PEARLS. 107. 
miles distant, before day-break. Here they con- 
tinue busily occupied, till warned to retire by the 
sea breeze, which rises about noon. Again a signal 
gun is fired, and again the respective owners hail 
the arrival of their boats. 
A number of people are now seen busily em- 
ployed in depositing the Oysters in holes or pits, 
dug in the ground to the depth of two or three feet ; 
or on small square places, covered with mats and 
fenced round, where they are suffered to remain till 
the inhabitant of each is completely dried away ; the 
pearls are then taken out, and prepared for the market. 
Each boat is manned with twenty men, and a 
tindal, or chief boatman, who acts as pilot. Of these, 
ten are employed in rowing, and in assisting the 
divers : the others go down alternately, five at a 
time, and thus enable their companions to recruit 
their strength, which is frequently exhausted by the 
excessive fatigue of diving. 
The business of a diver appears extraordinary and 
full of danger to a European; but to the Asiatic, it 
affords a lucrative and familiar occupation. His 
chief risk and terror arises from the ground shark ; 
@ common and terrible inhabitant of the Eastern 
seas, and a source of perpetual uneasiness to the 
adventurous Indian. It, however, rarely happens 
that any lives are lost,—for the real or imaginary 
appearance of a shark immediatly spreads dismay 
