North-west Australian Fishery. 151 



same character as the breakfast is then served, and 

 all hands lie down to sleep until dawn. Diving on 

 Sunday is strictly prohibited, and indeed the seventh 

 day's rest is amply earned and needed. 



The method of working the dingies is as 



follows : the white man stands on the after 'thwart 



with an oar over the stern, and sculls the dingy 



against the tide ; the divers all go down together, 



partly for the sake of frightening any sharks that 



may chance to be below, and partly that the bottom 



may be more systematically examined. During the 



time the men are below, the white man must scull 



against the wind, so that his men may come up 



near to the boat, and his task is regulated by the 



force of the wind. The divers swim to the boat 



and clamber into it to rest, each man's shells being 



stowed separately. The white man continues sculling 



against the tide to prevent his drifting away from 



the ship too rapidly. If a dive is unusually productive 



a buoy is thrown out and the dingy is sculled up 



to the same spot again. This soon attracts the 



other boats, and as soon as shells get scarce, the 



buoy is taken in and the dingy allowed to drift 



slowly over the ground. At times these little boats 



are more than six miles away from their vessels, 



and then the oars or paddles are got out, and in 



case of a sudden squall coming on, the divers pull 



the boat back to the vessel. These squalls are known 



