North-west Australian Fishery. 153 



day under a tropical sun, wet with salt water and 

 occasional rain, is no light one. When the weather 

 is exceptionally bad and the barometer lower than 

 usual, the anchors are hove up and the fleet scatters 

 for shelter within the numerous mangrove creeks 

 on the coast. There the vessels lie, two or three 

 in company for weeks together, dry at low water, and 

 swarming with flies and mosquitoes ; the white men 

 meantime, having nothing to do until the weather 

 moderates, but to gamble and compare Pearls. It 

 is particularly noticeable, how even the yield of 

 shell continues on this coast ; the only bad bottom 

 is mud or sand. The state of the tides and weather, 

 and consequent thickness or clearness of the water, 

 affects the yield as much as the locality. 



In the evening the men who have worked 

 badly, have to scrape the dirt, coral cups, and other 

 submarine growth off the shells and wash them, 

 stacking them in heaps on the deck. In the morning 

 the white men open them with a knife, holding 

 the shell with the hinge on the deck and taking 

 care not to scratch any Pearl that may be within. 

 Immediately the muscle of the oyster is severed, 

 the shells spontaneously spring open, and the oyster 

 is cut away from the shell as cleanly as possible. 

 Any good Pearl is usually seen at once, but a 

 smart little boy generally sits alongside each opener 



