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THE PEARL
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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
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