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THE PEARL
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Wonderful
stories are told of the great depths to which these naked divers go and
the great length of time they can remain under water. Many of these
tales are gross exaggerations,— yarns which have grown more wonderful
with the telling, or the reports of careless or inexperienced
observers. As a matter of fact at most of the fisheries, twenty to
thirty feet is good diving, and from forty to fifty feet is the
maximum depth. Sixty to eighty seconds is the average limit of time
they remain under water. If one will try to hold the breath for sixty
seconds, even while remaining perfectly still, it will be at once
understood that to do so while moving and working rapidly under water
is a great feat. Nevertheless there have been instances undoubtedly,
where naked divers have gone to much greater depths and remained under
for several minutes. Such cases are rare however and occur most
frequently among the natives of the South Sea Islands, who, male and
female, are expert divers from childhood and spend much of their lives
in the water.
Visitors have claimed that natives of the Tongarewa Islands, in longitude one hundred
186
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