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THE PEARL
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northeast,
and Macanao, northwest 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 238
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