PEARL FISHBBY IN 1903. 65 



friends. Then some washer comes along with pearls to sell, and 

 the whole joy of chafering begins, and lasts till one is tired of 

 watching. 



Meanwhile along the street a busy crowd is always passing in 

 front of the shops. Many carry great brazen vessels of water from 

 the tank, others drive home bullocks with loads of firewood 

 or poles and palm leaves for new huts. Farther down the street 

 are the shops of the silk or cloth seller, the brass and tin workers, 

 and countless provision shops. 



Here and there in the middle of the broad street squat groups of 

 pearl cutters, whose business it is on small wooden tables and 

 with a primitive bow-drill to pierce pearls for stringing and to cut 

 into something like presentable roundness the rough irregular 

 pearl-like lumps which are found not in the flesh of the oyster, 

 but attached to the inside of the shell. 



So for some two months the business goes on, till the divers are 

 worn out by diving and the pearl merchants are satiated with 

 their purchases. Then the Government Agent is appealed to to 

 proclaim the closing of the camp, and when he does so almost 

 in a day the whole big population " fold their tents like the Arabs 

 and as silently steal away," and in a very few days the once busy 

 camp is left only to the jackals to scavenge up the refuse and to 

 prowl among the great mounds of fresh oyster shells which have 

 just been added to the accumulations of so many years' fishing. 



The whole thing is intensely interesting and picturesque, 

 but afterwards it leaves much to think about and much to hope 

 for. The thing has been going on in the same way for centuries, 

 and would so continue if the busy Western mind were not now 

 turning to thoughts of how to improve on this old system, to 

 make the harvest of the sea more regular in its occurrence, to 

 economize the present vast expenditure of human energy now 

 wasted in fetching up the oysters from the depth of the sea, and 

 to extract the pearls from the oysters with greater rapidity, 

 certainty, and with greater security that the Government gets its 

 proper share, and with greater regard to sanitary conditions. 



The whole thing is now at last about to change, and the points 

 which I have just enumerated are to be attended to. Professor 

 Herdman, with Mr. Hornell, is about to give us a long and full 

 report on their careful investigations of the life-history of the pearl 

 oyster in these seas ; they are about to tell us why the crop 

 is so uncertain, and how it may be made more continuous. 

 Mr. Dixon and others are busy in bringing to fruition certain 

 schemes for dredging up the oysters and for mechanical 

 extraction of the pearl from the gathered oysters. 



