formerly collected only at low tide and in shallow water, but the fishermen now employ natives and Malays as divers, who bring up the mother-of-pearl from depths which have been hitherto considered inaccessible.
It has been said that the natives thus engaged are much to be pitied for the treatment which they receive from the pearl fishers, and common sense would show that, amongst the rough class of men of whom many of the boats' crews are composed, the dark-skinned races are certain to be at great disadvantage, especially in a spot so far to the north, and consequently so remote from head-quarters. The season of pearl fishing begins in November and continues until April.
Tortoiseshell may also be procured in large quantities upon the north-west coast, as the hawk's-bill turtle abounds both there and upon the shores of the adjacent islands, but until lately it seems that people have not taken much trouble to collect it, owing to their ignorance of the value of such tortoiseshell in England. Since the announcement, however, issued by the Government that the best shells are worth from sixteen to eighteen shillings a pound, the poor turtles will have had no lack of enemies. To these now well-known "treasures of the deep" I suspect that sponges might be added, for every heavy storm covers the Fremantle shore with so many different species of these zoophytes that it might reasonably be supposed that the sponges of commerce could also be obtained if search was made for them by dredging in a proper manner.
Having now sketched some few and imperfect scenes of West Australian life, and given some outline of the
