TURTLE-RIDING.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1922, Page 9

TURTLE-RIDING.

NATIVES’ NOVEL PASTIME. Australia House, in the Strand, London, has just become the homo of exhibits brought there by the leader of an expedition, whose adventures and discoveries rank among the most interesting of their kind. The leader is Mr. E. Stuart, of Perth, Western Australia, a veterinary surgeon, who in 1917 explored the almost unknown coastline of the northwest corner of Australia from Broome to Wyndham in a 23-t.on schooner. In this small craft lie braved the peril of mighty tides that generate fierce whirlpools, saw the queerest kind of fish, and had ocular demonstration of the once disputed truth of Louis de Rougemont’s story of men riding on turtles in the same parts.

The expedition also found a country that, according to Mr. Stuart, is abundantly fair find fruitful that it would be an ideal land for settlers.

Describing his voyage, Mr. Stuart told a Dailv Telegraph reporter that the expedition consisted of four white mon and four Malays. “On leaving Sunday Island,” he said, “we encountered some of the terrific tides for which this coast is notorious. At one place the water rises 38ft. lOin. m six hours at spring tide. Our schooner was tossed and buffeted in the foaming whirlpools as though it were a mere cork. On either side of us were cliffs 900 ft. high, against which we wore in imminent danger of being dashed to death.” Mr. Stuart has brought back photographs of natives riding on turtles. “They do it just for fun.” “and it is possible for three or four men to get on the back of one turtle. Pearl divers have a knack of throwing an arm underneath a turtle while under the water and emerging to the surface on its back.

“I brought back many kinds of fish, some of which I had never seen before. One was a tree-climbinff fish, very small and chubby-nosed. Another fish is equipped with natural bait, which it projects from its mouth. The fish that bites the bait is swallowed whole.*’ The natives of this coast are extra-

ordiua. primhive. They wear no clothes, says Mr. Stuart, and sleep almost entirely in the open, with nothing

to cover them. Houses and huts are unknown, and only when it rains at night do they seek the shelter of a cave. They are wonderfully accurate spearthrowers, and can kill a kangaroo by this means from a distance of 100 yards.