CHAPTER VI.
Davy Jones’s Locker and its Treasures.
Clarence’s Dream—Davy Jones’s Locker—Origin of the Term—Treasures of the Ocean—Pearl Fishing—Mother o’ Pearl—Formation of Pearls—Art and Nature Combined—The Fisheries—The Divers and their modus operandi—Dangers of the Trade—Gambling with Oysters—Noted Pearls—Cleopatra’s Costly Draught—Scottish Pearls very Valuable—Coral—Its Place in Nature—The Fisheries—Hard Work and Poor Pay—The Apparatus Used—Coral Atolls—Darwin’s Investigations—Theories and Facts—Characteristics of the Reefs—Beauty of the Submarine Forests—Victorious Polyps—The Sponge a Marine Animal—The Fisheries—Harpooning and Diving—Value of Sponges.
“I saw a thousand fearful wracks:
A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon:
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea.
Some lay in dead men’s skulls; and in those holes