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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    ready to take tkeir turn again, frequently making forty or fifty plunges a day, and bringing up at each turn about a hundred oysters. The greatest danger to these adventurous men arises from the sharks, to whose rapacity allusion has before been made. But against them the poor people believe that they possess an inviolable de- fence in the charms sold to them by pretended con- jurors, whose impudence and address secure their hold on their deluded votaries, even in spite of the frequent evidence of their fallibility. It is probable, the constant bustle and noise, and the frequent splashings of the divers, deter the sharks in a great measure from approaching the scene, “ As soon as the oysters are landed, they are placed in pits on the shore, and left to undergo decomposition ; in which state they diffuse an intol- erable odour, but to which habit speedily recon- ciles the people. When the flesh is decayed under that burning sun, the shells are opened with ease, and minutely examined for pearls : some, however, elude the utmost vigilance, to obtain which, numbers of people continue to search the sands for months after the merchants have departed, and they are now and then rewarded by a pearl of value. In 1797, a common fellow, of the lowest class, thus got by accident the most valuable pearl seen that season, and sold it for a large sum.” In the Straits of Sunda and the adjacent seas, there are found several floating sea-weeds, which have a general resemblance to the Gulf-weed of the Atlantic, but possess a much more striking similarity
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