PEARLS AND PEARL-DIVING 



to rocks that are covered with seventy feet and more of 

 water; or lying huddled together on "banks" such as 

 the celebrated ones in the Gulf of Manaar on the west 

 coast of Ceylon. 



It is often asked why pearl-oysters are not dredged for, 

 like others. In Australia and elsewhere the fishermen 

 have tried this method, and there is no special reason why 

 it might not become universal, beyond the fact that the 

 depth (nine to thirteen fathoms) is somewhat against it. 

 There is this to be said, also ; three divers working for 

 ten hours can bring up three or four thousand oysters 

 between them ; while, working with dredges, by the time 

 they had sorted the desirable from the undesirable, they 

 would not have caught much more than half that num- 

 ber; further the fisherman, whether Asiatic or European, 

 will do as his fathers did. 



Pearl-divers Hindoos, Sinhalese, Coolies, Negroes, and 

 Arabs have been trained to their work from childhood ; 

 trained to hold their breath under water, to stand the 

 pressure that must be expected in such a depth, and to 

 gather a bag-full of oysters in rather less than a minute. 

 Partly to realise what that pressure means, you have only 

 to lie at the bottom of a six-foot swimming bath while 

 you count sixty, and then reflect that a pearl-diver stays 

 the same length of time, and more, under twelve or 

 thirteen times that depth, busily working with his hands 

 the whole while. 



Short as the Ceylon pearl season is it lasts but from 

 the middle of March to the end of April the divers, as 

 they are now paid, can earn enough;;during that time, if 



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