Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-18
LIVE BENEATH THE WAVES.
Natives of South Sea Islands Pass
Much of. Tlzeir Time There.

From the Philadelphia Ledger. ..
Away out, in, the south Pacific ocean.
where white men rarely are seen, there lies
little coral atoll known as Hikueru atoll.
1t is different from most coral atolls OF
which you read in your geography, for 1t Is
a solid ring of-corsl. and the lagoon inside
of 1t can be entered only by dragging boats
over the beach.
This lagoon Is one of the most valuable
pearl-shell lagoons and is sought every year
by the dwellers on Tahiti and other islands
of the south seas to fish for pearls.
The French government, which owns the
atoI has forbidden the of diving suits
because it is feared that this method would
prove too destructive to the pearl shells and
the diving is done in the ancient south sea
way by men and boys and women, who go
down with no artificial help.
When the time comes for the pearl fishing
they set out from their islands. some or
them 400 miles away from the atoll. Most Of
the natives bring their families and house.
hold effects with them. Many bring even
their houses. This is not so difficult an I'M
dertaking it may appear at first sight,
for the houses are made from light cocoa
nut palms and pandanus leaves They are
built up in sections, so they are easy to
take apart and transport.
Most of the dying is done in water from
sixty to seventy feet deep. The sea Is so
clear in the atoll that the diver can study
the bottom perfectly with a water glass
and locate the best, clumps of shell before
he dives.
When he is ready to go down he slips INTO
the water over the side of the boat and,
holding to the gunwale with one hand, he
looks downward through the water glass.
The moment he sights good lot of shells
he begins to breathe deeply. sucking in the
air until his chest is inflated as far as 1t
can be. and then exhaling 1T slowly through
the mouth, so that it makes a whistling
sound. Having thus cleaned out his lungs
he takes long breath, hllipg bis chest win
perfectly pure air. and. then he let's go of
the gunwale Instantly and sinks below the
surface feet ,fQreB9st.
After he has, th.iiS sunk about ten feet he
head the %aeer as ns aS
fully and swiftly IS asa, fish would On touch
ing clumpst e4EaI until he reaches an the
w shsl his wheh h is S as wen
Quickly he nuts tie shells into a little net
of cocoanut i4ber Nhich he carries over his
dately he the hes surface as II
he were pulled i'm, by a rope. So swiftly
sss a ns e whsn hs s
% Of course, ,3oy SAN girls of these south
sea islands can swim tf;im and dive almost as
well as if they were water dwellers One
of them Taa n s'nt h dys for ine
steamship A1batrfs last year. He remain
ed under the water. two minutes and forty
seconds and req he'd bottom at a depth Of
1O2 feet under the boats keel. The water
was so transparent that the beholders
could see him clearly. They declare that
after he had touched bottom at this enor-
nous depth he calmly picked over the
pieces of coral and shell at the bottom to
select one to bring up. exactly as a man
might Gull flowers when working at his ease
in a garden. This young diver was ready
to go down again only few minutes after
he came up