On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 65 
though it may be carried on till the 15th of April, yet owing to 
holydays, storms, and other causes, they seldom work more than 
this time in the two months. It is found necessary to leave the banks” 
from four to seven years to recruit, so that parts only are annually 
disturbed. Each boat carries twenty one men, ten of whom are 
divers, and one the Sandel or head boatman. At ten o’clock at 
night, on a signal, the boats leave Condotchy together, with the land 
breeze, and reach the banks about day light. They immediately 
begin diving, and continue till the sea breeze sets in. The divers 
are very expert, and go down by fives, so that there is always one 
half resting. ‘They require no assistance, except a stone to their 
feet, a net and arope. From their earliest infancy they are accus- 
tomed to the exercise, and fearlessly descend to the bottom at a 
depth of from five to ten fathoms, in search of the treasure. The 
time they generally stay below is about two minutes, but some have 
been known to exceed seven. ‘To continue longer than this is sup- 
posed to be impossible. On coming up they generally discharge 
water from the nose and mouth, and occasionally blood. ‘The cargo 
of one boat may amount to thirty thousand oysters, if the divers 
have been industrious and successful. 
On landing them, some merely throw them on mats to rot in the 
open air; others bury them in enclosed pits about two feet deep, 
till the animal has dried up. For sorting them they make use of 
brass plates, perforated with holes of different sizes. The piercing 
is accomplished by an instrament peculiar to the natives, and 
which they use with much ingenuity. It is a conical piece of soft 
wood, on legs, with pits for the larger pearls. The smaller ones are 
beaten in with a wooden mallet. The drilling instruments are iron 
spindles of various sizes, and are turned round in a wooden head by 
means of a bow, while the pearl is occasionally moistened with a 
little water.* 
In the’Persian Gulf there are two seasons, but shells are fished for 
chiefly in July, August and September. The divers use a piece of 
horn to compress their nostrils, and bees’ wax to stop their ears.t 
In California, the banks (which are there called Hostias,) lie in 
three or four fathoms of water, and the fishery is carried on by divers, 
but owing to the little depth at which they are found, with neither 
labor nor difficulty.{ The fishery at Colombo, in Ceylon, was at 
* Asiatic Researches, ut supra. + McCulloch, Art. Pearv. a 
t History of Cifiornia. I. 49. 
Vou. XXXII—No. 1. 9 
