to
the mooring-chain of a buoy by what is known as the “byssus,” a bunch
of tough fibres which passes through an hiatus in the margins of the
valves. Like the king's daughter of the Psalmist, PTERIA PEASEI is “all
glorious within,” the nacreous surface, margined with lustrous black,
shining like silver with a tinge of blue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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