i6o Pearls. 



set of men, quick to learn from a white m.an, and 

 pleasant to teach ; in diving, however, they are not 

 equal to the Australians, their powers of endurance 

 being far inferior. 



In 1872, the "Australian Fishery Company" 

 was floated in London, and two fine yachts were 

 fitted out in England — the "Enchantress" and the 

 "Plower of Yarrow" — for the purpose of prosecuting 

 this industry on the North-west Coast. Ample 

 capital was available, but the venture proved disas- 

 trous. The promoter actually estimated in his 

 prospectus, that each diver could bring up a hundred 

 shells in an hour ! and based his reduced estimate 

 upon a yield of eight tons of shell from each diver 

 in the season; as a matter of fact, i\ tons is the 

 highest that has ever been obtained, and that only 

 under extraordinarily favourable circumstances. The 

 whole proceeding was a fiasco, and ludicrous to 

 all, except the shareholders. The working expenses 

 alone would have eaten up all the profits, even if 

 a reasonable quantity had been obtained. The 

 " Enchantress" was lost and the "Flower of Yarrow" 

 was sold. She traded in the Malay Archipelago 

 for a number of years, running the Spanish blockade 

 in Sooloo several times, and up to the date of her 

 recent wreck was known as the handsomest and 

 fastest craft in the East. The promoters of the 



