BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 139 



nostrils, and frequently blood; this does not, how- 

 ever, hinder them from going down in their turn, 

 and the poor creatures will often make from forty to 

 fifty plunges a day. But the violence of the exer- 

 tion (by which, although the most robust and healthy 

 are generally chosen for this employment, yet they 

 seldom survive it five or six years,) is not the only 

 thing the Pearl-divers have to dread; they are also 

 exposed to the attacks of the sharks, who, if they are 

 not successful in every attempt to extinguish at once 

 the vital spark, and so put an end to a life so little 

 to be envied, frequently deprive these unhappy be- 

 ings of a limb", and suffer them only to escape from 

 their jaws in a mutilated state! Read this, ye dash- 

 ing fair ones! and think, as ye enter the ball room 

 under a profusion of glittering ornaments, that, to 

 procure that costly bracelet, an unhappy fellow crea- 

 ture was doomed to the slavery of the diamond- 

 mines ; and that beautiful pearl was procured at the 

 peril of another's life. And all this while so many 

 of the transcendent beauties of creation, placed by 

 the Almighty within our reach, pass unregarded. 

 But this is of a piece with the general conduct of 

 man, who is ever apt to lose the substance in grasp- 

 ing at the shadow. 



