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Ch. 11: Pearl Fisheries

Ch. 11: Pearl Fisheries Page of 358 Ch. 11: Pearl Fisheries Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
THE PEARL
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
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Ch. 11: Pearl Fisheries Page of 358 Ch. 11: Pearl Fisheries
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