NO. 51.— 1900.] PEARL FISHERIES. 



183 



oysters. Some time after they had been working, I was 

 looking over the vessel's side, and observing the life line of 

 one of the European divers being violently jerked, I called out 

 to his attendants to haul him up quickly, believing that some 

 accident had happened, and that the poor man might be 

 hauled in unconscious or even dead ; but when landed on the 

 stage he was very much alive, for when the front piece of his 

 helmet was removed, he bawled out in a stentorian voice, 

 " Where's the man who stole my oysters ?" He then explained 

 that he had kept a basket at the foot of his ladder to hold the 

 oysters as he gathered them up, and that when he returned 

 to the basket with the last handful of oysters required to fill 

 it, he found the basket empty and oysters gone, and that his 

 rage at this mishap caused him to tug so violently at the life 

 line. The oysters had been commandeered by one of the 

 native divers (belonging to one of the boats working close 

 by) while the European diver was away from his basket. 



This I found out some time afterwards, but as there was 

 no evidence available at the time the thief escaped punish- 

 ment, much to the annoyance of the European diver. 



Physical Changes in the Bed of the Sea on the Pearl Banks. 



As far back as my experience goes there have been no 

 material changes of this nature. It is true the divers at times 

 reported small portions of the rocky part of a pearl oyster 

 bed to be covered with a layer of sand a few inches deep, and 

 on one occasion during a small fishery off Chilaw the divers 

 reported the oysters were being covered up with sand, and 

 that they had a difficulty in getting at the oysters, as they 

 were swayed to and fro by the sea, although they were at a 

 depth of nine fathoms. This was evidently caused by a 

 heavy ground swell rolling in at the time, and if it swayed 

 the divers about was also probably causing the silting up of 

 sand on the oysters. These occurrences are, however, rare, 

 or have been rarely noticed. The bed of the Cheval and 

 Modragam Paars seem to remain undisturbed by physical 

 changes, as the area and configuration of the rocky portions 



