The pearl fisheries of the Red Sea are at Lohia. At the lower end of the Red Sea, at Massawa on the African side, and at Lohia on the Arabian side, are a number of small barren islands; the banks lie in shallow water between them. The industry is financed by merchants, principally natives of Bombay, India, who in partnership with the Bedouin boat-owners, control the fishing. The Bedouin captain takes with him a few Arabs to man the boat and a number of black slaves as divers. The shells have a market value for mother-of-pearl but the quality is inferior. They have a greenish-gray edge and are fairly heavy and formerly they were much in demand.

Of late years the fresh-water unio shells have replaced them to a certain extent for cheap material but the shells are yet about ninety per cent. of the value of the fishings. Returns show exports of pearls averaging one hundred thousand dollars per annum but as a large number go direct to Bombay and are not reported, this does not fairly represent the extent of the industry.

The beds vary in depth, thirty to forty feet being the maximum depth fished. Naked native diving is the rule, but the Italian government has lately farmed out concessions at Dahlak and Farsan where they are experimenting with helmets. The fishing season is from the beginning of March to the end of May.

The arm of the Arabian sea lying between Arabia and Persia known as the Persian Gulf, has always been rich in pearl oysters and is a prolific source of supply to-day. These banks are fished chiefly for the pearls. The shell, though larger than the Ceylon, is of the "Lingah" class as it is called, and is of little value for mother-of-pearl.

Though pearl oysters are found all along the coast of Arabia, the most productive shoals are between the Islands of Halool and Katar. These shoals commence at the Island of Bahrein immediately off the Arab coast near the centre of the gulf and continue east and south along the district of Katar for nearly two hundred miles after which the banks are lost in deep water. The chief centre of the pearl trade is Lingah, hence the name given to the shells of this district. Most of the pearls go to Bombay and are known as Bombay pearls, many of them having a distinctly yellow tint. The whitest and finest go to Bagdad and eventually the best go to Europe. India takes the irregular ones and China gets the seed-pearls.

The principal banks are at Bahrein. This island is the most important one of a group situated in an indentation of the Arabian coast and is about seventy miles long and twenty-five broad.

Small boats carrying from five to fifteen men fish the shallows near the coast, but larger boats, manned by from twenty to fifty men, put out for the banks further from shore into deep water. These remain out during the entire season coming into port once or twice only for supplies. The owners of the boats are generally poor. They depend upon the dealers for advances at the beginning of the season for supplies, and many of them are therefore practically in a state of bondage.

When the deep-water boats reach the fishing grounds, half the crew is selected for diving. The diver uses a small braided mat basket as a receptacle for the shells and has a long line attached to him by which he can signal to the man in the boat who manages it. There is a man to each diver's line. Except for the short intervals at the surface necessary for air and rest, the divers remain in the water for hours. The oyster-beds vary in depth from six to eighteen feet in the shallows, to forty feet at the banks.

The duration of the fishing season depends on the temperature of the water. It lasts usually through July, August, and September, though some of the larger boats remain out from the end of June until the beginning of October.

The pearls are sold by weight, sales being made sometimes while at sea and a duty equalling about twenty per cent. is levied on the spot. A large number of Hindu traders come during the season to buy, returning to India at the close as they have done for centuries.

No exact statistics of the output of these fisheries are to be had but the yield is said to average well; some authorities placing the value of the fisheries of the entire district in the sixties at nearly two millions of dollars per annum, and the number of boats engaged at 4,000 to 5,000.

As ancient as those of the Arabian sea and even more important are the pearl fisheries of India. These are also fished for the pearls, the shells of these waters being smaller than those of the Persian Gulf and valueless for mother-of-pearl. The pearls however average whiter than those of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Although equally fine pearls are found in other waters the Ceylon, or Madras pearls as they are called, have long been esteemed the best because of their good average color and quality. These banks are situated in the Gulf of Manaar between the southern point of India and the island of Ceylon.

On the Madras (India) side the banks are off Tinnevalli and Madura at Tuticorin. The Indian revenue realized a profit of £13,000 from a fishing here in 1822, and £10,000 from another in 1830. Examinations showed that there were not sufficient oysters for profitable fishing after that until 1860, when the government netted £20,000, and a fishing the following year, 1861, was equally successful. The banks failed in 1862 and there was no fishery until 1874. Pollution of the water from the Indian shores has been detrimental to these banks and they are now of little importance.

On the Ceylon side, the banks lie six to eight miles off the west shore and a little south of the island of Manaar. Fishing has been an industry from early times before history began. There are records of these fisheries under the kings of Kandy and later by the Portuguese after they took possession of Ceylon about 1505, to 1655 when the island passed into the hands of the Dutch. In old times they were called the fisheries of Aripo after a fort on the coast. Not until the English gained control were the fisheries so managed that definite knowledge of the results could be obtained.

After the Dutch gave way to the English, until 1903, these fisheries had yielded a net income to the government of over £1,000,000. This covered a period of over one hundred years, as the British occupied Ceylon in 1796. In the early years of this period and prior to that, the fishings, or rights to fish, were sold to the highest bidders, usually Hindu merchants. In 1796 the fishing brought £60,000. The year after the British took possession, 1797, it realized £110,000 that amount having been paid by Candappa Chetty, a native of Jaffna for the fishery right, and for that of 1798, the same renter paid £140,000.

These fishings, which were prolonged, so exhausted the banks that the fishery of 1799 yielded but £30,000. From 1799 to 1802 the yearly product ranged from £12,000 to £55,000. In 1804 they were leased for £120,000 but from that time on declined so that in 1828 they brought only £30,612. There were no fishings from 1820 to 1827, nor in 1834 and after 1837, until 1855. The supply failed in 1864 and for several succeeding years, and again for a decade, after five successful fishings from 1887 to 1891. The average yearly profit up to 1891 was about £34,000.

The Ceylon and Madras fisheries are now in charge of a government officer, who spends a part of each year inspecting the various banks so as to be informed as to the whereabouts of mature oysters, and the location and progress of the young and immature. They keep a record of their condition at different periods, and regulate the fisheries by permitting fishing only when they consider the banks to be ripe for it.

The oysters mature in from four to six years so that ordinarily a bank may be fished once in that period, but it sometimes happens that the young oysters are swept away by violent storms or crowded out by natural enemies. In 1901 the Ceylon banks were found to be in a bad way, there were plenty of young oysters but none full-grown. The government officers could not account for the condition, and in response to a report of the facts the government sent Prof. W. A. Herdman to Ceylon in 1902. He examined the whole of the bottom of the Gulf of Manaar and discovered banks on which were full-grown oysters, so that a fishing was fixed for the 23rd of February 1903. Weather prevented commencement until the second of March, when fishing began and lasted forty-two working days until April the fourteenth. The fishings take place in March and April because the sea is usually calm at that period.

The banks lie in five to ten fathoms over a shallow area nearly fifty miles long by twenty miles broad, opposite Aripo. A steep declivity on the western edge gives the sea a depth of one hundred fathoms in a few miles. In the centre of the southern part of the Gulf of Manaar, west of the Chilaw pearl-banks, the sea is one to two thousand fathoms deep.

Of all the paars, or oyster-beds (paar means rock or hard bottom) the Periya paar is the largest. It is about eleven nautical miles long and from one to two miles broad. Situated in about five to ten fathoms close to the top of the western slope of the shallows, and running north and south about twenty miles from land, it is exposed to the southwest monsoon which runs up toward the Bay of Bengal for about six months of the year. The natives call this the mother-paar, believing that the young oysters are carried from it to the other paars, which are thus stocked at its expense.

Between 1880 and 1902 twenty-one examinations showed that the Periya paar had been naturally stocked eleven times with enormous quantities of young oysters, which as regularly disappeared before they were old enough to yield a fishing. The most reliable paars are in the Cheval district and it is probable that the government, acting on the suggestion of Prof. Herdman, will hereafter dredge the breeding Periya paar of its young oysters and plant them where they will be able to mature. It is estimated that many millions of millions of oysters have been lost from this paar during the last twenty-five years.

A fishing is not only a matter of commercial importance, but of wide-spread interest among the natives of Ceylon and India. The romance of the situation, the hope of gain, the great gathering of people from many and far-off countries, the opportunities for barter, the possibilities of securing priceless gems for little, and for making money quickly, all appeal to the oriental mind.

For this they will endure the discomforts of long and painful journeys and the dangers of crowded camp life with a recklessness that contrasts curiously with the wild panics into which they are sometimes thrown, as for instance in 1889, when the Ceylon fishing collapsed on account of cholera. In a few hours a fleet of 200 boats disappeared, the camp was burned, and the multitude gone.

Great precautions are taken by the government officials in every direction. When they have decided that there are banks in condition to be fished, notice of a fishing is advertised. The following notification of the fishery for 1904 is an illustration.

"Government Notification.

Pearl fishery of 1904.

Notice is hereby given that a pearl fishery will take place at Marichchikaddi, in the Island of Ceylon, on or about March 14, 1904.

1. The bank to be fished is the southwest Cheval Paar which is estimated to contain 13,000,000 oysters.

2. It is notified that the first day's fishing will take place on the first favorable day after March 13.

3. Marichchikaddi is on the main land, eight miles by sea south of Sillavaturai and supplies of good water and provisions can be obtained there.

4. The fishery will be conducted on account of the Government, and the oysters put up for sale in such lots as may be deemed expedient.

5. The arrangements of the fishery will be the same as have been usual on similar occasions. Persons attending the fishery camp from India will be permitted to travel to Ceylon by either of the following routes: (1) Tuticorin to Colombo or (2) Paumben to Marichchikaddi and by no other. Arrangements will be made as at the last fishery, for travellers to proceed from Paumben direct to the camp. The only restriction imposed on travellers by the Paumben route will be inspection by the medical officers at Paumben.

6. All payments to be made in ready money in Ceylon currency.

7. Drafts on the banks in Colombo or bills on the agents of this Government in India, at ten days sight, will be taken on letters of credit produced to warrant the drawing of such drafts or bills.

8. For the convenience of purchasers, the treasurer at Colombo and the different Government agents of provinces will be authorized to receive cash deposits from parties intending to become purchasers, and receipts of these officers will be taken in payment of any sums due on account of the fishery.

9. No deposit will be received for a less sum than Rs. 250.

By His Excellency's command.

Everard Im Thurm, Colonial Secretary. Colonial Secretary's Office, Colombo, Feb. 27, 1904."

The sanitary precautions are of the utmost importance, for a plague stricken Hindu, if he were dying, would still endeavor to go where he might "get rich quickly."

As the time draws near, thousands of speculators and sightseers from farther and nearer India arrive. Berbers, Arabs, Persians, and Burmese, mingle with the Singhalese and Tamil divers. A town of huts to accommodate perhaps 50,000 springs into existence. Steamer service to Colombo is started, post and telegraph service is established and sanitary measures put in force. Conjurors employed by the divers go through incantations to preserve them from the sharks which abound in these waters.

This shark-charming power is believed to be hereditary and not dependent on the religion of the conjuror and he can, if ill or absent, convey the power to a substitute so that it will be respected by the sharks. To make matters doubly sure the divers arm themselves with a short, pointed piece of ironwood. This however is not their main reliance for a "wise woman" was able to avert a panic which was well under way, after one of the divers was bitten at the Tuticorin fishing of 1890. Excepting the loss of a limb occasionally not much damage is done by the sharks, a fact which sustains the implicit faith of the natives in their shark-charmers.

When the day set by the Government officials arrives, the fleet puts to sea after numerous ceremonies. The boats, which range from ten to fifteen tons, are grouped in fleets of sixty to seventy. Beside the divers they are manned by ten or more sailors, a steersman, and if possible by a shark-charmer (pillal karras). The boats leave at midnight in order to be ready on the banks at sunrise. At the firing of a signal gun diving commences. A stone of granite, shaped like a pyramid and weighing about thirty to forty pounds, is attached through a hole at the smaller end to the cord by which the diver is lowered. Some divers prefer a half-moon stone fastened to the waist. Above the stone when attached to the line is a loop for the diver's foot. The divers work in pairs, one going down and the other remaining in the boat to attend to the line, and in some cases exchanging positions as the diver becomes exhausted. Naked divers stay below fifty to eighty seconds on an average, though some can remain under water longer. Each man makes forty to fifty descents a day and brings up fifteen to thirty oysters each time. As a rule the maximum depth in these waters is about forty-two feet though fishing at twelve and thirteen fathoms is reported. The divers work from sunrise to noon, which allowing for shifts gives each man four hours diving for a day's work. A gun is fired as a signal for the day's fishing to cease and the fleet starts at once for shore. Upon arriving there the oysters are immediately landed by coolies who carry them in baskets, on their backs, to the "Kottu," or government stockade. There they are counted and each boat-load is divided into three equal parts; Two of these are chosen by officials for the government and the remaining heap is the boats' share. Formerly the catch was divided into four parts of which the government took three. Of the boats' share the divers get in some cases two thirds. As soon as the division is made, those belonging to the boat are quickly traded or sold to the numerous small speculators which abound in the camp. Six evenings in the week the government auctions off the catch in lots of one thousand.

While each day's catch is being counted the average run is carefully watched by experts who judge by the size, weight and general appearance of the oysters as to the probable yield of pearls. Opinions so formed are usually quite correct and bidding at the auctions are based on them to a great extent. The principal buyers are from Madras, Bombay, and other cities on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts of India, though local speculators buy many. The catch runs about one million per day. In 1903 forty-four million oysters were taken, but they realized much less than the catch of 1904, when the number was not quite twenty-six and three-quarter millions, though it netted the government $350,000; 1905, however, will be the record year as it is claimed the profits will reach the large sum of $830,000. These figures represent the government's share only.

The price realized at these sales varies not only with the season but from day-to-day. Ten to fourteen dollars per thousand is a fair average, though there are days when as much as twenty-four dollars is realized. Prices have ranged from $7.50 to $40.00 per thousand in one season. The net proceeds go to the revenue of Ceylon.

This has been the system under which the Ceylon fisheries were managed until lately. For some reason unknown to the public, the government, after a season of unequalled profit in 1905, leased the fisheries to a company, the Pearl Fishers of Ceylon (Limited), for a period of twenty years from January 1, 1906. The company is to pay the government $103,333 per annum and is to expend annually upon the improvement of the fishery not less than $16,666, or more than $50,000, at the discretion of the government. The expenses of supervision and protection by the government must also be borne by the company.

As a result of the first fishery (1906), the company after setting aside $49,628 for depreciations and reserve and carrying forward $77,382, show a profit of $256,960 which affords dividends of 36 cents on ordinary shares and 18 cents on deferred shares, a remarkably good beginning. The government revenue from the fishery of 1905 was $801,882 after the expenses, $73,510 were deducted; over $111,000 more than the profit of 1904 which was the most successful up to that time.

The inspector of pearl-banks anticipated a good fishery in 1906 but was of the opinion that after a small fishery in 1907 and probably 1908 the banks would fail for some years as they have done in the past.

After the pearls are taken from the dead oysters they are first sorted for size. This is done by passing them through a series of ten small brass sieves known as baskets, containing from twenty to one thousand holes. The sieves have twenty, thirty, fifty, eighty, one hundred, two hundred, four hundred, six hundred, eight hundred and one thousand holes respectively. The pearls are then sorted for color and quality, weighed and valued. As with all things, really fine pieces are rare, the great mass being ordinary or poor. Herein lies the attraction and excitement of the business for some will find great gems. One may imagine the keen interest of the swarthy buyer who has parted with his hoards, hoping to find a "pearl of great price" when he washes the lustrous spheres from the putrid mass of decaying fish: the eager search; the joy when his eye lights upon a big, white, shining sphere rising up among the heap of little ones; the growing exultation as he picks it out and with feverish interest rolls it about between his fingers to find it without flaw or blemish, or the keen disappointment should his inspection show, as it most frequently does, that it is full of imperfections.

Hovering about are the buyers for the great Hindu merchants, agents of far-off princes and Europeans, all watching sharply for great finds and ready to enter into the combat of wits which marks an oriental trading.

If one remembers that there are probably twenty-five thousand traders congregated on the hot sands of this far-off shore, the fair dame, whose neck is clasped by a string of these precious globules, may conjure from their lustrous skins, scenes as wild and weird as any fairy tale that set her youth to dreaming.

The pearls are sorted into a number of grades. Those perfect in sphericity and luster are called "ani." Anitari meaning "followers" or "companions," are of the same general character, but poorer in those important qualities. Masanku are somewhat irregular in shape and faulty, especially in luster and color. The poorest of this class, lacking the essential qualities, are separated into another grade and called "kallipu." Next come "kural," double or twinned, and "pisal," are misshapen or clustered. Folded or bent pearls are "madanku," and what we would call "rejection," a mixed lot of all sorts and sizes too poor to include in any of the regular classifications, are termed "vadivu." Seed-pearls, the very small pearls of which there are great quantities, are known as "tul." Many of these are ground to "chunam" or shell-lime, and used as an ingredient in a favorite masticatory.

The assortments being made, they are weighed and recorded in kalanchu (kalungy) and manchadi (manjaday). The kalanchu is a brass weight equal to 67 grains troy, and the manchadi is a small red berry that is of very even weight when full sized, and is reckoned twenty to a kalanchu.

In the valuation of ani, anitari and vadivu, the individual size, form, and color is considered, but the others are simply valued by weight.

The modus operandi of these fisheries like all others managed by Orientals continues much the same from fishing to fishing. Experiments have been made at the Tuticorin fishery with helmeted divers but their catch compared unfavorably with that of the naked natives, who will sometimes under favorable circumstances bring up two thousand in a day. It is said that the X-ray is being used to some extent in the examination of shells and that those found to be without pearls are thrown back into the sea, but it is doubtful if the general use would be practical or advantageous while oysters remain abundant; so far, the use of it has been experimental only.

Fine pearls are found in Dutch India among the Molucca Islands. Fishing is done by the natives, and as they seldom go deeper than ten or twelve feet the probability is that they do not get the finest shells or pearls, for it seems to be quite well established that the shells taken from deep water are larger and more likely to contain large pearls. Whether this arises from deep water being more favorable to growth, or an unmolested opportunity to grow, has not been determined.

Hitherto the Netherlands Indian government has opposed encroachment upon the rights of the natives and colonists, and has patrolled the waters with small gunboats to prevent any attempt by Europeans to fish. But lately concessions have been made to British firms so that shell is being shipped direct to London, and it is now thought that these fisheries will soon rival the Australian. The pearls were formerly bought from natives, principally of the Island of Aroe, by Chinese and Arabs who took them to Macassar. From there they were sent first to Singapore and then to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Most of the pearls brought to Macassar are baroques, though fine specimens of more regular shape arrive there occasionally. The mother-of-pearl from these shells is of good quality.

Some pearls are found at the Bazaruto Islands, Portuguese East Africa, a few miles from the coast, midway between Inhambane and Beira. A concession was granted to a company about 1892, but bad management, lack of funds and political difficulties, killed the enterprise.

General reports indicate that it is very difficult for any enterprise subject to the officials of this district to succeed. The Bazaruto Kaffirs still fish, but without system or intelligence. They are wasteful and damage many of the pearls by cooking the oyster. The few found are shipped by Indian traders to Bombay and Zanzibar.

Pearl fishing has been attempted on the coast of German East Africa at Zanzibar Island and south, between the Island of Mafia and the main coast. Mother-of-pearl is abundant but few pearls have been found and there has been no sustained effort. There are large coral banks about the islands of the coast favorable for the growth of mother-of-pearl and there is shallow water over large areas.

Good white pearls have been taken from a red mussel found there. South of the Island of Mafia are beds of large pinna shells which yield black seed-pearls. There are pearl-shell fisheries in the Merguian Archipelago and in the government of Burmah and some pearls are found. The banks, scattered over an area of eleven thousand square miles, are rented from the government and rights to fish are sublet on royalty. The fishing is nearly all done by helmeted divers.

Avicula and meleagrina margaritifera are taken off the west coast of New Caledonia. From the former large numbers of pearls are taken, and from the latter, very beautiful white pearls. Fine colored pearls pink, yellow, gray and black are often found in this district. A variety of oyster commonly called shoulder of mutton, and another shell-fish called jamboneau (pinna) of which the pearl is very fine, are also found in these waters.

A syndicate was formed in Paris to exploit these beds and obtained concessions covering one hundred and thirty miles. Owing to the difficulty of getting divers, the waters had not been exploited to any great depth up to 1898, the regular fishings being confined to the shallows of six to seven feet, though larger shells were known to be in deeper water. More systematic work with modern appliances and in deeper waters has since been done with good success, but late reports show an accumulation of shell and indications that the industry has not been profitable.

In 1904 the price of shell (black-edge mother-of-pearl) fell to $250, U. S. gold per ton of 2240 pounds, from $700, the former price, with six hundred tons stored in London, Paris, Berlin, New York and San Francisco, making a prospective loss of $270,000 for 1904. There was an attempt to limit the production by a return to native diving. With dress the output would be about 500 tons for the year, with naked-diving 200 tons less. This would operate against the local government, as it not only levies $38.60 U.S. gold per metric ton as an export duty, but makes a large profit on the diving machines by way of license. The pearl fisheries of French Oceanica therefore face a grave situation.

Pearls are found occasionally on the western coast of Nicaragua at San Juan del Norte. The Panama coast still yields great quantities of pearls as it has done for many years. When Spain controlled the northwestern section of South America with the Isthmus to the borders of Guatemala, under the name of Colombia, immense quantities of pearls were sent home by the colonists.

It is recorded that 697 pounds of pearls were imported into Seville from Colombia in 1587. A large proportion of these undoubtedly came from the coasts of what is now Venezuela. The Panama or bullock shell as it is called, is not of the finest quality and the pearls are apt to be dark and inferior to the Indian pearls in luster as well as in color; nevertheless fine pearls are found there and the fisheries yield a greater average of black pearls than any other. Beautiful iridescent pearls are also found there.

The Pearl islands are on the east side of the Bay of Panama about forty miles from the city. The banks there may only be fished by divers but between Chiriqui and Veragua dredging is allowed. Since the United States government has become interested in this section there is a tendency here to exploit the Panama coasts and companies have been formed in the States for that purpose. The pearl fisheries formerly carried on along the coast of Ecuador about two hundred miles north of Guayaquil, are no longer operated.

On the Atlantic coast of South America the most fruitful pearl-banks lie along the coast of Venezuela and west to Rio Hacha on the Colombian coast. This was the first part of the American mainland sighted by Columbus and the quantities of pearls owned by the natives did much to draw the tide of adventurers which set this way in the sixteenth century.

The oysters are taken from reefs and bars about one mile from shore and about the islands. The principal beds are at El Tirano, north-east, and Macanao, north-west of the island of Margarita. There are fisheries also at the neighboring Islands of Coche and Cubagua. About four hundred sail-boats of from three to fifteen tons, employing two thousand men, are constantly at work in these fisheries.

A French company purchased a concession about the year 1900 from a Venezuelan to fish in this neighborhood. It was to pay the Venezuelan government 10 per cent. of the profits as royalty and use divers and diving apparatus so as to select the oysters and avoid waste of the immature. Fishing by natives is done mostly by dredging with metal scoops. It is estimated that upwards of $600,000 worth of pearls are found about the island of Margarita per annum, most of them going to the Paris market.

Exclusive rights have been granted a Venezuelan citizen by the local government lately to exploit the Gulf of Cariaco for pearls and other sea products. The contract is for twenty-five years. Certain advantages are guaranteed by the government which is to receive fifteen per cent. of the net profits of the enterprise.

About forty or fifty years ago several English companies conducted profitable fisheries in the lower Gulf of Maracaibo and on the coasts of the Goajira territory and Paraguana. They employed Indians as divers. Revolutionary troubles during the last twenty-five years so demoralized the Indians, that the industry was finally broken up. Reports from authoritative sources indicate, that not only could paying fisheries be established here, but that the interior is rich in minerals and precious stones.

Until lately there have been few restrictions upon fishing along the Venezuelan coast beyond a tax of fifty dollars imposed by local authorities upon the buyers and the payment of fifteen bolivars ($2.90) by each boat for a fishing permit at Margarita.

The oysters of this coast mature rapidly and like those of Ceylon live but six or seven years. They are small and the shells are so thin that they can be crushed between the fingers. They are of the Lingah type and are named by some avicula squamulosa. The nacreous lining is also very thin, but lustrous and beautifully iridescent. The pearls run small and very many of them are quite yellow.

Many fine white pearls are found however, though they incline frequently to a waxy luster and are often marred by chalky spots. Great quantities of baroques, notably beautiful for color and orient, are found. Round pearls with a china-like skin in many colors are also quite common. The average size and quality is not equal to those of the Indian waters, though it is much better than is generally credited, as the traders in this country for some inexplicable reason have an idea that Venezuelan pearls are necessarily poorer than others.

This notion has probably been fostered among American buyers by the Parisian dealers who at present well nigh control the output of these fisheries and naturally fear the diversion to a neighboring market which now pays a heavy toll to Paris on pearls taken from this continent. It is true an unusually large percentage of cracked pearls is found among Venezuelans, and they lose perceptibly in weight after being brought from the fisheries the loss averaging fully one-eighth of one per cent., nevertheless many pearls of the finest quality are taken from these fisheries. All pearls are subject to slight variations in weight.

It was from the fisheries of Colombia that Philip II. of Spain received the large pearl of 250 carats, about the size and shape of a pigeon's egg, so often mentioned in the chronicles of precious stones.

The management of the pearl fisheries of the Colombia of to-day is in the hands of the central bank of Colombia which is empowered to transact business pertaining to property belonging to the government. This institution holds a public auction and awards the lease of the rights to fish for pearls, coral, etc., on the Colombian coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to the most desirable bidder. The lessee must be governed by the rules and regulations laid down by the bank. The lease is for five years and went into effect August 1st, 1906.

New pearl oyster-beds were discovered in 1903 in the Gulf of CampÈche near Coatzacoalcos and application was made by a Mexican to the Mexican government for a concession to work them. There are extensive beds, which are constantly fished, along the eastern coast of Lower California from its junction with the United States to Cape San Lucas. La Paz is the principal centre of the fisheries. An English syndicate has a concession from the Mexican government which was lately renewed, for fishing about La Paz. Pearls worth $350,000, among them many fine black pearls, and five thousand tons of shells valued at $1,250,000, were taken in 1904. This syndicate employs all the modern appliances.

Beds are known and worked from La Paz to and about the island of Loreto on the east coast, and at the island of Tiburon over on the East side of the gulf, and from Mazatlan all along the coast of Mexico proper to the boundary line of Guatemala. These beds were discovered by Cortez in 1536 and were worked spasmodically for two centuries; then for a period they were fished so constantly and thoroughly that the market was over-loaded with pearls and the supply of oysters seriously diminished. Of late years fishing has been again carried on systematically and with sufficient judgment to prevent the immediate destruction of the beds as before.

A pearl oyster-bed ten miles long has lately been located at the Punta de Santa Cristoval. The Mexican season for fishing varies in localities from May to November, or June to December. The day's work of the diver commences at near the ebb tide and ends shortly after the beginning of the flood tide, about three hours in all. Much fishing is done by independent naked native divers, in a manner similar to that of the Hindus and Arabs, but some of the large concessionaires supply their divers with helmets and other modern appliances.

Schooners of various sizes having several boats, carry the fishing parties to the banks and the men live on them through the entire season. The daily catches are delivered to an armed boat which carries the oysters ashore, where they are at once searched for pearls. These when found are immediately sorted and valued, a percentage going to the diver in addition to his wages, if he is a regular employee of the Company.

The oysters are found adhering to rocks by the byssus, generally in bunches, hinge-side down, curved side up and the shells slightly parted. The diver cuts them loose with a knife and deposits them in his basket or net. One hundred to a hundred and fifty is a good day's work for a naked diver, but with the appliances now being introduced, a diver in dress can raise fully double that number. It should be remembered that there are elements of uncertainty and irregularity in the catch of the meleagrina. As compared with the enormous and crowded beds of the small varieties as they exist in the Gulf of Manaar and at the island of Margarita, Venezuela, where they can be literally scooped up, the scattered bunches of the meleagrina do not afford easy data for reckoning averages.

On the coasts of China, Japan, Korea, some of the South Sea Islands, the English Channel islands, the Canary islands, about St. Malo on the coast of France, at Queen Charlotte's island and along the coast of California from north of San Francisco to the border of Lower California, at the Cape of Good Hope, India, Australia and New Zealand, a shell-fish is taken which has considerable commercial value and yields pearls to a limited extent.

It is called in this country abalone. In the Channel islands it is known as the ormer. It is the Haliotis or Ear-shell. The Greeks called it venus ear-shell and used it as a food, considering it most nutritious. Old English writers praised it as a delicious morsel under the name of ormond saying that it was bigger and infinitely better than the oyster. This shell-fish attaches itself to the rocks by a flat, disk-shaped foot and must be taken when the tide is low. The fisherman can then insert a knife by stealth under the foot and taking the fish unawares, destroy the suction. Otherwise the hold of the fish could not be broken without destroying the shell. New Zealanders call the fish itself the mutton fish.

The Japanese, Chinese and Indians of the Pacific coast have long used it as an article of food. The shells are valuable on account of the very beautiful nacreous lining which is exceptionally good material for buttons and various ornamental purposes. The lining has an exquisite play of colors in the richest tones of peacock greens and reds. There are about seventy species of the Haliotis and the shells vary greatly in size. The British ormer (H. tuberculata) is of small size, about six inches long and is silvery. The shells are sometimes called in trade aurora shells. After being well beaten to make them tender the animals are used for food.

The ormer or auris marina was esteemed by the ancients as a very sweet and luscious dish. The people of the Channel islands ornament their houses with the shells and farmers use them to frighten the birds from their corn-fields. They string several together and suspend them from the end of a slender pole stuck in the ground. The wind swaying them, makes a constant clatter. The Haliotis iris of New Zealand is green and brilliantly iridescent. A Cape of Good Hope species (H. Mida), under the epidermis is tinged with color, principally orange.

Some of the more beautiful species were formerly very abundant on the coasts of China and Japan, but the constant use of the animal for many years as a food stuff has made them less common there and the Chinese and Japanese now obtain a large part of their supply from California, where the haliotis or abalone, as it is called is taken in great quantities. The two most beautiful species found on this coast are, the Haliotis splendens, a magnificent shell of rainbow coloring in which peacock green predominates, and H. rufescens, the lining of which is red. When found, the latter is usually thickly incrusted and coated with vegetation. The green and red range from seven to ten inches, the latter being generally the larger.

Another variety, H. cracherodii, very dark green or black without, and with no apparent beauty, has a small opalescent bit inside the shell which is cut out and made into articles of jewelry. This is common in crevices of rocks. A variety called bluebacks has a bright clayey blue exterior. The Indians of the Pacific coast have used these shells as material for jewelry and decoration for centuries, but not until the button-makers of Europe and New York began to utilize them did they become an item of importance among the exports of the Pacific coast.

Few pearls are found in the abalone but they yield a considerable number of large rounded baroques and excrescences, rich and beautiful in color and of fair luster, also odd-shaped pieces like blisters matched and joined at the edges. The greens have a bronze appearance and the reds and pinks are often iridescent. Quite a number of good "peelers" are found among them. These are pearly formations which can be improved by taking off one or more of the outer skins.

Pearl-fishing, principally by Greeks, has been carried on about the west and south coast of Haiti, but lately the government has granted a concession to four of its citizens covering nine years with the privilege of renewal at the end of that period. This will prohibit all others from fishing unless they rent the privilege from the concessionaires.

To the south of the Philippines, pearl fisheries were worked by the natives before the arrival of the Spaniards, and the industry is still carried on, chiefly by antiquated methods. The coasts of the Sulu islands, at Jolo and elsewhere and about the island of Mindanao, have yielded many fine pearls and continue to do so. The shells from these waters furnish very fine mother-of-pearl.

All things considered, the largest and best equipped fisheries in the world to-day are those on the coast of Australia. Not as many pearls are found as at Ceylon. The main object of fishing is the shell, which is large, heavy, and furnishes the best quality of mother-of-pearl of the white variety. From Charlotte's Bay on the north-eastern coast, all along the northern coast and around to Exmouth Gulf on the western coast, pearl oysters are abundant. Farther south at Sharks Bay, the oysters are smaller and the pearls, though of good shape and luster, run yellow. Shells from the coast of Queensland are sold as Sydney shell; those from the northern territory of South Australia, as Port Darwin shell, and from there to Exmouth Gulf on the western coast, they are marketed as West Australian shell.

The fishing is carried on by organized companies having capital, and every modern appliance of practical value is utilized. The divers fish with the dress. The usual method of fishing is for a schooner of eighty to one hundred tons to put out with a number of luggers of from eight to ten tons. Each lugger is manned by a captain, a cook, one man at the life-line, two men at the air-pumps and one diver. Each lugger will average half a ton of shells per month ranging from 1600 to 2000 to the ton. The pearls like the shells run white.

The Australians are not only pushing this industry along their own coast, but are extending operations along the islands north toward the equator, wherever it is possible. And wherever they go they carry with them the best modern appliances and methods. Lately however operations have been considerably curtailed in the Torres straits owing to the enforcement of laws for the protection of divers.

Lack of men for diving caused some of the operators to use questionable means to obtain a supply. Boats were sent through the South Sea among the islands and aborigines, Chinese, and even European sailors, were kidnapped and held in practical slavery. Many lives have been lost in these fisheries and the evils connected with the industry became so notorious that the government took action. It is probable that the business will be reorganized and either conducted by the state or under government supervision. Natives are now being trained to use the dress.

Few pearls are found and it not infrequently happens that as many as fifteen to twenty tons of shells are raised without finding a single pearl of value. At this time shells from these fisheries bring from $500 to $750 per ton in the New York market. Helmets have been used to some extent throughout the Pacific for a number of years, but many were crude affairs, carelessly managed and the loss of life was as great as by naked-diving. The training of the natives to the use of the more modern appliances will however engender confidence and the probability is that dress-diving will become general in the south seas wherever the industry is organized.

As a rule the largest oysters and pearls, where there is a calcareous foundation for the bed, are taken from the deeper waters, and it is probable that as modern appliances are more generally used by the larger organizations now taking hold of the industry, the fisheries will be extended with good results in many localities to waters beyond the shallows now fished. More systematic methods will prevent waste and the destruction of the beds.

The English Colonial governments of India are doing much in this direction. By keeping experts upon the ground, they have learned how to fish without destroying the beds, and to fish when it is possible for the oysters to contain pearls. Strict supervision and protection of the beds result in more frequent fishings and greater returns to both the government and the fishermen.

This example is being followed, and pearl fisheries are gradually coming either under governmental supervision or into the hands of concessionaires, whose large investment makes the preservation of the beds a business necessity, whether they fish mainly for pearls or shells.

The best pearls and the largest number are found usually in mature shells which are distorted; it has been stated as a possibility, that in the future some of the new rays will be used in fisheries where the pearl is the main object of the fisher, to ascertain if the oyster contains any before destroying it. M. Dubois of Lyons has experimented with Roentgen rays for that purpose.

As the fish is enormously prolific it is more probable however that effort will be directed instead toward the preservation of the mollusk from the enemies and accidents which are occasionally greater than its productiveness.

One of the greatest dangers in Indian waters to a bed of young oysters is a little mollusk known locally in Ceylon as suran (Modiola). These cluster in masses on the sea bottom and spreading over the surface of the coral, crowd out the delicate young of oysters recently deposited.

The Japanese fisheries suffer from the occasional infection of the waters by a weed, dinoflagellata gonyaulax. It accumulates in immense quantities, causing a wide discoloration of the sea water and is very destructive to an oyster-bed. It is called the red current or red tide. So far no preventive or remedy has been found.

Hitherto the most general and fatal danger to oyster-beds has been the ungoverned extravagance of irresponsible fishers who seek to harvest in the present regardless of the future, but these are gradually being made amenable to restrictive laws as authorities awake to the value of the industry. A greater danger which threatens the unio of American streams, is the pollution of the water by the discharge of the refuse of factories and the sewage of cities into them. A mussel bed will recover in time when denuded by fishers, but sewage and poison kills it out entirely.

Although fresh-water pearl-bearing mussels are found in the streams of many countries, only in the United States are they taken in sufficient quantities to make the fishings important as an industry. They are to be found throughout the Mississippi drainage area and in part of that of the St. Lawrence. Few exist on the Pacific coast and those of the Atlantic coast are generally inferior as pearl-mussels. There are many varieties of the unio which yield pearls. Latin names are given by different writers to distinguish them, but as scientists differ in their classifications, the names are not always uniform and are not sufficiently well established to be useful, descriptively, to the general reader. In treating of the various kinds of pearl-bearing unios of the United States therefore in these pages, the common names by which they are known will as a rule be used with the scientific names appended, as revised by the department of mollusks of the United States National Museum.

From the times of Roman colonization until now, pearls have been taken from the mussels of British streams. There are three varieties of pearl-bearing mussels in Great Britain: Painter's mussel (U. pictorum), the Swollen River mussel (U. tumidus) and the Pearl mussel (U. margaritifera).

The first two occur only in the streams and ponds of England and Wales and the pearls found in them are of inferior quality. The latter inhabits the streams of Scotland and the northern counties of England and to some extent are found in Ireland and Wales also. The shell is oblong, rather flat and heavy and about five and one-half inches long. The exterior surface is rough, and blackish-brown; the pearly interior has a tint of flesh color mottled by stains of dull green. It was from this variety the Perthshire Tay pearls were taken, which gained so much notoriety in the middle of the eighteenth century when some fifty thousand dollars worth were sent to London from this stream in three years.

Scotch pearl-fishing was revived in 1860 and some fine ones were sold to Queen Victoria, the Empress of the French, the Duchess of Hamilton and others. Pearl-mussels have been found in Lochs Rannoch, Tay, Lubnaig and Earn, also in the Don, the Leith and other streams. Some are found in the Welsh streams, and the river Bann in Ireland was noted for the fine pearls found in it. Many years ago there was a pearl fishery at Omagh in the north of Ireland. An old writer claims that CÆsar obtained pearls of such bigness in Britain that he tried the weight of them by his hand.

The fishers wade for them in shallow pools, or thrust sticks between the open valves, or drag branches over them, for as soon as anything enters between the two shells they close upon it at once. The mussels are found generally set up in the sand of the river-bed with the open side, if the current is very strong, turned away from it. The custom of the peasantry is to fish for them in the autumn after harvest.

Pearl-mussels are found also in Saxony, Bavaria, Bohemia, Mesopotamia, Lapland, Canada, Labrador, the Hawaiian Island Oahu, Japan (especially the anodonta japonica), China, the United States and Italy, in the Gwaai and Shangani rivers of Southern Rhodesia, South Africa. Nowhere are they found however in such quantities or in so many varieties as in the United States. The number taken from the streams here of late years has been so great that the shells have largely displaced the marine Egyptian and have affected the demand for the better qualities of South Sea mother-of-pearl. The pearls found in them also have been of such quality and quantity that they now have an important place among the jewels of the world.

Old records and the contents of Indian mounds show that the unio was taken from the rivers by the aborigines for the pearls they sometimes contained; but no wide interest in this possible wealth of the rivers appears to have developed among their white successors until the finding in 1857 of a large pearl weighing ninety-three grains at Notch Brook near Paterson, N. J. It was afterwards sold to the Empress EugÉnie of France for $2500. This became noised abroad and immediately multitudes began to search for pearls.

Mussels were gathered and destroyed by the million, few pearls being found. The excitement subsided as the searchers learned how few got adequate reward for their time and labor. They soon began to realize that the finding of a pearl of value is usually preceded by the opening of hundreds or thousands of shells containing none, and that in the aggregate, the shells thrown away were worth more than the few pearls found.

Another pearl hunt developed along the Little Miami River in Ohio from the finding of several fine pearls near Waynesville in 1876. This reached its height in 1878. In 1880, pearls began to come into the New York market from the West and South. Immense beds have been fished in the White, Wabash and Ohio Rivers in Indiana. In the summer of 1889 a number of fine pearls were found in the south-western corner of Wisconsin, in Crawford, Grant, Lafayette and Green counties. Not only were they notable for extraordinary luster, but many were of beautiful color. The sale of some at prices which seemed fabulous to the people of that section, when it became generally known, caused such a scramble for them by the natives that the streams were rapidly denuded of mussels, and that section has become of much less importance than others since developed. Prairie du Chien is the center of the Wisconsin market, from which point the shells are distributed to the button factories.

The following year (1890) pearl-bearing mussels were found in several of the central counties of Illinois—McLean, Tazewell and Woodford, in the Mackinaw river and tributaries, but no discovery equalling that of Wisconsin occurred until 1897 when the Arkansas beds were discovered. A peculiarity of this district is that whereas the unio is usually most abundant in swift clear water having a sandy or gravelly bottom, many are found here in the mud.

They have been taken over a wide territory from the rivers and streams of the eastern half of the state, including the Black, White, Cache, St. Francis, Ouachita, Saline and Dorcheat rivers, and in the valley of the Arkansas. Following this were finds in Indian Territory, Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee, the latter being the most prolific. The finest pearls in Tennessee are found in the fluter, or lake shell, which is the same as the mussel known on the Wabash as the wash-board. A yellow shell is found in the Clinch River similar to the mucket of Arkansas, from which pearls are taken.

Unlike the pearl oyster, the unio seems to be more prolific of pearls in the shallows and riffles near the edges of the rivers. Most of the fine pearls are found between the pallial line and the lip in the free portion of the mantle. Those found within the pallial line, where the mantle is attached to the shell, are seldom as lustrous or perfect.

Pearls are found in many States besides those mentioned, but the fishing is done quietly and in some cases the sources of supply are known to only a few who in the marketing of their pearls carefully avoid giving any information. This is particularly true of some of the eastern states. Streams in the Northwestern section of New York State are regularly fished, but without excitement. The large fisheries of the Mississippi and West are fished principally for the mother-of-pearl in the shells. As with some of the marine fisheries, the pearl is regarded as an extra.

The mussels are taken in various ways. In Canada, boats drag brush and the branches of trees over the river bottoms, gathering the mussels into the boat as the twigs become clogged. In the large beds often found in our Western Rivers, fishing is done wherever possible by dredging. Metal scoops, hand, shoulder and scissor-rakes are used and the mollusks, taken in immense quantities are cooked to open them, then cleaned of the meat which is afterwards examined for pearls. This method is used where the mussels lie in great masses or on sandy bottoms. Where there are boulders or large stones, a great number of hooks are dragged over the beds.

The mussels, partially buried, lie lip-end up and the shell slightly parted. Should anything come within this gaping aperture, the mussel at once closes upon it, nipping on with such tenacity that the hold is not loosed until the fisher draws it into the boat and forcibly releases the hook. It is said the mollusk's shell would remain thus tightly closed for ten or twelve hours. After dragging the hooks over the bed, the mussels are taken off and the process repeated.

Various rough devices are used, the principle in all being the same. One, illustrative, consists of a piece of lead pipe or an iron bar several feet long, from which depend a number of double or triple hooks several inches apart. This is dropped overboard, the rope on which it is hung is fastened to the stern of the boat, and the boatman rows over the mussel bed dragging it after him. Men who dredge for the mollusks are called clammers. Pearlers are those who at odd times fish for the mussels with pearls as the main object. This class is composed of the backwoods natives who live about the streams in which the mussels are found. They are people who usually follow their inclinations as nearly as they can, working only as it becomes requisite to obtain the few coarse necessities of their lives. With them also are small farmers who at seasons when farm work is not pressing, seek the excitement and possible profit of the hunt for pearls.

For all such persons the occupation has a great fascination. The difficulties of following the streams through almost impenetrable surroundings, the coarse fare of bacon, meal and coffee; the long tramps back and forth to their mountain huts, or the exposure to night in the tangle of the woods, have no terrors for them; they are but common experiences.

Few pearls of value are found, but the occasional pearl which each one does get, makes expectation tingle, and hope recounts again and again the great finds which others have made. There are curious happenings which illustrate the uncertainties of the work.

It is told on the Clinch river in East Tennessee that a pearler, having patiently fished all day, examining the fish from time to time as little heaps of them were gathered, without finding even a small pearl, finally decided to quit. He was about to examine his last small heap when a man standing by offered him fifty cents for the lot. The offer was accepted. From the first shell opened, the buyer extracted a ball pearl which was afterwards sold for one thousand dollars. Two of the finest pearls taken one season from the same section were obtained from a heel-splitter, carelessly dug out of the sand by a man wading in the shallows of the river. The heel-splitter is a large thin-shelled variety, so named by the natives because of the sharp, cutting quality of the shell which protrudes from the sand of the river. They rarely contain pearls, but when they do, the pearls are usually fine.

The largest proportion of fine pearls to the yield of any section since discoveries have been recorded, came from Wisconsin, and many of the best of these, especially of the fancy colored ones, were taken from Sugar river. Many of these were exceptionally beautiful in both color and luster and a good proportion of them were also round.

Much is written and told of the marvellous pearls found in our streams worth large sums of money. Such pearls are found undoubtedly but not in such quantities as one might think from the enthusiastic reports current in daily papers. Finds are written up by reporters who know nothing of pearls and prefer to write a readable story of wondrous gems and great values to a statement of plain unvarnished facts. In this the news-gatherer is assisted by some simple native with an eye single to a good price and a capacity for exaggerated ideas of value impossible to Maiden Lane.

It is no uncommon trick when buyers are present, to find again, a pearl, which has been to New York and back and the ruse often succeeds. Pearls are frequently sold at the fisheries for much more than they would bring in the east. In fact it is difficult to buy ordinary pearls at a reasonable price. The natives will sometimes sell a really fine pearl for less than it is worth because they do not understand the relative values of quality; but they usually over-estimate pieces of poor quality.

A large majority of those found in our fresh-water mussels fail in some essential quality. Many are chalky, or lustrous at one or two points only. Others are faulty in shape, or if spherical, deeply pitted. Really fine pieces are usually small or button, and when large, are baroques. Some of the latter are magnificent. Weighing fifty to over one hundred grains, with skins of extraordinary luster and iridescence; white, or of a beautiful pink tint, these strawberry or rose pearls, as they are called, frequently excel, by every standard of beauty, the imperfect spheres which command a greater price in the market because they are round.

The most common variety of unio in American rivers, especially in the Mississippi river, is that known as the nigger-head (Quadrula ebena). It is also the principal species used for button-making.

Similar is the warty-back (Quadrula pustulosa) so called because the shell has a number of warts or excrescences on the outside of the valves. The "bull-head" (Pleurobena Aesopus) is found in abundance with the nigger-head. It has a blackish-brown exterior, presenting several radiating ridges, and a white lining. The two latter are inferior as material for buttons as the shells are brittle. The mucket (Lampsilis ligamentinus) is a large shell, average size 4 inches, has a dark brown exterior and cream-white lining. It is too thin and brittle to make first class material for buttons though fine pearls are sometimes found in them.

The sand-shells furnish good material for buttons. They are long, sometimes six inches, and narrow. They are usually found on sandy bottoms and are said to move from the channel toward the shores in the morning and back in the evening. The most abundant is the yellow sand-shell (Lampsilis anodontoides) so called from its bright yellowish brown exterior. Another kind, the black sand-shell (Lampsilis rectus) has a black epidermis. A smaller variety, less abundant now than formerly, is the slough sand-shell (Lampsilis fallaciosus). These are generally found in coves or the mouths of rivulets.

The deer-horn or buckhorn (Tritigonia verrucosa) is a large variety, sometimes attaining a length of nine inches in the Iowa river, though the average in the Mississippi is about five inches. The shell, as the name indicates, has a rough, warty exterior. The supply is small and uncertain.

Another rare species is the butterfly (Plagiola securis). It is a small, flat, thick shell of fine color, and the valves are butterfly in shape with a reddish-brown epidermis striped by darker radiating lines. It is abundant only in the Illinois and Ohio rivers.

The hatchet-back, hackle-back, or heel-splitter (Symphynota complanata), is a large black mussel having a thin sharp-edged shell, one valve-edge projecting. It yields few pearls though fine specimens are occasionally found in this variety.

The blue-point (Quadrula undulata) has a large, thick shell, with ridges on the exterior, curving round the umbones and extending to the edge. Like the black-edge meleagrina, the nacre at the edge is discolored. In this case by a bluish or purplish tint.

Some idea of the enormous quantities of mussels contained in some of these beds in our western rivers may be gained from the reports of the fisheries in the first years of their discovery. Ten thousand tons of shells were taken in three years near New Boston, Ill., from one bed. Reckoned by the usual average this would mean not less than 100,000,000 shells. In some beds, the mussels have been found several feet deep, the bottom layers being dead.

Notwithstanding the enormous numbers, these beds are often completely exhausted in a few seasons. When the beds are first discovered, men will take as much as 1500 to 2000 pounds of shell each, in a day's fishing. In one hundred pounds of shells as they are taken, the average number of valves or half shells will be, nigger-heads, about one thousand; sand-shells, nine hundred; muckets, eight hundred, which would be an average of nine thousand mussels per ton.

The meat in a ton of nigger-heads weighs over three hundred pounds. This is usually removed by the fishermen by boiling the mussels for ten or fifteen minutes in crude sheet iron tanks when the shells open and the fleshy part falls out or may be easily removed by hand. To show how little the pearls they may contain enter into the calculations of these fishermen, it may be stated here that the shell-buyers pay about twenty-five per cent. less for the mussels as taken from the river than they do for the shells when cleaned.

On the Californian coast when the divers worked independently, they preferred to sell the oysters unopened. They received about $4.50 per thousand on an average for the shells and double for the oysters complete.

The fishing season for pearlers is from August to December. The large operations for shell, in the early days of the industry, were confined to the same period, but of late, fishing is carried on throughout the year, immense quantities being taken through the ice. The shells are better in cold weather, being less brittle than when exposed in the boats during warm weather. Fishing through the ice is very wasteful however, as the undersized, which are dropped back from the scoops and rakes in the summer, when thrown out on the ice are allowed to remain there and die.

The price of shells varies considerably from season to season. An average price for nigger-heads is about ten dollars per ton; sand-shells bring about twice as much, muckets half that price, and the other varieties together will average about twenty-five per cent. more than nigger-heads, though among these the deer-horn is worth about four times as much as the nigger-head.

In the first six months of 1898 nearly four thousand tons of mussel shells were sold by mussel fishermen on the Mississippi. They brought about thirty-nine thousand dollars, 94 per cent. of these were nigger-heads.

The spawning time of the unio varies with different species. In the central Mississippi basin it is normally February, March and April for nigger-head, and summer and early fall for the mucket and sand-shell.

The unio is a slow growing animal. Under normal conditions it takes ten years for a nigger-head to reach a size of three inches; fifteen to eighteen years to attain a shell diameter of 4-1/2 inches. This corresponds very closely with the life of the meleagrina, though the shell of the latter ceases to grow in size at about eight or ten years. After that it continues to lay on thickness up to eighteen or twenty years.

Although the discoveries so far in Africa are unimportant, it is possible, now that the unio is known to exist there, that the streams of that wonderful land of precious things may add a companion gem to the vast natural hoards there of the diamond. In two years succeeding his first find, the discoverer secured one hundred and fifty pearls at an average of one pearl to eight hundred shells.

Authorities tell us that the nucleus of a mussel-pearl is usually the larva of a distoma. Nuclei of pearls vary according to the circumstances surrounding the beds of the shell-fish and those circumstances have much to do with the occurrence of the pearl.