A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8404, 19 April 1907, Page 5

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

By ALBERT DORRINGTON. (Author of "Along the Castlereagh," "Children of the Gully," etc.). (Published by special arrangement. —Copyright reserved). 11.-A GARDEN OF WHALES. Through the morning mist we could clearly make out the sullen heads of Twofold Bay, with Mount Imlay in the background wearing its morning ; beard of cloud. Whaling is still carried out at East Boyd, a picturesque little place on the southern shores of the bay. From October till the end of November whale-hunting goes on merrily under the management of Captain George Davidson, an up-to-date sportsman who has accounted for 96 black whales in his brief span. Humpbacked cetaceans are plentiful enough during October and November, but the lack of bone in their huge carcases makes them hardly worth catching. A full-grown black whale is worth in bone and oil anything up to £3OO and often more. A dozen aboriginals and half-castes are employed at the trying-out works, East Boyd. The blackfellows make excellent harpooners, and boat-steerers, and will venture out in the wildest weather on the chance of putting an iron into a stray cetacean. I The killers, a porpoise-like toothed whale, hunt their big relative in packs and work like sheep dogs the moment a, whale heaves in sight. Without their assistance the trapping of the huge mammals would be impossible. They scour the open Pacific for miles around Twofold Bay until their quarry is sighted. Forming themselves into a half-circle they fairly heel the monster through the Heads, snapping and tearing at the soft white fat around the whale's heart and head. And the whale is a one-hit fighter. He rams and trudgeons through the squadron of killers, trumpeting with fear and flogging tHe sea with his great fluke. The killers are too cunning to be caught by the whirling mass of bone and flesh. They confine their attacks to the head and mouth, and i,t is on record that a big killer once tore out the heart of a sixty-ton black whale before the boat and harpooners arrived on the scene. Some years ago a rival 'firm of whalers started operations at Twofold Bay. They invested a lot of capital "in up-to-date appliances, boats, bomb-spears, baboons, etc, and after .erecting a trying-out works they began looking for whales. During the season experienced look-out men are stationed along the coast. It is their business to send up smoke-signals the moment a whale is sighted. It frequently happened that the rival harpooners appeared within striking distance of the monster ,at the same moment. Quarrels as to the right of ownership were inevitable. Stories are rife in Eden concerning the Homeric conflicts which happened daily over the floating bodies of dead whales. One party claimed, the right to seize and cut up any black or humpbacked whale which came into the bay. The rival firm were of opinion that the whale became their property the moment their harpoon stuck fast in the carcase. . The struggle for supremacy lasted. a couple of seasons until' a rough whaler's code was drawn up and was agreed to by both parties. Herewith a rough copy of agreement signed by the rival firms! "First harpijoner on the scene to put in his iron and hang on. If the whale dies it becomes their sole property. If, however, the whale breaks away, No. 2 party is at liberty to harpoon at leisure, the', whale tp becorhe their property if a kill is proclaimed," 1 It Was soon discovered that the second party on the scene always took the whale, seeing that in nine cases out of ten a full-grown cetacean does not succumb to the first harpoon. More complications ensued, more bitterness and midnight sea-scrim-mages that remain unrecorded in the annals of Australian whaling. A-boy humourist appeared suddenly in the district, who proceeded to elevate the Australian whaling business into the regions of comedy. He hailed from Maoriland, and he seized the situation with both hands and painted it white. Only a boy would have ventured to play the game on a crowd of half-castes and hard-hitting Yankees. One wctj stormy night the! rival stationsi were aroused by the cries of "Whale-oh!" "Blow-w-w-w!" The seas were running mountains high, but the .crews turned out of their huts and tumbled into the boats on discovering that half-a-dozen fire signals were flering along the coast. Pulling cheerfully towards the Heads * the rival crews fouled repeatedly in the blinding daik less, after mistaking each other for the hump of a whale. Dawn found them wet avd shivering with cold. And there was no sign of whale within the bay or on the sky-line. "Who lit that blamed fire?" demanded a sour-viSaged boat-steerer. "Guess I'll put a harpoon into the feet of the man who made that flare on the South Head." No one knew who lit the fires, and the whalers returned to their stations hoping to trap the miscreant who had "pulled" them from their beds to face a st mi-Arctiq. night. At sUn-up a bright, fair-haired boy was observed strolling book in hand along the cliffs. He was accosted immediately by a wild-eyed blubbersoaked "cutter-up." "Hev you seen a whale, sonny?" , "No, sir, I have not seen a whale." "Did yew light up the bush any time, whatsomever, sonny, think in' you might befool Bill Greig an' them lads of his?' "No, sir, I have beeii taught not to play with fire." "What's thet book you're readin' sonny?" _ "It's a book on fowls, sir. It tells you how to raise Plymouth Rocks on a three-acre block. I showed it to a man early this morning. He asked me if I kne\y how to rpise.a crew of lazy whalers." "Where did yew see that man, sonny?" "Down the coast, sir, collecting dead timber to build a fire to-night. " Half-an-hour later a crowd of angry whalers were seen hurrying along

the coast armed , with bomb-spears and lances. , Nothing happened except a series of wind-blown fires [ along the coast the following night, The whalers stayed in bed. At daybreak a 60-ton, killer-driven, right whale was discovered stranded on the rocks near East Boyd, surrounded by swarms of voracious bluepointer sharks. It was impossible to tow the carcase from the dangerous shoals, and the men at trying out wept at seeing £2OO worth of bone and oil being stripped and borne away before-their eyes. Afterwards the business of whaling became so precarious that the new firm closed down, and sold their outfit for a song, partly on account of the Will-o'-the-wisp fires caused by a small, wandering schoolboy. As the big steamer wore towards the Victorian coast the giant headlands and forest clad hills recalled the doings of Australia's long-lost pioneer and cattleman, Ben Boyd. Somewhere in the forties Ben took up vast tracts of land in and around Twofold Bay. His energy was remarkable. After erecting a whaling station, and housing half-a-dozen crews, he began cattle rearing on a large scale* Later, he planned the site of a city where Eden now stands, andean his immense herds around ' Mount Imlay and Pambula Creek. He experienced difficulties in marketing his shore mobs owing to the almott impassable nature of the country. At last he disappeared mysteriously in an island-bound schooner, and was never again heard of. The bulk of his vast herds' remained for a long time in thedistrict of Twofold Bay, neglected and unbranded. Two years after Ben's departure the gold rush in Victoria sent ujp the price of beef. Crowds of adventurous drovers and cow-duffers swarmed over the Monaro country, rounding up and branding the ownerless scrub bulls and gully-sulkers that wandered over the forest-screened hills. In those days there was no particular demand for waybills and , stock receipts; the goldfields were ; meat hungry, and , Ben Boyd's cattle ,• were shepherded, by devious ways' into Ballarat and Melbourne. His whales were left to take care of themselves. From Wollongong to Cape Howe the coast of Australia has a long dead, petrified appearance when viewed from the deck of a steamer. There are nov. wide river deltas off luxuriant palm-clad inlets that one meets north of the, Great Barrier. Vast uninhabited spaces fill the geographicil bill, i (To be continued).