WOMEN OYSTER DIVERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue XXII, 25 November 1899, Page 972

WOMEN OYSTER DIVERS.

Describing a visit to the Corean island of Quelpart, a correspondent says the diving for the pearl oysters found off that island is entirely done bv women. Dressed in a kind of bathing suit, with a sickle in one hand and a gourd with a bag tied to it in front of them, they swim out from the shore as far as half-a-mile—boats cannot be afforded—and there dive, probably a depth of forty or fifty feet, to the bottom, cut the weeds with the sickle, or if they find a pearl oyster, tear ia off from the stone, and then put it in-to the bag, which is kept floating by the gourd. They do not go back before the bag is filled, which often takes more than half-an-hour. Although they are magnificent swimmers, one cannot help admiring their endurance when one. thinks that this work is begun as early as February. The pearl oyster is both used on the island and exported. It is very large, some measuring ten inches in diameter, and very fleshy. Unlike other oysters, it has only one shell, which is often used by the Coreans as ar. ash-tray, anil from which mother-of-pearl is obtained. Covered with this shell ns with a roof, the oyster lives fastened to a rock. Its meat is considered a luxurious dish, and one oyster costs as much as six cents on the island. Pearls are but seldom found in the oyster. For export trie oysters are torn out ol the shell and strung on thin sticks. Although wi, ’.<• when fresh, the colour changes to ,a dark, red, like that ul a dried apricot.