Giant Mollusc that Traps Men.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 November 1914, Page 8

Giant Mollusc that Traps Men.

PEARL DIVERS SETZBD AJfD HELD AT BOTTOM OF SEA. Pearling and romance are synonymous in the youthful mmd —facts in the industry in Australia bring this fame romance closely home to the grown-up reader, Started in Torres Straits fifty years ago by a band of intrepid white men, it has been car-. ried on ever since with varying good fortune. Sharks, which are supposed to be a great terror, give the average diver •' little concern ; he is more afraid of the sea-eel of North* Queensland. A diver is perfectly safe on the seabottom, because man-eating- sharks are not ground-feeders ; if they see him they wait till he rises ior a br.ath of air, and then they try to / intercept him, but the diver and his 's*-> s^ long knife nearly alw<ays win. ■ | The diver's worst enemy in the^ deep is the giant mollusc. This creature, from five to seven feet** across the shell, lies with extended jaws waiting for prey. The driver drops out of his boat with a heavystone attached to his feet, and if a leg touches the bivalve its jaws close on it with a snap. Once held thus, the man must amputate the limb or perish, as h* is held with a tenacity that it would take several horse-power to loosen, and the mollusc is anchored to the bottom with a cable of its own stronger than a three-inch rope, WORSE THAN THE SHARKS. Worse than sharks or the giant bivalves, from a physical point of view, is the water pressure at more than twenty fathoms. The diver who goes deeper is in peril. TSven at a less depth he is in imminent danger of contracting what he calls "rheumatics," but is in reality incipient locomotor ataxy. Diving, says Mr. J. O. B.vrne, ir " Ohambers'.s Journal," makes peculiar demands on the mental1, and physical systems of the men engaged. Some declare that during a part oi/ his time below the diver's mental condition borders on insanity. A grudge against, or a suspicion of those above becomes suddenly magnified in the diver's imagination, and he signals to be pulled up, resolved to have revenge there and then. However, when lie reaches the deck the imaginary wrongs vanish or shrink into common, everyday disagreements. On the other hand, men prone to violence have become peace-loving and docile by a course of diving. When a diver comes up after even a twelve fathoms immersion every cret.se of his under-garments is /ound to be reproduced on his skin, owing to the pressure of the water. -'j While-below, the body is reduced ir bulk by the weight of the water ; but as the lungs and heart are not so well protected as the brain and spinal cord, the result is undue expansion of their capillary vessels. MYSTERY OF LOST PEARL. Of late a large number of fine pearls have been found at the northeast and north-western fisheries. Some recent finds have sold from £200 to £700, but the lucky diver is not always fortunate in the price he gets or in the use to which he ' devotes the proceeds'. A West Australian pearl marketed for £10,000 brought the fisherman only £10 ; another, about the size of a pigeon's egg, and, on first examination reported to be a wonder of the pearl world, was lost, and the lisher and his friends are unable to say what has become of it. At one time—before the divingdress became general, and supervision the thorough business it U now—divers were suspected of much in.ui'nious dishonesty, a suspicioc often well-founded. The idea that the Rotumah "boys" and Japanese—both among the best ' s diver-fe-can tell a pearl-bearing- oyster by touching the shell is still widely prevalent. Divers on bad terms with their employers or who are about to hire a boat of their own may come upon a nest of oysters, and on returning to the boat declare that there .is nothing below.. But even that trick is becoming less effective day by day. The glass. bottomed boat is coming into \>"-3 in pearling waters, anil the mastyj^^of such a boat is able, if thlsW water be fairly clear, to inspect the sea-bottom while the diver is at work. In Australia an ounce of good white pearls will fetch up to £100, > but sometimes realises only a fifth of that amount. The yellow pearls may be, rated on an average at about half the value of the white ones. Seed-pearls used for cheap jewellery can be had for one pound per ounce, and discoloured pearls for 7s. Od.; but if the discolouration is peculiar, the value is sometimes enhanced. When the discolouration consists of a bar or a tip the price may run very high. For the loweet class of seed-pearls there is a constant demand among Oriental physicians and apothecaries, who grind them into a, powder and administer it to patients as curative of many ills.