PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 197 



the mainland coast-line up to and among the reefs of the Buccaneer Archipelago off 

 King's Sound, it is by no means improbable that they may be met with again further 

 north and east of that point. 



The fishery for the larger tropical species of Mother-of-Pearl shell is conducted 

 in Western Australian waters on precisely the same lines as in Queensland. In 

 the earlier days, as in Queensland, the shell was obtained by simply wading on and 

 collecting it from the reefs. Native or Malay naked divers were next employed to 

 bring the shell up from relatively small depths, while finally, as the shell became 

 exhausted in the shallower and was found to be obtainable in quantities only in the 

 deeper water of from ten to twenty or more fathoms, recourse has been had to 

 schooners and luggers equipped with the most perfected diving apparatus. From 

 convenient ports, such as Broome and Cossack, luggers will run out to, and work 

 independently on, the adjacent shelling grounds. Where, however, as mostly happens, 

 these grounds are at a considerable distance from any port, a number of luggers 

 belonging to a company or private firm are escorted to the grounds by a schooner 

 which both acts as a tender for needful supplies and receives all the shell collected. 

 Even under these conditions both schooners and luggers commonly return to port at 

 spring tides when the currents are too strong to permit of the divers working. The 

 photograph reproduced at the head of this Chapter represents one such occasion when 

 a large number of the boats had come in for stores and shelter to Broome Creek. 



The port of Broome in Eoebuck Bay, may be said in respect to the Pearl- 

 shelling industry of Western Australia, to occupy a position much akin to that 

 of Thursday Island with relation to Queensland, it being the port furthest north to 

 which the pearling fleet is accustomed to resort for supplies and repairs. As with 

 Thursday Island (Port Kennedy), when first visited by. the writer about a decade 

 since, Broome is not very far advanced in the amenities and conveniences of modern 

 civilisation. Thursday Island, however, revisited a few years later, had made such 

 rapid strides as to possess a well-built jetty, obviating the necessity of landing in 

 small boats. It could also boast of that indispensable anti-climax of British citizenship 

 a hansom cab. Broome revisited will, no doubt, a year or two hence, cap the 

 precocity of Port Kennedy by the production ' of a motor car. In the interim, a 

 substantial jetty at which vessels can land or embark freight and passengers at 

 all tides is no doubt the sine qud non of Broome, and possessed of it she should, 

 with the enterprising guiding spirits now at the helm, speedily achieve distinction. 

 In direct touch by cable station with the hub of the world, affording the greatest 



