Pearl-shell Fishery, 231 



John Hickey, the manager, with his wife and children — and the 

 remainder, mulattoes and negroes. The island seemed to us 

 to be covered with cocoa-nut trees, but we were told that only 

 a small number were old enough to bear nuts. The produce 

 consisted of copra, green turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, and pearl-shell. 

 Of the latter, two thousand shells had been exported within the 

 previous two years ; and we also learned from Hickey that he 

 then had nine hundred in store awaiting shipment. The shells, 

 which are much smaller than those of Torres Straits, and have a 

 black internal margin like those of Ceylon, are obtained by negro 

 swimming-divers. They are found in the still-water pools, inside 

 the barrier reef, where they lie in four or five fathoms of water ; 

 and on account of the danger from sharks they are only sought 

 for in these enclosed pools. Although a good many pearls of 

 small size are met with, the commercial value of the fishery 

 depends on the mother-of-pearl of the shells. 



Fish are caught in great abundance, and as poultry thrive well, 

 a large stock of them are kept and allowed to run wild. Fresh 

 water being also plentiful, the inhabitants are not on the whole 

 badly off for the necessaries of life. 



After a long interview with old Hickey, who most generously 

 presented us with some turkeys and ducks, we bade him a long 

 good-bye, and steamed away towards Providence Island. 



We anchored off the west side of this island on the forenoon 

 of the 2 1 st of April, and lay about a mile from the land, and a 

 quarter of a mile outside a long fringing reef, over the raised 

 outer edge of which the sea broke heavily, forming an almost 

 continuous line of rollers. 



Providence Island lies two hundred and forty miles from the 

 Amirante Islands, in a south -west-by -south direction, and is two 

 hundred miles north-east-by-north from the northern extremity 

 of Madagascar. It is entirely of coral formation, is low and flat, 

 and measures two miles in length by one-third of a mile in width. 

 It is surrounded with broad submerged fringing reefs, which at 



