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Ch. 8: Northwest Australian Fisheries

Ch. 8: Northwest Australian Fisheries Page of 341 Ch. 8: Northwest Australian Fisheries Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
North-west Australian Fishery.             153
day under a tropical sun, wet with salt water and occasional rain, is no light one. When the weather is exceptionally bad and the barometer lower than usual, the anchors are hove up and the fleet scatters for shelter within the numerous mangrove creeks on the coast. There the vessels lie, two or three in company for weeks together, dry at low water, and swarming with flies and mosquitoes ; the white men meantime, having nothing to do until the weather moderates, but to gamble and compare Pearls. It is particularly noticeable, how even the yield of shell continues on this coast ; the only bad bottom is mud or sand. The state of the tides and weather, and consequent thickness or clearness of the water, affects the yield as much as the locality.
In the evening the men who have worked badly, have to scrape the dirt, coral cups, and other submarine growth off the shells and wash them, stacking them in heaps on the deck. In the morning the white men open them with a knife, holding the shell with the hinge on the deck and taking care not to scratch any Pearl that may be within. Immediately the muscle of the oyster is severed, the shells spontaneously spring open, and the oyster is cut away from the shell as cleanly as possible. Any good Pearl is usually seen at once, but a smart little boy generally sits alongside each opener
Ch. 8: Northwest Australian Fisheries Page of 341 Ch. 8: Northwest Australian Fisheries
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