THE TORRES STRAITS PEARL FISHERIES.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 458, 2 December 1875, Page 3

THE TORRES STRAITS PEARL FISHERIES.

The O-eclong Advertiser of November 15th publishes an interesting letter, dated October 15th, received from Mr J. Small, a diver who recently arrived from England, and is now engaged on board the cutter Peveril. at the Torres Straits Pearl Fisheries. He writes; “ With respect to the pearl fisheries, there are in these Straits about 50 boats employed, averaging about three tons each. Thirty of these carry a diver and apparatus, some two, and they belong to various firms in Sydney and Melbourne. Most of the boats have a crew of five men besides the diver, the crews being chiefly South Sea Islanders, and fine fellows they are in boats, I can assure you, the craft being kept as clean as a new pin, indeed a stranger would take them for gentlemen’s yachts. There are hundreds of square miles of fishing grounds, and although but few shells are being gut up at present, there is undoubtedly a rich field for enterprise. The vessels forming ‘ the station ’ for the boats are moored here and there under the lee of this or that island, and the boats are generally absent a fortnight at a time. When, however, we leuvi; our ship, we never know where the. search for pearls will take us before we return, a roving commission being granted us, as it is all fre< selection, there are no vested rights, nor is the residence clause insisted upon. We let £0 our anchor in the most likely place, and down goes the diver. The depth of water here is from five to ten fathoms, and the scenery at the bottom is splendid, the surface is tolerably regular, s.udded here and there with coral monuments of various hues, intermixed with the fan tree and other vege tation, the colours of which arc beautifully displayed in the great deep. Sometimes, however, I have had to cross blocks of granite strewn about imb.-criminately, or piled up like so many cairns. Then, again, I have fallen in with caves and caverns which would have delighted the heart of a hermit, and in these I have seen some strange looking denizens in the shape of shellfish. Here, as contrasted with the waters inspected on our voyage, we always have plenty of company under the water, in the shape of fish, some of which are very pretly, while other ugly brutes remind you of the fictions of ' Verne’ and ‘ Victor Hugo.’ I was enjoying a long walk through one of the channels a few weeks ago, when I was very much astonished to see a large alligator in front of me He must have been over fifteen feet long. Now it is unpleasant enough to drop in with such sort of company on shore; you may guess how I felt when meeting the scaly monster in his own particular realm. He, however, did not condescend to notice me; no courtesies were interchanged between u», and I—well, I did not resent his want of common politeness more than by ‘shaking the dust,’or rather the water, off my feet as quickly ns possible, and retiring to the upper regions. Shortly after this rencontre, I dropped in with another ugly customer —not a veritable sea serpent, but something very like one. I was walking along over a smooth bottom, when I saw what appeared to bo a very large dead snake. I spurned the reptile with my foot when—whew I—he came at me with a rush. Fortunately, my glasses were strong, as it was at these he darted. 1 drew my knife at him, but he got clear. I have often seen these sort of things before, but never had one tackle me. Another diver walked slap up to a large shark the other day as it was enjoying a dolce far niente opposite one of the before-mentioned caves; if he did not skedaddle up to the surface again it was a caution to snakes. Such are a few of the sensations we divers have to enjoy. But alligators, snakes, and sharks have made me forget all about the twenty boats—thirty out of the fifty I have already accounted for. The twenty carry crews of about fourteen men each, chiefly natives of the islands in these Straits, and go where there is shallow water, say about three or four fathoms. A desirable spot reached, twelve of the crew dart like arrows down through the water, cleaving it with great rapidity, and it is highly amusing to see scores of heads bobbing up and down. These obtain large quantities of hacked shells, they work, say an hour, then sit smoking thoir pipes on deck as contentedly as possible. They arc splendid divers, and can remain under water a long time.”