THE SEARCH FOR MY LADY’S PEARLS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 136, 5 March 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE SEARCH FOR MY LADY’S PEARLS

Hazardous Work Of Divers

Pearls are found throughout the wide encircling band of the world’s tropics, but the main centres are in the waters of Ceylon, the Persian Gulf, north and North-West Australia, and the Philippines, says a writer in “Chambers’ Journal.” In Ceylon the operations are chiefly carried on in the Gulf of Manaar, which separates the island from the southern point of India and the Asian continent, and here the industry is more interesting than anywhere else, since it is conducted more in the public eye and the results are more immediate.

The pearling fleet of over a hundred vessels leaves the coast in the small hours of the morning, to get on the ground and commence operations with the first rays of the rising sun. Work ceases at noon, and the fleet returns to harbour round about three o’clock. The shells, unopened, are placed in Government store.

Two-thirds of the catch goes to the owners and divers, while the Government retains the remainder. The natives’ share is soon disposed of. the gamble attracting ready buyers. The Government’s portion is sold by auction, in bags of a thousand shells, at nine each evening, and sells as rapidly as the preceding lots. The fish are then allowed to rot in their shells before any search is made for pearls, and the concomitant effluvia of this evolution, spreading over the countryside, may more easily lie imagined than described. The pearls are usually small, seed-pearls only, though many are of decent size, while some are pearls of price indeed. In a recent year a hundred and thirty-seven pearls, each having a value of over £lOOO on the spot, were obtained from this fleet of a hundred vessels. These boats have crews of up to thirty-five in number —divers and their attendants. It is all “skin-div-ing” here; uo dresses are used. The divers are Arabs or Tamils, natives of Southern India, the former being by far the better divers. The Arab wears a nose-clip, an'd stays under water longer than the unassisted Tamil. Botli use the familiar flattened circular stone, on which they stand to ensure rapid descent. They go down to, and work at, any deptli up to 72 feet. They remain below from two to three minutes as a minimum. The record is six and a quarter minutes.

Divers make from fifty to sixty de-

scents in the day. It is strenuous work, and, by the end of the season, which may last three months, they need a long time for recovery.

The greatest pearl the world has ever seen came from the Ceylon fishery. It was of no vast size, but its shape and lustre were perfect It weighed twenty-eight carats, at a value of £lOOO per carat. The shell here is of uo value; it is paper-thin—more like mussel than oyster—but at other centres the value of the mother-of-pearl greatly exceeds the value of the pearls won.

The oyster produces best in its fifth or sixth year, after which, it is believed, the pearls get chalky, i.e.. lose their lustre. The weight of a pearl, expressed in carats, may run into ounces, but almost invariably the larger specimens are irregular in form and lacking in “orient.” . The perfect pearl is truly spherical in form and of super-fine lustre; nothing else counts. The largest known pearl of good lustre is one of 251 carats, obtained from the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. tin occasion a pearl may be found having perfect form, but poor lustre, in which condition it lias’ practically no value. But tile end may not be yet. In the bands of an expert cleaner the pearl may lie cleaned and peeled very much like an onion, though the practice is not so simple as the theory. Most pearls require attention before being placed on the market Diving, at its best, is a dangerous pursuit. Sometimes the diver is hauled to tlie surface apparently dead. Then the lugger returns to port at once Ar Broome, Australia, there is a "compression chamber." built of thick plateglass. strong as steel, and in this tlie apparently dead man is placed The chamber is sealed, and air-pressure is applied until the pressure inside ap proximities that to which the diver hud been subjected .mi bis last descent. If signs of life are observed the pressure is slowly, very slowly, relaxed to normal, and the diver brought back to life. Many lives have been saved In this way. Oysters breed twice a war, at the change of the monsoons The eggs float for a while on tlie surface as selfpropelling larvae, hut as tlie shells begin to form they sink, to attach themselves to the living coral While growing, the oyster is able lo change its sex at will, but when mature, nt alour three years, its sex is fixed