BIVALVED SHELL-FISH. 



371 



is another between the coast of Madura and 

 the island of Ceylon ; and there was a third 

 on the coast of Japan : but as these noble 

 islanders have a contempt for jewels, and an 



viously to this, the banks are surveyed, and the beds 

 ascertained to have reached a state of maturity. 



The oysters are brought out of the sea, not by means 

 of dredging nets, as in common fisheries, but by men 

 trained to the practice of diving. They proceed in 

 boats to the quarter allotted for the season's operations, 

 each boat containing twenty men, ten of whom are 

 divers, while ten row the boats and assist their com- 

 panions in reaching the surface of the water after div- 

 ing. Five of the divers descend at a time, and when 

 they come up, the other five go down ; by which alterna- 

 tion the whole have a certain time to recruit between 

 each exertion. The fishing commences at sunrise, and 

 ceases on account of the rising sea-breeze at noon, and 

 during the whole of the intervening period, the divers 

 pursue their hazardous occupation. To facilitate their 

 descent, each of them has a weight attached round his 

 body, or to his feet, in such a way that he can relieve 

 himself of it easily. A bag of network is grasped with 

 his toes, the right hand holds a rope, the left keeps the 

 nostrils closed, and in this condition the diver fearlessly 

 plunges in, and speedily reaches the bottom. Hanging 

 the bag around his neck, he collects as many oysters as 

 he can, generally about a hundred at one time, and on 

 making a signal, is drawn up to the surface ; the stone 

 or weight which assisted his descent is hauled out after- 

 wards. The length of time he continues under water 

 is from one to two minutes, although instances have been 

 known of divers who could remain four and even five 

 minutes ; and the longest period ever known was that 

 of a diver who could prolong his stay under water full six 

 minutes. The sea at the oyster banks is generally from 

 four to ten fathoms deep, which is a descent easily accom- 

 plished by the divers. One boat, with the complement 

 of men we have described, has been known, when the 

 oysters were abundant, to bring to land thirty-three 

 thousand in one day, while at other times a hundred or 

 two are the whole day's produce. The divers on the 

 Asiatic coasts are all natives, trained to this employ- 

 ment from infancy, and so expert from custom that they 

 will make from forty to fifty plunges a-day ; but the 

 exertion is so violent, that water, and occasionally blood 

 gushes from the mouth, nose, and ears. Some of the 

 divers use no precautionary means whatever, while 

 others rub their bodies with oil, and stuff their ears 

 and noses to prevent the entrance of the water. They 

 take no food while in the boats, nor till they have 

 bathed themselves with fresh water, after returning 

 to land. The only danger which the divers appear to 

 apprehend in the course of their occupation, is from 

 the shark, particularly the ground shark, whi< h is a 

 native of the Asiatic seas. Some of the divers are so 

 expert in their movements as to avoid this enemy, 

 even when they have been under water for a consider- 

 able time ; but the chief reliance for security is on the 

 priests and conjurors, some of whom always accompany 

 the boats, by order of government, to inspire courage by 

 their presence. Upon the whole, it must be admitted 

 that few of the divers pursue their occupation voluntar- 

 ily, but rather act under the compulsion of their employ- 

 ers and masters. 



As soon as the boats land with the oysters an immense 

 number of labourers, men, women, and children, rush 

 to them, and carry on" the produce of the day's fishing. 

 Every speculator has his own group of huts, and in the 

 midst of each of these is a coutto, or space of ground en- 

 closed with poles and transverse pieces of bamboo, but 

 open to the air. In these couttos are deposited the 

 oysters as they are landed, and there they are left to 



abhorrence for such Europeans as come in 

 pursuit of them, that fishery, which is thought 

 to be the most valuable of all others, is dis- 

 continued. The diving business is now 



putrefy, which they soon do under a burning sun. It is 

 a curious fact, that though these numerous couttos, each 

 containing an enormous mass of oysters, all putrefy 

 together on a narrow extent of soil, and emit the most 

 detestable odours, yet the health of the precarious but 

 crowded population gathered there is in no ways affected. 

 "During two consecutive years," says M. de Noe, "that 

 I did duty at the fishery, I never saw a soldier of my regi- 

 ment sick: Europeans and Sepoys all equally enjoyed 

 good health." And Mr Marshall has observed to us, 

 that in this climate, where the effects of vegetable de- 

 composition are so fatal and so rapid, those of animal 

 decomposition are almost innocuous. As soon as the 

 putrefaction is sufficiently advanced, the oysters are taken 

 from the coutto, and placed in troughs, made of the trunk 

 of trees, hollowed ; sea-water is then thrown over them. 

 In this putrid state the oysters easily render the pearls 

 they contain ; and a number of men, all standing on the 

 same side of the trough, rapidly shake them out and wash 

 them. Inspectors stand at each end of the trough to see 

 that the labourers secrete none of the pearls, and others 

 are in the rear to examine whether the shells thrown out 

 as worthless may not contain some of the precious sub- 

 stance. The workmen are prohibited, under penalty of 

 a beating, to lift their hands to their mouths while they 

 are washing the pearls. Notwithstanding these precau- 

 tions and the vigilance of the inspectors, a man some- 

 times contrives to swallow a pearl of high price. 



The various operations in preparing pearls for the 

 market, occupy in Ceylon a great number of the inhabi- 

 tants. After being thoroughly cleansed, they are 

 rounded, and polished with a powder made of the pearls 

 themselves, and arranged into classes according to their 

 various sizes. They are then drilled and strung together, 

 the largest classes being generally sent to the Indian, 

 while the smaller meet with a ready sale in the Euro- 

 pean, market. The operation of drilling is an exceed- 

 ingly nice one, and is performed with great expertness 

 by the black people. The drilling instrument is a wooden 

 machine in the form of an inverted cone, in the upper 

 flat surface of which are pits, or depressions, to receive 

 the pearls. The holes are made by spindles of various 

 sizes, which revolve in a wooden head, by the action of 

 a bow handle to which they are attached. During the 

 operation, which is performed with one hand, while the 

 other presses on the machine, the pearls are moistened 

 occasionally, and the whole is done with astonishing 

 rapidity. The colour of the pearls is in general a bluish 

 or silvery white, but they are met with of a variety of 

 hues, transparent, semi-transparent, opaque, brown and 

 black. 



The pearl fishery at the Bahreen Islands, in the 

 Persian Gulf, is the most extensive in the world, but 

 very little of its produce is brought to Europe. The 

 pearls are of a golden yellow tint, and are held in great 

 estimation by the Asiatics, on account of their retaining 

 permanently their colour, whereas the white ones are 

 liable to tarnish, and to lose their lustre. The oyster 

 shells from this fishery are of a finer character than usual, 

 and are sent to Constantinople, and to China, where 

 they are manufactured into a great variety of useful and 

 ornamental articles. Long before the discovery of 

 America, pearls were highly valued by the natives; and 

 ihe Spaniards, on their landing in the country, found 

 arge quantities of them in different quarters. The 

 early colonists established regular fisheries, and a great 

 evenue was derived by the Spanish monarchy from their 

 mportation into Europe. In one year 697 Ibs. of pearls 

 were brought over, many of them of great size and beauty. 



