The divers on the banks at Tuticorin and Trichendoor, which are distant some seven miles from land, cross themselves before going into the water. Their average stay under is about forty seconds. The banks are at a depth of from five to eight fathoms, and for centuries have been fished by members of a caste known as the Parawas.
At the West Australian fisheries the divers enter the water feet first, but quickly turn and swim down. Their power of endurance is said to be very great, and their sight wonderful. They fetch up the oysters in their hands, and, as may be easily imagined, often dive without success. The bringing up of twenty-five shells would be looked upon as a good day's work. As a rule the term of service is for six months.
Some interesting and authentic particulars of the Indian fisheries are given in a work entitled All about Gold, Gems, and Pearls,' compiled from a variety of available authorities, by A. M. and J. Ferguson, and published at Colombo in 1888. The following is from a special report made by one of the Wr. A. M: Ferguson, C.M.G., to the Ceylon Observer' in April 1887 : We started in the Serendib' from Colombo about five on Friday afternoon, and while we were waiting, some children on board had an opportunity of seeing the diving performances of four demon-like very black boys who came to the steamer's side on a catamaran. Two of the boys were so long under water before one of them triumphantly brought up a 12i cent. piece, that I should like to know the depth they go down to, and what the difference of temperature between the surface and lower waters may be. The pearl-divers find it to be so cold at six to eight fathoms (36 to 48 feet), the depth at which the oysters are generally found to exist, that they (the divers) are glad to warm themselves in the sun for a while after coming up from the per formance of the task. In my telegrams I have mentioned the cases of two divers whom Mr. Twynam saw die from remaining too long under water, and I have suggested as the cause the non-aera tion of the blood, or what has lately been noticed as a cause of drowning, the sudden collapse or paralysis of certain muscles and nerves. The so-called Arab diver,' who was timed by us to dd eighty-three seconds, differed from others in putting a compressor on his nose, and he was noticed to open his mouth widely, and inhale air in large volumes before going down with his stone and basket. He brought up, or rather he collected in the rimmed net bag which he had round his neck until he filled it, and which, like the stone, was hauled up separately, forty-two oysters, which was considered a very good haul.
All the divers, when they come up, seem glad to inhale a good gulp of air ; but they do not, or only very and temporarily, show signs of distress. Of the two fatal cases noticed by Mr. Twynam,
one was a novice, who no doubt miscalculated what he could bear, from want of experience. The other was a practised diver, but he may have had organic disease. Captain Donnan, s.s. 'Active,' Inspector of Pearl Banks, states that he has never known the divers take anything to help them except snuff! Mr. Twynam once induced a diver to go to the bottom in fifteen fathoms (go feet, twice the average depth on the pearl bank), but he was so alarmed at the prolonged period from the man's diving to his reappearance, that he has not repeated, and never will repeat, the experiment.
On the diver touching ground with the stone, he at once detaches himself from it, which the force of hauling 'coolies on each fishing boat proceed to pull up. Others haul up the basket when the diver casts it off, and gives the signal of a jerk to the rope. The diver himself has only to give play to his buoyancy to rise, but he is careful to avoid contact with the boat, and will often dash off horizontally outwards in coming to the surface, which he does almost simul taneously with the bag of oysters he has gathered. While he holds on to the side of the boat, the contents are emptied into a large ola basket.
I had the Arab diver with the nose-nipper alongside this morning, and told him to let me see how long he could remain under water, and I carefully timed him ; one minute and forty-nine seconds, which is the longest dive on record on these banks or beds. The other Arab, with air-pump and dress, only worked one day with it, when he only sent up 1,50o oysters, and now, with out the dress, he is sending up from 2,50o to 3,000 oysters per day ; so that the helmet dress and air-pump are not calculated to succeed at pearl-diving. It will be observed that the so-called 'Arab' diver, really a Hindu from the Bombay Presidency, remained under water for a period extending to ro9 seconds, or within eleven seconds of two minutes. What that means, only those know who have watched for the re-appearance of a hunian being who has remained half that time under water. It really seems 'an age' to those who 'watch and wait.' Not only is one and a half minute the longest dive on record in the annals of the Ceylon banks, but I suspect that if sceptical criticism were brought to bear on the stories which allege subaqueous existence by divers for periods of six minutes, the latest feat would be found to take rank amongst the most remarkable in the annals of diving, where the diver has not been artificially supported with air.