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In equal depths the Arab fishermen remain under water longer than those of India who resort to the Ceylon fishery, but this is partly counterbalanced by the latter descending somewhat more frequently. When preparing for a lengthy dive, the fisherman imbibes large quantities of air, opening his mouth and inhaling large volumes.

The length of time a diver remains submerged in the average depth of seven or eight fathoms rarely exceeds sixty seconds, although some may remain seventy, eighty, and even ninety seconds on special occasion. A fully substantiated instance is reported from Manaar of an Arab diver having remained 109 seconds in seven fathoms of water. This occurred April 13, 1887, and was witnessed and reported^[105] by Captain James Donnan, the inspector of the fishery. Wellsted reports^[106] a diving contest in the Persian Gulf in which only one man, of the hundreds who competed, remained down 110 seconds; the depth, however, is not noted.

There are numerous reports of much longer stays than these; indeed, a study of the published evidence bearing upon the subject furnishes surprising results. Ribeiro wrote, in 1685, that a diver could remain below while two credos were repeated: “Il s’y tient l’espace de deux credo.”^[107] In his interesting account of the Ceylon fishery, Percival stated that the usual length of time for divers to remain under water “does not much exceed two minutes, yet there are instances known of divers who could remain four or even five minutes, which was the case with a Caffre boy the last year I visited the fishery. The longest instance ever known was of a diver who came from Anjango in 1797, and who absolutely remained under water full six minutes.”^[108] Le Beck says, that in 1797, he saw a diver from Karikal remain down for the space of seven minutes.^[109] The merchant traveler, Jean Chardin, reported in 1711 that the divers remain up to seven and a half minutes under water: “Les plongeurs qui pêchent les perles sont quelquefois jusqu’à demi-quart-d’heure sous l’eau.”^[110]