90 TEE PEAEL-SHELL FISHERIES. 



average about £9 monthly. The cost of maintenance, 

 inclnding wages and rations, but not the diver's earnings, 

 which necessarily vary, may therefore be set down at an 

 average of £22 for the month. 



"Mr. Kent says a fairly remunerative quantity of shell for 

 a boat to bring in as the result of one month's work is from 

 600 to 700 pairs, and which consisting of, or reckoned as, 3-lb. 

 shell, vrould represent but little short of a ton in weight. 

 In fine weather, and under exceptionally favourable condi- 

 tions, as much as from 1,200 to 1,800 pairs maybe obtained, 

 and it is the custom among certain of the station owners and 

 boat proprietors to give the divers and crews a bonus for all 

 shell collected numbering over 1,000 pairs. The agreement 

 with the divers in reckoning up the number of shell brought 

 in is usually to count it as 2-lb. or 3-lb. shell, such terms 

 signifying that all the pairs of shells as they are naturally 

 attached must weigh not less than 2 lb. or 3 lb. each. Any 

 pairs short of this weight have other shells added, until the 

 standard weight is arrived at. In the case of a very small 

 shell, it may take three pairs or six shells to make up the 

 3 lb., or even seven pairs to complete 6 lb., or a standard two 

 pairs, which are usually weighed in at once. £200 per 

 annum, in addition to his rations, represents a fair average 

 income for a diver to earn. 



"The average depth of \^^aterfrom which the greater quantity 

 of the mother-of-pearl shell is at present collected is seven or 

 eight fathoms. In former years it was abundant, and is even 

 now occasionally obtained in vfater of such little depth that 

 it can be gathered with the hand at low spring tides. Twenty 

 fathoms of water represent about the greatest depth from 

 which the shell is profitably fished, though but few divers 

 can stand the strain of prolonged work at this depth. Some 

 of the largest shell now placed on the market is collected at 

 the above depth from oft' the New Guinea coast. 



"The head- quarters of the Pearl-shell I'isheriesof Queens- 

 land are at Tlmrsday Island, Torres Straits, 10^ degrees S. 

 lat., 140 degrees E. long., and thirty miles north-west cf Cape 

 York, the northernmost point of the Australian continent. 

 All the licenses for vessels, boats, and men employed in this 

 fishery are taken out at Port Kennedy in Thursday Island ; 

 and from this centre shelling expeditions are made along the 

 mainland coast- line to the northern limits of the Great Barrier 

 Coral Peef , and throughout Torres Straits northwards to the 

 vicinity of New Guinea. 



