AVICULIDjE. — SEA-WING. 101 



At the Bahrein fisheries the trade is in the hands of 

 the merchants, who bear hard on the divers, and even 

 those who make the greatest exertions in diving can 

 scarcely obtain a sufficiency of food.* The hardships 

 and sufferiDgs endured by the divers are very great. 

 After a long dive, we are told that the natives of the 

 Paamuto Islands may be seen squatting on the reefs 

 with blood gushing from the ears and nose, and become 

 quite blind for ten or twenty minutes. 



Sir William Denison tells us, that the pearl-fishery 

 of Tuttukudi or Tutikorin, in the Gulf of Manaar, has 

 been rather productive of late years. The leading man 

 of the pearl-divers was presented to him, and he wore, 

 as a sort of badge of office, a gold shell with a pearl 

 inside. f 



Mr. Edward Rae mentions having purchased some 

 fairly good pearls at Archangel, from the pearl-fisheries 

 on the Terski coast. J Pearls are occasionally found 

 by the men employed in Birmingham in making pearl- 

 buttons, in the mother-of-pearl shells imported for that 

 purpose. A few years since, it is stated that a small 

 number of shells were brought to Birmingham, which, 

 either by mistake, or through ignorance, had not been 

 cleared of the pearls at the fishery, and a considerable 

 number were found, and sold by the man who had 

 bought the shells for working into buttons. One pearl 

 sold for £40; the purchaser is believed to have re-sold 

 it for £160, and it was said to have been offered for sale 

 in Paris, afterwards, for £800. § 



* McCullock's ' Commercial Dictionary.' 



f 'Varieties of Vice-Kegal Life,' by Sir William Denison, K C. B., 

 p. 199. 



t ' The White Sea Peninsula,' p. 119. 



§ 'Jewellery and Gilt Toys,' by J. S. Wright, in 'The Resources, 



