PEARLS AND IMITATION PEARLS 101 



Most of the marvelous stories told concerning the 

 ability of naked divers to work at great depths for 

 long periods of time are gross exaggerations. They 

 are tales which have been told over and over again, 

 growing in the telling. As a matter of fact, naked 

 divers seldom go deeper than fifty feet, and in many 

 of the fisheries thirty feet is considered good diving. 

 Few divers remain under water for longer than ninety 

 seconds, although experts have been known to stay 

 under for 160 seconds. 



The use of scaphanders or diving-suits possesses 

 many advantages and is gradually becoming more 

 general. They have been exclusively used for many 

 years in Australia, where the shells are taken at 

 great depths. The diving-suits enable a diver to 

 work at much greater depths for an hour or two 

 at a time, and to work all the year round. 



A man in a diving-suit is a queer clumsy giant. 

 The outfit is so heavy that the diver has difficulty 

 in walking while out of the water. The scaphander 

 is composed of a one-piece rubber suit which the 

 diver gets into through the neck, a helmet, a corse- 

 let to which the helmet is screwed, leaden-soled 

 boots, and chest and back weights to aid the diver 

 in maintaining an upright position. When dressed, 

 the diver steps upon a ladder hanging over the 

 side of the boat; the air-pipe, life-line, and helmet 

 are attached; a man begins pumping air by means 

 of a pump in the boat, and the face-glass is screwed 

 up. The diver drops into the water and then sinks 

 quickly to the quiet depths below. The man at the 

 air-pump must be alert, for the diver's life is in his 



