Jan. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
483 
I w\3 on Thursday Island last year (1900), aud 
accepted the poiition of a clerk on one of the pearling 
schooners. I deemed it wonli be a splendid opportu- 
nity for studying the trade, and also would extend 
my knowledge of anthropology. 
The fleet that I wis to join was stationed about 
50 miles out, and there happened to be a 15-ton 
lugger taking stores out to the schooner on which I 
was to work. I went on board, and in about two 
days' time we reached the schooner, and as soon as I 
set foot on board the captain said, " Pick up a kuife, 
and my son will show you the way to open the shell 
to look for pearls." So I went and sat by a big heap 
of shell, and was soon busily engaged probing the 
knife in and looking under the shellfish for them. 
There were coloured men all round me seated near 
little tubs, scrubbing the barnacles off the shell, and 
washing away any superfluous shellfish that adhered 
to the motber-o'-peacl. 
The number of these tubs was about four or five, 
and seated round each one were four or five men 
sorubbiug away and keeping their eyes on the skipper, 
who was here, there, and everywhere, and growling 
all the time. He seemed to confer mostly with 
his boa'un, a big Arab, who stood about 6 feet ■! in. 
in his stockings, or more correctly, the bare soles 
of his feet. 
We were then, three wbiteman, amongst, perhaps, 
one of the most motley mixtures ever seen. There 
were Japanese, Javanese, Filipinos, Arabs, Cingalese, 
Southsea islanders. Murray islanders, boys from Botu- 
mah and New Guinea. We even had two Esquimaux- 
They were a trifle out of their latitude, were they 
not ? 
The tower of Babel seemed to be in the course of 
cnnstruction by the multitudinous varity of tongues 
that were spoken. 
It was just on 12 o'clock, aud the cook pat his 
head out of the t-ailey, and sang out "Chow, chow," 
and the island boys, accompanied by all the rest, 
rushed towards a dish of steaming hot beef, and 
commence;! to fill their plates up with beef and rice, 
and to dip their pints into a big bucket of the most 
horrible ration tea that one could imagine. This 
then seemed to be their bill of far'e — salt horse, rice 
an d tea. The knife was the only requi^ite to assist 
iji the repast, for instead of using forks most of 
hj^em shovelled the rice ioto their mouths with their 
h nds. The top of the hatches served as a table. 
Now some of these poor fellows could hardly eat 
the beef, as most of it was bad, and as there was 
nothing else on this sumptuous board they had to go 
to the ship's clerk (myself) and get tins of fish and 
jam, which were debited to their accounts at about 
twice the price that the same goods would have cost 
on Thursday Island, In fact, I have seen a sheep 
sold to one of these boys for £3, and a sucking-pig 
brought out about Christmas tiine was sold for two 
guineas. As most of the crew on these schooners 
get only SOs a month, and they are literally starved 
into slop-chesting about a shilling's worth of goods 
everyday, they very often leave wh^n their time is 
np, say after two years of service, without any money 
to 'draw at all, and are very often in debt; a pound or 
two to the master of the vessel. 
In the afternoon the ship set sail, and the crew, 
including myself, left our shell clipping and cleaning 
and engaged ourselves in sailing her. The captain 
came out with his telescope, and looking all round 
the horizon at last spotted a Ingger that bad been 
absent for about a week, and wishing to collect her 
shell accordingly set sail after her. On the way 
towards this boat we must have passed about 20 or 30 
other luggers, some of them belonging to our fleet, 
and others working on their own account. One of 
these boats, a lugger belonging to our fleet, hailed us, 
and we Inffedupto see what she wanted. The diver 
on the lugger, a Jap, called out, " Me got sick ma.n ; 
you take him back along a schooner." Our captain 
replied. " You make the animal work ; he's only 
shamming." The Jap retorted, No fear, hirjj been 
«ick two tree day." " All right, send him 
to the schooner." So the sick man, who was 
evidently suffering from a bad attack of sea 
sicknesK — he was vomiting terribly — was conveyed in 
the lugger's dingy to the schooner. When the dingy 
came alongside the captaia caught him by the scruff 
of the necit and hauled him over the ships's side. He 
called out to the bos'un, " Come here, bos'un, and 
make this mr^n well ; " and the Arab commenced 
throwing a bucket over the drawing water, and whilst 
the captain held the poor shrieking wretch he poured 
bucket after bucket of water over him, aud when he 
had drawn about 20 'onckets the next part of the cure 
starteil, which consisted in kicking this Manila man 
round the deck three or four times, the captain swear- 
ing of the bos'un for not kicking him hard enough. 
It was a pretty sight to see all the luggers at workj 
We passed hundreds of them, and divers were seen 
in all sorts of dress and undress. The divers work as 
scientifically as possible, and some of them handle 
boats With a command that is simply astonish- 
ing. The boats ara placed bows to the wind, 
so that they will not drift too much ; although, of 
course, the boat is continually drifting, and the diver 
wali<s many miles on the ocean floor in his search for 
shell. Probably, in very much worked ground, he 
may walk a mile without getting a sintile shell. A 
diver told me that in one part where he vras working 
the muddy bottom below was just like a ploughed 
field, the boot-marks of previous shell-seekers giving 
it that appearance. The diver also walks against the 
tide, otherwise the mud stirred up would make it 
impossible for him to see shell. Perhaps he sees a 
school of whitefish. As these fish are the heralds of 
sharks, he gives the signal to be pulled up, or as he 
would probably tell you, ' I see shark, I fright, I 
give single to be pull up.' Now I have not, among 
all the coloured men I have met on Thursday Island, 
heard one who could pronounce the word signal pro- 
perly — they say 'single' to a man. 
One of the most amiTsing things to be seen down 
below, a diver will tell you, is the 'monkey fish.' 
These fish have enormous eyes, and in mauy respecqa 
resemble monkeys. They make hideous faces at the 
diver, and are very hard to catch, diving in among 
the weeds and mud when he tries to get hold of them. 
Divers work on contract, getting from £15 to £2,5 
per ton for their shell. It takes them, however, a 
long while now to get a ton, as the grounds are so 
constantly worked. There was a time when a diver need 
only work for a month or two and he would bring back 
to the island enough pearlshell to keep him in food 
and champagne for the rest of the year. Those 
were the days when whisky was not sold by the 
bottle, but if a man want,»d any he would have to buy 
the case full. Now it is merely a miserable existence, 
and a man may perhaps clear one hundred pounds 
in the whole year, but then look at the wear and tear 
on his constitution to do so ! He rises at 5 in the 
morning, has a hasty cup of coffee, puts on his diving 
dress, aud takes his first plunge, remaining under the 
water until breakfast time ; after breakfast he is down 
again, walking miles on the bottom of the ocean un- 
til mid-day ; after about an hour's rest he is at it 
again, and works until as late as the light permits. 
Fancy working 12 hours a day at such aa unhealthy 
employment, and for the remuneration of about £2 a 
week aud rations of the vilest kind ! There is not a 
white diver now in all the fleets. They have cleared 
out long ago, as they were convinced there was not a 
living in it. 
Of course in the deeper water, say, for instance 30 
fathoms, a man cannot possibly stay under all day, 
the maximum time being about five minutes, as the 
pressure of the water is so great that he cannot re- 
main under any longer. Some of the divers through 
greed often lose their lives. The tender — the man 
who looks after the life-line — sends down the signal 
that the five minutes is up, but perhaps the diver 
just at the moment he gets the signal to ascend espies 
a nice patch of shell and tries to get it into his bag. 
