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the scientific name of Meleagrina (Avicula) margaritifera. This
mollusk has a bivalve shell averaging seven or eight inches in
diameter, and genÂerally thick. The exterior is of a greenish-black
color, while the interior is silver-white with pearly luster. The
latter forms indeed the well-known " mother of pearl." This mollusk
inhabits warm seas, occurring especially in sheltered localities in the
Indian Ocean, and occasionally throughout the tropical zone of the
Pacific Ocean. It groups itself in colonies like the common oyster,
usually on coral banks at a depth of twenty to thirty feet. It is not
free moving, but attached by a byssus, which must be severed before the
mollusk can be brought to the surface. The pearl fisheries of the
Indian Ocean chiefly center in the Straits of Manaar between India and
Ceylon. The fishing is largely confined to the months of March and
April, as the sea favors best at that time, and at that season from
fifteen thousand to twenty thousand fishers and dealers are said to
gather along the pearl coasts. The oysters are obtained by divers, who
go out in boats and secure the shells by diving. They usually dive
without appliances, and work under the water simply by holding their
breath for the time. Some fishers, however, make use of diving suits
and bells. The work is dangerous, not only on account of the bodily
strain, but because sharks prey upon the divers. The oysters are
unloaded from the boats into pits on the shore, where they are left to
putrefy, and the pearls are then washed out.
Other
localities in the Orient where the pearl oyster occurs, and where
pearl-fishing is carried on in the same manner as above described, are
the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Sulu Archipelago. The Red Sea
fisheries furnished in earlier times an extensive supply of pearls, and
were probably the source of those used by the Romans. They are now,
however, largely exhausted. The Persian Gulf pearls are inferior in
color to those of Ceylon, and are known as "Bombay" pearls. The Ceylon
fisheries are under control of the colonial government, and are
carefully guarded to prevent exhaustion of the supply. The localities
where the fishers are to work are staked off, and when an area has once
been worked over it is allowed to lie "fallow" for seven years, so as
to allow a new crop to grow.
So
far as the American continent is concerned, the true pearl oyster is
found chiefly in the Gulf of California. It occurs here both on the
east and west coast, and as far south on the Pacific coast as the
northern boundary of Guatemala. It is also found on the Brazilian coast
and the western shores of South America.
The
California pearl fisheries were in operation at the time of the
invasion by Cortez, and he sent a number of fine pearls which he
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