"I don't think the shark could have been very hungry."

"Probably not; at all events I should not have liked to have been in
Neptune's place. I think the most peculiar plan of escaping from sharks
is that pursued by the Cingalese divers, and often with success."

"Tell me, if you please."

"The divers who go down for the pearl oysters off Ceylon generally drop
from a boat, and descend in ten or twelve fathoms of water before they
come to the bed of pearl oysters, which is upon a bank of mud: it often
happens that when they are down, the sharks make for them, and I hardly
need say that these poor fellows are constantly on the watch, looking in
every direction while they are filling their baskets. If they perceive a
shark making for them, their only chance is to stir up the mud on the
bank as fast as they can, which prevents the animal from distinguishing
them, and under the cover of the clouded water they regain the surface;
nevertheless, it does not always answer, and many are taken off every
year."

"A lady, proud of her pearl necklace, little thinks how many poor
fellows may have been torn to pieces to obtain for her such an
ornament."

"Very true; and when we consider how many pearl-fisheries may have taken
place, and how many divers may have been destroyed, before a string of
fine pearls can be obtained, we might almost say that every pearl on the
necklace has cost the life of a human creature."

"How are the pearls disposed of, and who are the proprietors?"