Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-07-24
AT THE PEARL FISHERIES.
A woNDERFUL INDUSTRY IN WON.
DERFUL WATERS.
Searching for tho Gems at Queens.
land-Primitive Methods of the
DIVcrs-The trading Fleet.

DlVers-The trading Fleet.
A Thursday Island (Queensland) let.
ter to the New York Sun describes the
pearl fisheries of that region. Seys the
writer:
1t is strange place for any industry,
the strangest for the finding of the beau
tiful and ever mysterious gem which the
natives believe are cloud born, and which,
unlike all other gems, require no aid of
art to bring out their beauty. Innumer-
able islands crowd the dangerous straits,
thousand reefs and shoals scattered
among them. and the shores of New
Guinea and Australia breaking the green
ish waters with gray of rock and the
brown of ragged bush. The islands,
desolate as the desert and arid as an
alkali plain, repcl all attempts at agricul-
ture. The scanty grass is poisonous to
cattle, neither shrub nor tree is found,
and attempts to cultivate grain and vege-
tables have not met with any success.
The inhabitants are few, but they are
almost wholly dependent upon the pro-
visions which they secure from abroad,
and know no other occupation than the
fisheries. Port Kennedy is the only
town, town with population of per-
haps 200 people, and having o Post
Office, two inns, customs station, a
Court House and Jail. The harbor is
formed by four islands, Goode, Ham
mond, Friday and Thursday Islands, al
most entirely landlocking it. Here the
tidal currents are rapid, the eddies fiuct-
uating, the reefs and shoals many and
dangerous. But here the pearl-shell ves-
sells lie, fleet of nearly 200, having
!, 500 employees, and floating 1000 boats.
Some of the larger vessels have burden
of fifteen to eighteen tons, but most of
the feet is composed of small craft vary
ing from three to eight tons.
The islanders, who have fished for
years and years, are fishing still in their
own good old way, paying no care to the
everlasting of the white men. They know
a pearl oyster as the farmer does potato
or an apple, and, knowing it so well, they
are peculiarly adept at finding bivalves
that contain pearls, choosing such by
some fancied rule Of thumb founded on
the grounds of age, form, aud color.
Men, women and children all dive like
sea fowl, and the women are the most
expert. Three or four women are we'll
known in the trade, and are noted not
only for having plunged again and again
into twenty. five fathoms of water, but as
well for having done this in the very
teeth of the sharks, and for having re-
manned under water as long as three
whole minutes. The native knows no
industry save pearl fishing, and it is al
most as natural for child to dive as it is
for young duck or penguin. They enter
upon the service of fishing about as soon
as they enter their teens, and unless
something happens they continue to dive
until they are old and infrm. But some
thing is apt to happen, and that some
thing may be a red-mouthed shark,
paralysis, hemmorrhage, or some other
Incident of physical failure. The shark
is alwsys st home in these seas, and his
number is legion. 1t is no rare thing for
3 bold diver to come up minus foot or
an arm, and many go down never to come
up again at all. Too many plunges in
day bring on hemmorrhage or congestion,
and especially is this the case early in the
fishing season, which for the natives is a
period of four months, beginning in No
vember. Too long-continued occupation
causes paralysis, and headache; deafness
and failure of sight occur very COM
monty.
The diving is very primitive. Some
traders have introduced the diving-bells,
but the natives decline to work in them,
alleging that they cause early paralysis
and certain deafness. The common
practice is to go out on the water with a
light wooden pipe, ten inches square and
two feet long, glazed at one end. With
this tube ready prospecting is done,
the glass end, which is put under water,
serving the purpose of suppressing the
surface ripple. When oysters are discov-
cred the diver belts himself with seven
Dr. eight pounds of ballast, and, having
bandaged his mouth and protected his
eyes and ears with oiled cotton, he at
taches weight to his feet and goes de-
liberately and boldly down with rope
Ju before plunging he Cor shc) draws
three or four full and rapid breaths, and
has the lungs full of air as he drops to
the bottom from six to 100 feet below.
Each dive occupies from sixty to ninety
seconds, and occasionally diver has re-
NAMED under for two or three minutes,
assisting himself to the surface by means
Of the rope.
The divers hardly ever bring up more
than one oyster, though they are always
On the lookout for loose or "shed"
pearl, which, if found, they quickly
conceal by swallowing.
While the natives are eking out their
precarious living in the old-fashioned
way the boats from the trading feet are
engaged in more systematic and mod
ernmethod of fishing. Each well-equipped
vessel is supplied with the necessary
apparatus and professional divers. The
apparatus is the best and most complete
that can be procured, and the divers who
use it are under three years. contract at a
wage of from So tc S. day and an in
terest in the catch. Each diver has four
tenders, whose pay is from $40 to $40 a
month, and who are generally natives or
Chinese.
- The method of fishing is for several
vessels to go out together and fish on the
same ground for fortnight. Reaching
place where the water is forty or fifty
feet deep, the diver enters his boat,
dresses, and jumps overheard. Upon
reaching the bottom he leisurely walks