768 MOLLUSCA — PEARL OYSTER. 



in America and Asia. The chief of these is carried on in the Persian gulf 

 and at Ceylon. 



The wretched people that are destined to fish for pearls, are either negroes 

 or some of the poorest of the natives of Persia. The divers are not only 

 subject to the dangers of the deep, to tempests, to suffocation at the bottom, 

 to being devoured by sharks, but, from their profession, universally labor un- 

 der a spitting of blood, occasioned by the pressure of air upon their lungs in 

 going down to the bottom. The most robust and healthy young men are 

 chosen for this employment ; but they seldom survive it above five or six 

 years. Their fibres become rigid; their eyeballs turn red; and they usually 

 die consumptive. 



It is amazing how very long they are seen to continue at the bottom. 

 Some, as we are assured, have been known to continue three quarters of an 

 hour under water without breathing ; and to one unused to diving, ten 

 minutes would suffocate the strongest. They fish for pearls, or rather the 

 oysters that contain them, in boats twenty-eight feet long ; and of these 

 there are sometimes three or four hundred at a time, with each seven or 

 eight stones which serve for anchors. There are from five to eight divers 

 belonging to each, that dive one after another. They are quite naked, ex- 

 cept that they have a net hanging down from the neck to put their oysters 

 in, and gloves on their hands to defend them while they pick the oysters 

 from the holes in the rocks; for in this manner alone can they be gathered. 

 Every diver is sunk by means of a stone, weighing fifty pounds, tied to the 

 rope, by which he descends. He places his foot in a kind of stirrup, and 

 laying hold of the rope with his left hand, with his right he stops his 

 nose to keep in his breath, as upon going down he takes in a very long in- 

 spiration. They are no sooner come to the bottom, but they give the signal 

 to those who are in the boat to draw up the stone ; which done, they go to 

 work filling their nets as fast as they can ; and then giving another signal, 

 the boats above pull up the net loaded with oysters, and shortly after the diver 

 himself to take a new inspiration. They dive to the depth of fifteen fathoms, 

 and seldom go deeper. They generally go every morning by break of day 

 to this fatiguing employment, taking the land-wind to waft them out to sea, 

 and returning with the sea-breeze at night. The owners of the boats usual- 

 ly hire the divers, and rest of the boat's crew, as we do our laborers, at so 

 much a day. All the oysters are brought on shore, where they are laid in a 

 great heap, till the pearl fishery is over, which continues during the months 

 of November and December. When opportunity serves, they examine 

 every oyster ; and it is accidental whether the capture turns out ad- 

 vantageous. 



