Helmets
have been used to a certain extent in all parts of the world. Many of
them were clumsy affairs, abhorred by all native divers, and were a bad
introduction to the "dress" used in the large operations of big
fisheries such as those of Australia and the Pacific coast of this
continent. In the seas about Australia, modern appliances are being
rapidly introduced. The Australians use them if possible, wherever they
fish. On their own coast all diving is now done in dress; but among
some of the islands of the Pacific, where they are extending their
interests, native prejudice is still able to hinder the use of it.
Probably
the chief reason for the general use of the dress on the Australian
coast so early was that the shallows were soon exhausted, and naked
diving was not successful beyond a depth of fifty feet. With the dress,
a diver can work at much greater depths, remain under water an hour or
two, and work all the year round.
In
fisheries like those of Ceylon, where the banks are seldom over forty
feet deep and well known, being fished over and over again at one
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