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PEARL FISHERIES
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Channel
islands it is known as the ormer. It is the Haliotis or Earshell. The
Greeks called it venus earshell 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 excepÂtionally 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.
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