138 Pearls, 



local custom. The Sooloo and Tawi-Tawi men are 

 principally divers, those from the town of Parang 

 and the little island of Secubun, especially attaining 

 great depths. By dint of practice from childhood, 

 by hereditary gift, and by means of a naturally 

 fine physique, the Sooloo natives can show as fine 

 divers as any in the world. They dive head first, 

 invariably without any artificial assistance whatever ; 

 and the average time they remain below the surface 

 is from a minute to eighty seconds ; but there is 

 European evidence that on one occasion a dive lasted 

 as long as 180 beats of the pulse, which may roughly 

 be called two and a half minutes. The greatest 

 depths that Mr. Haynes has seen accomplished is 

 seventeen and a half fathoms (105 feet) and the 

 same man did fifteen and a half fathoms in the 

 presence of the captain and officers of H.M.S. 

 " Champion^ On that day he failed to reach 

 bottom at nineteen fathoms, but he was considerably 

 past his prime in years, and was alone. In descending 

 these great depths the men are afraid of sharks, 

 unless four or five divers go down together. But 

 there is little doubt that there are divers in Sooloo 

 who can do their twenty fathoms and even more. 

 A report has been published lately by the French 

 Government on the Tahitian Pearl fishing, in which 

 it is stated that the natives there can accomplish 

 thirty fathoms. This is probably an exaggeration 



