JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 145 



Very few of these pearls, I understand, are sent 

 home, all finding a sale on the coast of India, among 

 the richer class of natives. 



When the fishery is about half over, the nuisance 

 commences. 



All the oysters that have been placed in the go- 

 vernment store to open, begin to putrify under the 

 rays of a burning sun, and the stench surpasses any 

 pestilence ever inflicted on the earth. Then com- 

 mences fever, cholera, dysentery, and all the conco- 

 mitant ills of foul air, filth, and heat. 



For miles and miles in the jungle will the disgusting 

 effluvia be carried in the direction of the wind, and 

 to prevent being too nearly exposed to it, the barracks 

 are situated at a distance of two miles from the place, 

 yet even there it is at times intolerable, particularly 

 at night. 



Had the oysters been eatable, we might have as- 

 sisted to lessen the number left to decay, but they never 

 are eaten by natives or English, being very dissimilar 

 to our own oysters, and few of them being smaller 

 than a dessert-plate, so that one oyster, if a man 

 were bold enough to make a trial, would make half a 

 dozen pates, or an entire " scallop" of itself. 



Our mess-room consisted of a tent erected on the 

 sands, not at a great distance from the surf ; and 

 there being a tolerable supply of game in the neigh- 

 bourhood, no sooner was the arduous morning occu- 

 pation of pearl-hunting over, than an early "tiffin" 

 L 



