368 THE OCEAN. 
press the mind with the value and importance of that 
object which can of itself create this scene.”* 
The actual fishery begins in February and con- 
tinues during six weeks, or at most two months. 
The boats, being prepared, each carrying twelve or 
fourteen hands and ten divers, leave the shore at 
the signal-gun of the government officer, and arrive 
at the bank before daylight. At sunrise diving com- 
mences, and the divers, divided into two parties, 
descend alternately, the one set breathing while the 
other is below. To expedite his descent, each man 
has a conical piece of granite, through a hole in 
which a rope is passed; he grasps the rope with 
the toes of his right foot, which he uses with nearly 
the same pliancy as the fingers of his hands, and 
taking in his left a net like an angler’s landing-net, 
seizes another rope in his right hand, and closes his 
nostrils with his left thumb and finger. The weight 
of the stone causes him to descend rapidly, and he 
loses no time, but hastily fills his net with the oys- 
ters he finds around. When he can retain his breath 
no longer, he jerks the second rope, and is instantly 
hauled to the surface by his fellows, leaving the 
stone to be pulled up afterwards. Generally, from 
a minute and a half to two minutes, is as long as 
a diver can remain under water; but Captain Per- 
cival records a case in which a man “absolutely re- 
mained under water full six minutes.” The effects 
of so long a submersion as even ordinarily takes 
place, are severe, and manifest themselves by gush- 
ings of water from the ears, mouth, and nose, and 
sometimes by discharges.of blood. Yet they are 
* Percival’s Ceylon, p. 59. 
