THE INDIAN OCEAN. 3^9 



ready to take their turn again. Frequently making 

 forty or fifty plunges a day, and bringing up at each 

 turn about a hundred 03'sters. 



The greatest danger to these adventurous men 

 arises from the sharks, to whose rapacity allusion 

 has before been made. But against them the poor 

 people believe that they possess an inviolable de- 

 fence in the charms sold to them by pretended con- 

 jurors, whose impudence and address secure their 

 hold on their deluded votaries, even in spite of the 

 frequent evidence of their fallibility. It is probable, 

 the constant bustle and noise, and the frequent 

 splashings of the divers, deter the sharks in a great 

 measure from approaching the scene. 



" As soon as the oysters are landed, they are placed 

 in pits on the shore, and left to undergo decomposi- 

 tion; in which state they diffuse an intolerable odour, 

 but to which habit speedily reconciles the people. 

 When the flesh is decayed under that burning sun, 

 the shells are opened with ease, and minutely ex- 

 amined for pearls : some, however, elude the utmost 

 vigilance, to obtain which, numbers of people continue 

 to search the sands for months after the merchants 

 have departed, and they are now and then rewarded 

 by a pearl of value. In 1797, a common fellow, of 

 the lowest class, thus got by accident the most 

 valuable pearl seen that season, and sold it for a 

 large sum." 



In the Straits of Sunda and the adjacent seas, 

 there are found several floating sea-weeds, which 

 have a general resemblance to the Gulf- weed of the 

 Atlantic, but possess a much more striking similarity 



21 



