On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 65 



though it may be carried on till the 15th of April, yet owing to 

 holydays, storms, and other causes, they seldom work more than 

 this time in the two months. It is found necessary to leave the banks 

 from four to seven years to recruit, so that parts only are annually 

 disturbed. Each boat carries twenty one men, ten of whom are 

 divers, and one the Sanclel or head boatman. At ten o'clock at 

 night, on a signal, the boats leave Condotchy together, with the land 

 breeze, and reach the banks about day light. They immediately 

 begin diving, and continue till the sea breeze sets in. The divers 

 are very expert, and go down by fives, so that there is always one 

 half resting. They require no assistance, except a stone to their 

 feet, a net and a rope. From their earliest infancy they are accus- 

 tomed to the exercise, and fearlessly descend to the bottom at a 

 depth of from fiv^e to ten fathoms, in search of the treasure. The 

 time they generally stay below is about two minutes, but some have 

 been known to exceed seven. To continue longer than this is sup- 

 posed to be impossible. On coming up they generally discharge 

 water from the nose and mouth, and occasionally blood. The cargo 

 of one boat may amount to thirty thousand oysters, if the divers 

 have been industrious and successful. 



On landing them, some merely throw them on mats to rot in the 

 open air ; others bury them in enclosed pits about two feet deep, 

 till the animal has dried up. For sorting them they make use of 

 brass plates, perforated with holes of different sizes. The piercing 

 is accomplished by an instrument peculiar to the natives, and 

 which they use with much ingenuity. It is a conical piece of soft 

 wood, on legs, with pits for the larger pearls. The smaller ones are 

 beaten in with a wooden mallet. The drilling instruments are iron 

 spindles of various sizes, and are turned round in a wooden head by 

 means of a bow, while the pearl is occasionally moistened with a 

 little water.* 



In the Persian Gulf there are two seasons, but shells are fished for 

 chiefly in July, August and September. The divers use a piece of 

 horn to compress their nostrils, and bees' wax to stop their ears.f 



In California, the banks (which are there called Hosiias,) lie in 

 three or four fathoms of water, and the fishery is carried on by divers, 

 but owing to the little depth at which they are found, with neither 

 labor nor difficulty .| The fishery at Colombo, in Ceylon, was at 



* Asiatic Researches, ui supra. t McCiiUoch, Art. Pearl. 



t History of California, 1. 49. 



Vol. XXXIL— No. 1. 9 



