The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1923-11-21

| as If by magic. On another bank,
known as the Periya paar, scientific
experts in the year 1902 estimated the
number of young oysters at one hun
dred thousand million, but so insecure
was their existence that on inspection
a few months later it was found that
| all had been swept away.
Under Government Control.
The fisheries have been under gov
eminent control and the taking of the
oysters is permitted only after an in
spection discloses that they are pres
ent in sufficient numbers. News that
fishery is to be held travels as by
wireless telegraphy throughout Ceylon,
India, and other parts of the East, and
at the prescribed time 10000 to 10000
people gather in a few days on strip
of desert sand, with the Gulf of Manaar
on one side and the jungle on the other,
at point convenient TO the pearl-oys-
ter grounds. town overing square
mile springs up like boom town in
the West, with regular streets, private
houses, shops, markets, banks. a Gene
terry, and government buildings, such
as a court house, post and telegraph
offices, prison, and hospital. In the out
skirts of the town large water tanks
are constructed to supply water for
washing clothes and for bathing; there
are also wells or cisterns throughout
the town. AS there is no harbor, the
fishing boats draw up in long line on
the beach.
A more heterogeneous aggregation of
humanity could hardly be found else
where. Besides the officials, with
their assistants and servants and the
force of 200 native police, there are
the multitudes of fishermen, merchants,
mechanics, pawnbrokers. money-lend-
ers, priests, coolies, and pearl buyers |
and spectators, of every conceivable |
color, speaking a score of tongues, and |
representing half dozen religions. To
amuse, divert, and prey on those who |
have legitimate business in the pearl |
town, there are fakirs, jugglers, dane /
ers, beggars, gamblers, and loose char
acters of both sexes.
As soon as the fishery is oNsr, the
entire place seems TO dissolve in day
as if by magic, the people hurry to
their homes, the pearl town lsrses
again into a solitary sandy waste, and
the beasts of the jungle take posses-
sion. Marichchukaddi may spring In
to being the next season, but may re-
main non-existent for many years.
How the Divers Work.
The fishing boats start for the
grounds soon after midnight, so as to
be ready for work as soon as daylight
comes. They take positions about the
vessel moored over the
particular ground selected, anchor,
and remain actively engaged until
loon, when the entire fleet sets sail
md starts for the shore.
Except for loin cloth, the divers
ire naked. Their fingers are covered
" flexible leather shields to protect
hem from the rough corals and shells.
n order to facilitate the descent, each
liver employs fiat, oval stone, weigh
ng 80 to 80 pounds. The stone Is
perforated at one end to receive a rope,
md close to the stone a kind of
nodate the divers foot. The stone is
at depth of four or five
eet below the surface by means of a
ord attached to an outrigger.
When ready to descend, the diver
laces one foot on the stone the other l
n the rim of a rope basket attached to
rope, initiates his lungs, loosens the
Iip-knot holding the stone, and sinks
apidly to the bottom. ;
The Arab divers wear nose clasps of
exible horn attached to cord around
leir necks, while the divers of other
ices simply compress their nostrlls
y hand during the descent.
Under the arrangement that pre- v
allied at the last great fishery, the e
vers were allowed to retain one-third {
their catch, to dispose of rs they s
eased. The government retained the a
'mainder and sold it at auction. n