Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-03-13
CEYLON PEARL FISHERIES.

| vail during the fishery cary sS9y the
smell from the CAM
At midnight a signal gun Dfired and
by sunrise the feet, numbering some
times $50 boats, is at anchor around
an old bark which serves as a mark
on the center of the fishing ground.
A signal gun is fired from the in
spection ship to begin operations, and
the sound of the gun has not died away
before there is great splash as half
of the divers drop into the sea- The
following, taken from Twentieth
Century Impressions of Ceylon," re-
fers to divers and their methods:
All save the Malayalim divers, who
plunge head foremost from a spring
board, descend to the bottom in an
upright position, carried swiftly down
by weight on which they place their
feet-a stone of 40 to so pounds in
the case Of the local divers, lead OF
not more than 10 pounds in that OF
the Arabs. Each diver is tended by a
"manduk," whose duty consists in the
care Of two ropes skunk over a rude
rail above the side of the ship and
which are attached, respectively, to the
diving stone and oyster basket. When
ready to descend, the diver, If he be a
Tamil, adjusts the basket on the top
Of the diving stone and secures it in
position by placing one foot upon it.
He draws long breath, closes his
nostrils with the fingers Of one hand,
raises his body as. high as possible
above the water to give force to his
descent, and then suddenly releasing
carried swiftly to the bottom. An
Arab diver closes the nostrils with a
horn clip suspended from a cord slung
around the neck. His descent is slight
ly less rapid than that of the Ia
mil, and this tends to lessen the dan
ger to which the drum of the ear is
subjected if insufficient time be al
lowed for adjustment to the heighten-
ed pressure on the sea bottom.
On reaching the bottom the diver |
steps OF the sinker, slips the moose OF |
the bag or basket around his neck, |
and swings slowly over the bottom,
transferring to- his bag all the oysters |
he can see. Meanwhile his manduk
has hoisted up the stone and adjust
ed his ropue in position on the rail |
ready for the next diver. Almost as
soon as this is done the diver below
Is ready to come to the surface, in
dicating this by signal twitch on the
basket rope. Instantly two manduks
the divers work usually in pairs, one
n and the other out of the water)
haul In the rope with the utmost dis
Patch, the diver being drawn up with
{. The bag is lifted over the boats
dde, the contents emptied and the bag
'eturned to the diver, who, after
ew minutes rest, is ready to descend
lgain. When a man has been in the
water half an hour and has, perhaps,
made seven or eight descents, he is
,lad to get rest and let his comrade
AXE his place. 1t may be noted that
by this system a single set of gear
serves two men; in the old days
boats capacity was stated as so many
stones" and when that is known the
number of divers is ascertained at
'nce by merely doubling the number
,f these stones.
The weakest divers are the Malay
Him men; forty seconds is their aver
lge below water. The Christian Ia
nils are better by five seconds, and
md the Moormen excel this by anoth-
n five seconds. The Arabs do much
'etter and. think nothing of seventy
o eighty seconds in depths of z to s
athoms- The Arab will go much
reater depths than the others; where
s the Malayalim divers do not care
o go beyond z fathoms, and the Moors
nd Tamils will work down to 8 faith
ms, the Arabs find no dificulty in
diving at IA and Is faith
ms, and even 60 down to 20 fathoms
n occasion.
The number of oysters obtained at
ach dive depends upon whether they
re close together ana the nature of
be ground; IL very rocky, the oy-
tiers are not easily detached and
licked up. Eighty oysters are some
ines collected at one dive, but 40 to
is very good. A days fishing va
les considerably. The record take In
ne day is 3,905, $50, which was the
esult on the eighteenth day Of the
sherry Of 1904.