The ocean / By P.H. Gosse.

  • Philip Henry Gosse
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean / By P.H. Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    those selected as fit for fishing, are advertised accordingly, the fishery for the ensuing season being offered for sale. In January, the boats begin to assemble, and the adventurers from all parts of India congregate on a narrow spot of barren sand, which is deserted for the greatest portion of the year, but now presents the life and gaiety of a fair. , “ There is, perhaps, no spectacle,” says Captain Percival, “ which the Island of Ceylon affords more striking to an European than the bay of Condatchy during the season of the pearl-fishery. This desert and barren spot is at that time converted into a scene which exceeds in novelty and variety almost anything I ever witnessed; several thousands of people of different colours, countries, castes, and occupations, continually passing and repassing in a busy crowd ; the vast numbers of small tents and huts erected on the shore, with the bazaar or mar- ket-place before each ; the multitude of boats re- turning in the afternoon from the pearl-banks, some of them laden with riches; the anxious expecting countenances of the boat-owners, while the boats are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and avidity with which they run to them when arrived, in hopes of a rich cargo ; the vast numbers of jewel- lers, brokers, merchants, of all colours and all de- scriptions, both natives and foreigners, who are occupied in some way or other with the pearls, some separating and assorting them, others weighing and ascertaining their number and value, while others are hawking them about, or drilling and boring them for future use ;—all these circumstances tend to im-