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182 which crunch the shells with their powerful jaws, devouring oysters and pearls, and leaving nothing but broken shells to mark where the bed has been. Sometimes the pearl-fishers find their disagreeable rivals at work on the oyster-bed when they arrive, in which case they have to dispute the possession of the oysters with these ugly fishes. The pointed weapons of the fishers are used with effect upon the skates, who, however, often show fight, and have a vicious way of lashing about their long spiky tails, a blow from which is by no means pleasant.

In these and all other operations in the ocean, each person was provided with a bottle of compressed air for respiration. It sometimes happened when the excursion lasted long, that the compressed air was exhausted before we could get back to the lagoon. In that case we had to ascend to the surface of the water to breathe, dive below again to swim, and again rise to breathe.