95 
The Pearl Fishery. 
for as soon as one of them sees a shark he instantly gives the 
alarm to his companions, who as quickly communicate it to 
the other boats ; a panic speedily seizes the whole, and they 
often return to the bay without lishiiig any more for that day. 
The sharks which create all this alarm sometimes turn out to 
be nothing more than a sharp stone on winch the divers happen 
to alight. As false alarms excited in this manner prove very 
injurious to the progress of the fishery, every means is em- 
ployed to ascertain whether they are well or ill founded ; and in 
the latter be the case, the authors of them are punished. 
These false alarms occurred more than once in the course of the 
last two or three seasons. 
The divers are paid difierently according to their private 
agreement with the boat-owners. They are paid either if 
money, or with a proportion of the oysters caught, which 
they take the chance of opening on their own account ; the 
latter is the method most commonly adopted. The agreements 
with the people who hire out the boats are conducted much 
in the same manner. They contract either to receive a certain 
sura for the use of their boats, or pay the chief farmer of the 
banks a certain sum for permission to fish on their own account. 
Some of those who pursue the latter plan are very successful 
and become rich ; while others are great losers by the specula- 
tion. Oyster lotteries are carried on here to a great extent ; 
they consist of purchasing a quantity of the oysters unopened, 
and running the chance of either finding or not finding pearls 
in them. The European officers and gentlemen, who attend 
here upon duty or through curiosity, are particularly fond of 
these lotteries, and very frequently make purchases of this 
sort. 
