444 
THE TKOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1904. 
THE FISHERY FLEET. 
A fleet of some 20O large fishing craft had gathered, 
and with the help of an occasional Bteamer from 
Colombo had brought together, chiefly from India 
but partly from Ceylon, a population which during the 
cdnrsa of the fishery varied' from about 25,000 to perhaps 
35,000 or 40,000 souls— men, women, and children. 
It was my great good luck to pay two visits of 
considerable duration to the camp and, especially as 
I had had considerable part in arranging for it, 
to see it thoroughly. Many liien have written and 
many others will write of this camp and of the 
Ceylon pearl fishery generally, but I believe that 
I saw it from a point of view peculiarly advantageous 
for seeing and understanding its general efiect ; and 
this is my sole excuse for acceding to the request 
of my friend Dr. Willey that I should describe, as 
I saw it, this great effort of recovery of spoil from 
1 c Ceylon deep in spoNa Zeylanica^ 
Another great advantage I had which has fallen 
to the lot of few other officials, and certainly never 
before to a Lieutenant-Governor with scientific 
leanings. On a suggestion made to me I gladly pro- 
vided for the supply of diving dress and apparatus ; 
and these being on the spot my innate curiosity in- 
duced me on several occasions to put on this dress 
and go down to visit the paars and see for myself 
how the oysters grow. I believe that Mr. Hornell, 
Captain Legge, and myself are probably almost the 
first persons to make use of the diver's dress for 
inspecting the bottom of the sea for purely scientific 
purposes ; and some account of my own experiences 
may be not without use. 
I have roughed it in so many places and so many 
ways, that after the idea of myself going down had 
once suggested and commended itself to me, 1 do 
not think that any qualms or doubts presented 
themselves. 
FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH THE DIVER's DRESS. 
The sensation of being put into the dress is a* 
first certainly rather trying. The weight is of course 
enormous and most oppressive, and I found that the 
operation of screwing up of the rivets fastening the 
very heavy helmet on to the rest of the dress was 
distinctly painful. Mr. Bartlett, professional diver, 
who valetted me on this occasion, certainly did his 
best to spare me as much inconvenience as possible. 
But a few months later when I was at the Maldive 
Islands with H.M.S. " Highflyer " and, moved by a 
desire to see for myself the wonderful coral forests 
and jungles and underwater cligs of those atolls, I 
again donned the diver's dress, as supplied to His 
Majesty's ships, I found that both the weight and 
the painfnlnesB of being screwed up were con- 
siderably less. I am assured that the equipment 
of the "Highflyer" is identical with those used 
in constrnoting the Colombo breakwater — it was one 
of these that 1 used at the peral fishery ; but I am 
positive that for soiiie reason the " Highflyer " dress 
caused me the less incouvenience, and if any scientific 
man wishes to engage in the enterprise of deep 
sea diving, I should strongly advise him before 
acquiring his dress to consult the naval authorities. 
The dress once donned and one's heavily encum- 
bered body once got over the side of the ship and 
on to the ladder, the rest is easy. All that is 
necessary is to keep one's feet well down when 
deceuding the ladder and until one is entirely under 
water. Neglect, or rather ignorance of this pre- 
caution on one occasion brought me into difficulties. 
Having seen the prcfessional diver swing himself off 
the ladder instead of first going patiently down 
to the lowest rung, I thought I would do the same , 
with the result that I fell on my back into the 
water, and that the air distributed within the dress 
instead of being forced gradually up from feet to 
head, as would have been the case if I had gone 
down feet foremost, was forced to the front of chest 
and legs and kept me kicking on my back on the 
water, 
NINE FATHOMS BELOW THE SURFACE. 
After leaving the ladder feet downward pure passi- 
vity is to be recommended until one reaches the 
bottom. My first depth was 9 fathoms, but it certainly 
seemed to me to take a very long time to get down 
those 54 feet, and on the first occasion or two the 
pain in my ears was intense. I was told that the 
slower I went down the less acute would this pain 
be, but after various experiments I have not been able 
to make up my mind whether the longer endured but 
very slightly less acute pain is preferable to the 
quicker, sharper sensation. The most surprising 
thing to me was that as soon as the bottom was 
once reached all sensation of pain ceased. — it was 
perhaps overhelmed by the undoubted delight at the 
novelty of one's sensations and to exasperation at the 
small control one had at first over one's movements 
under that pressure of water. I could not by any 
effort keep my feet quite firmly od to the ground ; 
and each twitch which the man who played Provi- 
dence to me at the other end of the rope gave — 
doubtless in his nervous anxiety to guide me aright 
— had the unfortunate effect of throwing me over on 
to my back or my side or my face. Finally I found 
that getting about on all fours was the proceeding 
which gave me the greatest control over my own 
movements. 
The light was wonderfully good, as a full green 
twilight, and I could distinctly see the ship 9 fathoms 
over my head. It is carious that at the same depth 
in different parts of the sea the quantity of the light 
varies considerably. This is probably due to the 
greater or less quantity of matter floating in the water , 
THE PICTURESQUE SEA!* BOTTOM. 
The bottom where I first went down was a sandy, 
slightly undulating plain. Here and there at dis- 
tances of a foot or so apart were small groups of from 
six to a dozen oysters, each group fastened by the 
byssus to a stone or piece of loose coral or dead shell ; 
as far as I could see, no oysters were fastened to the 
actual bottom. Scattered about among the oysters 
on the sand were mushroom-shaped and other lopse- 
growing corals, and here and there was a branched 
coral fastened to the bottom. The fishes and shrimps 
swam about utterly oblivious of one's presence, 
especially a lovely little ultramarine blue fish with a 
golden yellow tail. It was somewhat exasperating 
to throw an oyster at a fish and to find that the 
missile instead of going towards the fish dropped 
languidly to one's feet. Ot big fish I hardly saw any, 
and of sea snakes, generally very plentiful in those 
parts, I saw only one, and that was while I was on 
my way down one day. Crabs were fairly abundant, 
and I came across a striking-looking — indeed vicious- 
looking — animal of this sort {Rhinolambrus contrarius). 
To one like myself who has as long as he can 
remember found a peculiar joy in seeing Kature from 
new points of view, it is pure delight to make one's 
way along the bottom of the sea, picking up shells, 
corals, starfish (very abundant), sea urchins, and a 
host of other things which had always before been 
to one lifeless " curiosities." 
THE PEARL DIVERS AT WORK. 
One of my chief purposes in going down was to 
see the divers actually at work. In but a few mo- 
ments from leaving the ship and the world to which 
1 had long been accustomed, I reached a quite new 
world and, as it seemed, one apart from all other 
human beings. Then from the gloom of the distance 
— it was easier to see upwnirds than for any distance 
along the ground — some big thing came rapidly 
towards one; it might have been a big fish, but as 
it came quickly nearer it proved to be a naked Arab 
swimming gently but rapidly towards me, his rope 
between his toes, and his hands and arms rapidly 
sweeping oysters into the bisket which hung round 
his neck. I tried to sptak, forgetting that my head 
was buried in my helmet, but he glided close past 
me without taking any more notice ol me than did 
