Note 126 — VI THE PEARL FISHERIES OF THE PERSIAN GULF
Reading edition
“Hakluyt’s Voyages,” Vol. V, Glasgow, 1904, pp. 395–397. Benjamin Franklin states that the Mediterranean divers, finding the light below obscured by the surface waves, used to let a little oil out of their mouths at intervals, which, rising to the surface, smoothed the waters. This might be a suggestion to modern marine and fresh-water pearl fishers.