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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886. 



THE PEAEL FISHERIES IN WESTERN 

 AUSTRALIA, 

 The fitaniltinl of Nov. 23rcl has an interestuiK 

 article on the discovery of pearl banks in King 

 Sound, Western Australia. " The locality," it says, 

 " is just the spot in which one would expect the 

 gem-bearing oyster to breed. It is a deep and com- 

 paratively quiet inlet of the warm sea which leaves 

 the shores of Western Australia, and therefore in 

 every way suited for a mollusc which loves quiet- 

 ness, and has an insuperable objection to cool cur- 

 rents. The chances are all in favour of the pearl 

 oyster being found in greater or less abundance 

 in the majority of the bays and gulfs around the coast. 

 Niokol Bay has long been a famous ' fishing ' sta- 

 tion ; the oyster abounds in nearly every suitable 

 laooon of the Pacific Islands ; and for many years 

 past the 'fishery' has formed an important in- 

 dustry off the sliores of Queensland and North 

 Australia. It is true that neither in size nor in 

 water can the pearls of Torres Strait and Western 

 Australia compare with those of Ceylon, Panama, 

 the West Indies, or the Persian Gulf. Yet the 

 shells within which they grow are much more 

 valuable for the cabinet and button makers than 

 those which yield the finer gems of tlie Orient 

 aud Tropical America. Indeed, the Australian and 

 Polynesian pearl oyster is ' fished ' not so much for 

 the pearls which they may or ' may not contain 

 as for the shells. Hence, though the occasional 

 profits of the business may not be so great as 

 those of the industry as pursued in Ceylon, 

 yet the returns are steadier. For, gem or no gem, 

 every oyster brought to the surface represents so 

 much money. There is — as there must always be 

 in any trade pursued under the surface of the sea — 

 a certain gambling element in it. But the risks 

 are infinitely less than those attending the work of 

 men who depend on pearls alone for their reward. 

 Until lately the ' fishers ' have, for the most part, 

 confined their operations to the strait between 

 Queensland and New Guinea. They have, however, 

 for some time stretched along the entire extent of 

 coast likely to yield the object they are in search 

 of, and we may be certain that before long we 

 shall hear of fine hauls being made in some of 

 the half-explored or wholly unvisited bays and gulfs 

 of Papua. Hitherto it has only been the extreme 

 risk run by the fishers which has prevented the 

 extension of their operations in that direction. Still, 

 if the necessities of the Colonists demand it, we 

 cannot doubt but that a gun-boat will be sent to 

 protect the divers, just as, at intervals, the Navy 

 has extended protection to the establishments 

 which pursue their calling in the islands in Torres 

 Strait, which, for this very reason, we permitted 

 the Queenslanders to annex some six years ago." 

 Mr. E. W. Streeter, of Holboru Viaduct, writes 

 to our contemporary to say that, being largely 

 interested in the pearling industries of Australia aud 

 Ceylon, he has read the article with much atten- 

 tion, and adds : — " The so-called now pearling grovnid 

 at King's Sound has been known for some time, 

 but owing to the depth of water there, varying 

 from 1,5 to '20 fathoms, it coufd never bo worked 

 by naked drivers, and it is only lately since apparatus 

 divers have been introduced along the coast that 

 the ground has had a fair chance of being pro- 

 perly tried, and you know with what success; 

 but even now its depth is detrimental to the health 

 of the men and also to the amount of work they 

 can do per day. The Western Australian fisher- 

 ies, however, have produced pearls which in 

 size and quality can compare with the 

 finest the world has ever seen. One )iearl which 

 was found along that coast last Boxing Day by one 



of our boats was as large and round as an ordin- 

 ary marble, and for it the present owner has refused 

 over 1,.SOO?. We have visited some of the half-ex- 

 plored bays and gulfs in New Guinea, and dis- 

 covered fine shell there, but the unhealthiness of 

 the climate was found to be a far greater draw- 

 back to work than the hostility of the natives. In 

 fact, so many divers died of that peculiar disease 

 known as Beri-Beri that few care to go again. 

 Those engaged in shelling have to undergo many 

 hardships caused by the scarcity of fresh water, 

 the frequency of hurricanes, and the dangers of 

 navigation in close waters, of which only incomplete 

 charts have been made ; but though fortunes have 

 never been won at this industry, the better class of 

 shelters have conferred many benefits on the natives 

 belonging to the difTerent coasts where they have 

 worked." — Huropean Hail. 



COOL-DAV-AIR : A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY. 

 An American inventor, Mr. Jennings, of Boston, 

 has discovered a method of drying quickly, and 

 without injury to the material, such substances as 

 green mahogany, slabs of English oak or elm, corn 

 harvested in wet seasons, hides and skins, wool 

 and various descriptions of fibres when thoroughly 

 saturated with moisture. No problem ever seemed 

 simpler than the mere extraction of moisture from 

 the substances we have enumerated, and yet few 

 have more obstinately balUed human ingenuity. A 

 solution has now been found to this problem in 

 the " Cool Dry-Air Process." The name indicates 

 the whole secret of its success. Materials to be 

 dried are placed in a chamber through which a 

 current of moderately warm dry air is passed 

 continuously, and the test of experience shows that 

 air so deprived of moisture acts as an absorbent 

 in a manner that without such a test would have 

 been deemed impossible. In the first instance, the 

 current is drawn through a small furnace, in 

 which it is heated to about liOO deg. F. At this 

 temperature the atmosjjhere is, of course, without 

 trace of vapour. After being thus heated, it is 

 cooled by a vigorous circulation of external air, 

 which lowers the temperature to between SO deg. 

 and 00 deg., and in this condition is propelled by 

 fans, driven by steam, through the drying chambers. 

 Within these chambers the temperature is that of a hot 

 summer's day, but the air is so "greedy" of moisture 

 that everything within its wonderfully penetrative 

 influence is desiccated. A machine just erected on 

 this principle shows the practical operation of the 

 system, and gives some results that are equally re- 

 markable from a scientific as from a commercial point 

 of view. A package of wool, lib. in weight, was 

 saturated with water ; it then weighed SJlb., and in 

 this condition was placed in the dryiug-room. In 

 twenty-eight minutes the moisture was almost wholly 

 evaporated. Timber, as is well known, takes years to 

 season. It has a perfectly surprising power of ab- 

 sorbing aud retaining moisture. Thus -11 cwt. '2qrs. 

 of liirch were subjected to this process for ninety- 

 four hours, and then examined, \\hen it was found 

 to be completely " seasoned, free from cheeking, 

 rents, or warping," and it had given out in tlie 

 operation lOcwt. 'iqrs. 211b. weigli of water. The 

 industrial value of this important discovery can 

 scarcely be overestimated. The s-cientific and 

 social interest is not less significant. It appears 

 that fish, fresh jirovisions, and fruit may be pre- 

 served for an indefinite time after being subjected 

 to this mode of freitment. It is slated that " a 

 beef-steak cut from the loin a year ago, and dried 

 at 75 degrees F. in one hour, is as sweet today as 

 when cut, and would keep tor years ; its moisture 

 having been removed, decay is impossible."— £cfco. 



