Submarine Appliances And Their Uses
Deep Sea Diving, &c., &c.

NATURAL (NAKED) DIVING. 1 he most important Pearl Fisheries employing" the naked diver to-day are in Ceylon and the Persian Gulf, where many thousand persons are dependent upon the industry lor their livelihood. These men frequently remain below the surface for two minutes at a stretch. In the case of the Ceylon fisheries, the oysters brought up are divided into three equal heaps, one of which goes to the Government, one to the divers, and one to the company owning the boats, etc. SCOTTISH PEARL FISHERIES. It may not be generally known that pearl fishing was carried on over a century ago off the coast of Scotland, considerably over a hundred thousand pounds’ worth of pearls being sent to France between the years 1760 and i<8oo alone. A revival of the in- dustry has been talked about in quite recent years. We believe the business is still carried on in a perfunctory sort of way by local fishermen. SPONGE DIVING. Huxley says that the sponge is “a kind of sub-aqueous city, wherein the people arc arranged about the streets and roads in such a manner that each can easily appro- priate his food from the water as it passes along. ” It is a skeleton or flexible frame inhabited by animals of almost the lowest form of zoological life (protozoa)—a jelly-like, glutinous mass which separates from the skeleton when squeezed. I he chief Sponge Fisheries are in the Mediterranean where the divers, mostly of Greek nationality, all use diving apparatus. There are other fisheries in the Gulf of Florida, in Cuba, the West India Islands, and on the North African Coast. Some of these employ a certain number of naked divers, but in most cases diving apparatus is used. As in the ease of the Australian Mothcr-o’-Pearl Shell, the best specimens of sponge are to be found in deep water, the shallow water fisheries having become prac- tically exhausted through over-fishing. Besides helmet and natural diving, there are two other methods of sponge fishing, viz., by dredging- and harpooning. I he former is usually adopted where the water is too deep lor divers. I he harpoon is merely an iron fork fixed to a long handle. When a patch is sighted, the harpooners dexterously cut and stab till the sponge is released from the rocks to which it has grown. 155