PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 197 
the mainland coast-line up to and among the reefs of the Buccaneer Archipelago off 
King’s Sound, it-is by no means improbable that they may be met with again further 
north and east of that point. 
The fishery for the larger tropical species of Mother-of-Pearl shell is conducted 
in Western Australian waters on precisely the same lines as in Queensland. In 
the earlier days, as in Queensland, the shell was obtained by simply wading on and 
collecting it from the reefs. Native or Malay naked divers were next employed to 
bring the shell up from relatively small depths, while finally, as the shell became 
exhausted in the shallower and was found to be obtainable in quantities only in the 
deeper water of from ten to twenty or more fathoms, recourse has been had to 
schooners and luggers equipped with the most perfected diving apparatus. From 
convenient ports, such as Broome and Cossack, luggers will run out to, and work 
independently on, the adjacent shelling grounds. Where, however, as mostly happens, 
these grounds are at a considerable distance from any port, a number of luggers 
belonging to a company or private firm are escorted to the grounds by a schooner 
which both acts as a tender for needful supplies and receives all the shell collected. 
Even under these conditions both schooners and luggers commonly return to port at 
spring tides when the currents are too strong to permit of the divers working. The 
photograph reproduced at the head of this Chapter represents one such occasion when 
a large number of the boats had come in for stores and shelter to Broome Creek. 
The port of Broome in Roebuck Bay, may be said in respect to the Pearl- 
shelling industry of Western Australia, to occupy a position much akin to that 
of Thursday Island with relation to Queensland, it being the port furthest north to 
which the pearling fleet is accustomed to resort for supplies and repairs. As with 
Thursday Island (Port Kennedy), when first visited by the writer about a decade 
since, Broome is not very far advanced in the amenities and conveniences of modern 
civilisation. Thursday Island, however, revisited a few years later, had made such 
rapid strides as to possess a well-built jetty, obviating the necessity of landing in 
small boats. It could also boast of that indispensable anti-climax of British citizenship 
—a hansom cab. Broome revisited will, no doubt, a year or two hence, cap the 
precocity of Port Kennedy by the production of a motor car. In the interim, a 
substantial jetty at which vessels can land or embark freight and passengers at 
all tides is no doubt the sine qud non of Broome, and possessed of it she should, 
with the enterprising guiding spirits now at the helm, speedily achieve distinction. 
In direct touch by cable station with the hub of the world, affording the greatest 
