Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1916 — Pearl Fishers. [ARTICLE]

Pearl Fishers.

It is a well-known fact that pearl fishers and divers do not live long. They often have to dive for 100 feet or more without any special outfit, and the strain wears them out before their lives are really half over. From a depth of 100 feet a pearl diver usually brings up two oyster shells at a time. It is exciting work. The diver never Irnow’s whether he has brought to the surface a shell inclosing a priceless gem or not. The Malay pearl divers are, perhaps, the finest in the world. When he is going to dive, the Malay slowly lowers himself (town from the side of the boat to the water and takes several breaths, each breath getting deeper deeper. Finally, he takes a tremendously long breath, turns head downward, and plunges into the ocean depths. In two, three or perhaps four, minutes his fornf is seen in the water coming up. His face is turned upward. His strong hands beat the water away from under him in vigorous downward sweeps. His face looks terribly strained. At last, breathless, exhausted, he reaches the surface and is hauled into the boat, where he quite still for a few moments, apparently exhausted. But in comparatively few minutes he is ready to plunge again.