TMf TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1892. 
893 
feels the movements of the worker below, never so 
tight as to retard free action, and never so slack as 
to drag on the bottom and probably got foul round 
a coral-onp's base, and so condemn the diver to a 
watery grave. Indeed, he should be a wide-awake 
fellow, quick to act in an emergency and constantly 
alert. 
The mode of working Is as follows: A “patch" 
of shell having been discovered, the boats beat up 
to the windward edge, and then drift down over it 
with a fouled anchor; that is, with the anchor 
upside down, so that it does not catch, but allows 
the boat to drag slowly over the ground, tho speed 
of drift'ng being regnlated by paying out more or 
less chain. When the diver finds that he is off the 
patch ho comes up, the boat takes to windward 
again, and drifts over it as before. A patch being 
often one or two square miles in area, it is next to 
impossible to go over tho same ground twice, though 
the entire fleet of l.'iO boats often work on tho 
same patch. 
The auihor’a personal experience as a diver is 
thus given : — 
Once again wo were ready to start, all except , Toe, 
who, knowing 1 could do nothing without him, 
wonted a few more days to finish his spree I 
coaxed and entreated, bnt to no purpose ; expenses 
were going on, and nothing coming in, and, after 
two days of impalienco and chafing under my own 
helplossnosa, I made up my mind to try to dive 
myself, and the next tide I left tho creek with that 
intent. The following day I made my first descent, 
and it is impressed very vividly on my memory. 
Long before old Sol hod made his appearance 
above the horizon that morning 1 crept up on dock 
to take a survey of ray surroundings. The first 
streaks of dawn wore li hting up tho eastern sky, 
and in the distance I could see tho dim outline of 
the" ninety mile” beach, ninety miles without a hill 
or tree, creek or habitation — nothing but white, 
glistening sand. Itoneath, tho " mighty liquid 
metronome” lay calm and peaceful, nnriilflod as yet 
by the morning breeze, and all around were 
anchored the pearlers. At sunrise I called tho b^a,told 
them of my plans, and ohose oue named Ketchee 
for my tender. After partaking of our morning 
coffee I proceeded, with Ketchee’s help, to don the 
ponderous diving dress. The rubber suit, aU in oue 
piece, and which one gets into through the neck, 
was the first article to put on ; then the leaden, 
soled boots and the corselet, to which the helmet 
is Borewed, and the chest- and back- w>-ightB— in all 
weighing some fifty or sixty pounds. I stepped on 
the ladder hanging over the boat's side, aud. had 
the life line, air pipe, and helmet attached.; then 
the order to pump was given, and, last of all, the 
face gloss was screwed up. Oh 1 that there had been 
a wrench with which to screw up my courage os 
well. It had sunk to the bottom of those leaslen, 
soled boots, and though Ketchee tapped tbo helmet, 
intimating that all was ready, I felt loath to let go. 
Thoughts of sharks, ootopi, and other monsters of 
the deep flow through my brain, and I felt sura that 
the pipe would burst, or the hoys stop purapiug, or 
some unforeseen accident would occur. 
As I hesitated, thinking of some exenso to have 
that face-glass taken off again, I glanced up at 
Ketchee, still undecided what to do, and saw him 
grinning all over his yellow face at my discomfiture. 
That decided mo ; I could n’t stand being laughed 
at by a Malay; so without more ado I grasped'the 
guiding-lino firmly, and dropped. 
S’ lash I The water closed over me with a 
buzzing sonnd, and the air wbistled in at tho top of the 
helmet with a weird noise, and I saw the bottom of 
tho ^at just above me. My ears began to acho, and 
tho pain increased os I slid down and down, until I 
fairly yelled with the agony caused by the niiusual 
prassure of air on the ear-drums. Still swiftly down I 
want — would the bottom never touch my kicking foot ? 
At last I reached it with a thud, snd instantly all 
pain ceased, and I scrambled to my feot, full of 
curiosity. 
My first tliougiit was, how foolish I had been to 
dread leiLving tlio monotonous sea and sky above, when, 
only ton fathoms bolgw, lay an everohanging scono of 
beauty— a paradise, although a watery one. The 
ground I stood upon was rook of coral structure, grown 
over with coral-cups from minute size to four and fiva 
feet in diameter. Sponges as high as one’s bead, 
sponge-cups, graceful corallines, and sea-flowers of 
new and beautiful forms, and tinted with all the hues 
of tho rainbow, waved gently to and fro ; while, like 
butterflies, flitting and chasing one another in and out 
among them all, wore hundreds of tiny fishes, so gay 
with colors that the historical coat of .Toseph would 
have paled beside them. 
Trtuy it was an enchanting scene, so bright, so beau- 
tifol, and so novel withal, that I walked about with 
curious delight, forgetful of all tho means which 
enabled me to intrude upon the fishes’ dominion until 
I was brought to my senses by a sharp jerk on the life- 
line. This being an interrogation from Ketchee as to 
whether I was all right, I answered it in a similar way, 
and, as I did so, a familiar object caught ray eye in the 
shape of an empty beer-bottle. It stood upright on a 
little ledge of rock, and I could read its flaming yellow 
label of world- wide reputation. “ Ye Gods 1 " I cried, 
“ what vulgarity 1 An advertisoraent even hero 1 Is there 
no place on the earth or under tho waters where one 
can escape the odions advertiser ? ’’ And then for the 
first time I began to realize my position : my head was 
aching, and I was breathing in quick, short gasps ; I 
was oppressed, and an uncanny, oory feeling crept 
over me as I tried to pierce the dim azure of the 
distance beyond, whore the shadowy sea-fans moved so 
languidly, and my imagination conjured up huge forms 
in the distance. 
I was getting nervous, and had therefore been 
down long enough ; so I gave the signal to pull up, 
and in a few momenta was greedily drinking in the 
pure, fresh air of heaven through the open face-glass. 
My nose and ears were bleeding profusely, and I 
spat a good deal of blood also, but as I had been 
told that this would happen the first time, I \yasnot 
alarmed. The pressure had opened a communication 
between the mouth and the ears, and I could now 
-erfonn the extraordinary feat of blowing a raouth- 
ul of smoko through my ears, which all divers can 
do. \fter tliis I experienced no pain whatever when 
descending, and soon became a fairly gowl diver. 
It was on my third descent that I found the first 
shell. It contained three poarla which I bad set in 
a ring as a memento, and wore until quite lately, 
when I discovered that it showed to better advantage 
on a whiter and more delicate hand than mine, and 
in the oanse of art transferred it tliither. 
My largest day’s work was three hundred and 
ten pairs of shells ; this is ratlior over a quarter 
of a ton. The greatest number on record collected 
in one day is one thousand and five. These wore 
picked np by “Japanese Charley," a little Jap about 
five feet high, who was always tended by his wife, 
and whoso noat was the prettiest model and tho 
smartest sailor in the fleet. The most valuable pearl 
discovered on this coast is that known as tho “Southern 
Cross”— a cluster of six pearls in the shape of a 
crucifix which was exhibited at the Indian and 
Colonial Exhibition, London, in IS86, and was valued 
at $ 50 , 001 ) ’This pearl was found at low water by 
an old breach-comber, and was sold by him for ,€10. 
The diver, as tho reader may imagine, gets many 
scares when below. A tifteon-foot shark, mag- 
nified by tho water, and making a bee-line lor one, 
is sufficient to make the stoutest heart quake, iu spite 
of tho assertion tliat sharks have never been known 
to attack a man in dress. Neither is tlie sight of 
a large turtle comforting when one does not know 
exactly what it is, and the coiling of a sea-snako 
around one’s legs, although it has only one s hands 
to bite at, is, to say the least, unpleasant. A little 
fish called the stone-fish is one of the enemion 
of the diver. It seems to inako its habitation 
right under the pearl-shell, as it is only wlicD 
picking them np that any ono has been known 
to be bitten. I remember well the first time i was 
bitten by this spiteful member of the finny tribe, r 
dropped my bag of sholls, and hastened to the surtac . 
but m this short space of time my hand and arm h 
so swollen that it was with difficulty I could Rot tna 
dross off, being unable to ork for throe days, ana 
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