THE INDIAN OCEAN. 369 
ready to take their turn again, frequently making 
forty or fifty plunges a day, and bringing up at each 
turn about a hundred oysters. 
The greatest danger to these adventurous men 
arises from the sharks, to whose rapacity allusion 
has before been made. But against them the poor 
people believe that they possess an inviolable de- 
fence in the charms sold to them by pretended con- 
jurors, whose impudence and address secure their 
hold on their deluded votaries, even in spite of the 
frequent evidence of their fallibility. It is probable, 
the constant bustle and noise, and the frequent 
splashings of the divers, deter the sharks in a great 
measure from approaching the scene. 
“As soon as the oysters are landed, they are placed 
in pits on the shore, and left to undergo decomposi-. 
tion; in which state they diffuse an intolerable odour, 
but to which habit speedily reconciles the people. 
When the flesh is decayed under that burning sun, 
the shells are opened with ease, and minutely ex- 
amined for pearls: some, however, elude the utmost 
vigilance, to obtain which, numbers of people continue 
to search the sands for months after the merchants 
have departed, and they are now and then rewarded 
by a pearl of value. In 1797, a common fellow, of 
the lowest class, thus got by accident the most 
valuable pearl seen that season, and sold it for a 
large sum.” 
In the Straits of Sunda and the adjacent seas, 
there are found several floating sea-weeds, which 
have a general resemblance to the Gulfweed of the 
Atlantic, but possess a much more striking similarity 
24 
