per
annum, the value of which is nearly £100,000. Although large quantities
of these shells are consumed in inlaying fancy wood-work, papiermache
and in making knife-haudles and other small ornamental objects, by far
the greater portion is required for making buttons, chiefly in
Birmingham.—British Xorth Borneo Herald.
To the Editor of the " British North Borneo Herali."
Sir,—Without
wishing any criticism to be implied on the Early Notices of North
Borneo and Sulu from Chinese Sources which were printed in your issue
of the 1st instant, I should like to remark that I was especially
struck by the weight of the pearl mentioned in the following passage
:—" Id the year 1421 (a.d. is
supposed to be understood) the mother of the Eastern Kiug (King of
Sulu) sent to Court a brother of her late husband, called Faduka Suli;
he presented as tribute a large pearl weighing more than seven taels." Now
seven Chinese taels are equal 4,137 2/6 grains Troy, which if valued at
the present valuation of pearls, presuming the pearl in question to
have been of the first quality, would give the grand sum of £41,374. In
the estimation of the Chinese it may have possessed a still higher
value, seeing the fabulous prices they sometimes put on pearls. That
which Julius Osesar presented to the mother of Marcus Brutus was valued
at £13,417 10s; and the one which Cleopatra, in her desire to expend in
one feast a larger sum than Mark Anthony had done in his most sumptuous
feasts, swallowed with a draught of vinegar; cost about £60,729 35s 4d.
The pearl obtained by Philip II of Spain in 15S7 from the island of
Margarita off the Columbian Coast which weighed 250 carats or 800
grains was valued at 8150,000.
To
those celebrated pearls just noted must now be added (if credence is to
be placed in the Early Notices of Borneo and Sulu from Chinese Sources)
the above remarkable one presented by a Queen of Sulu to the Hoag-Te of
the Kingdom.— Yours, &e.
Ohin-Chu.
PEARLS AND PEARLING LIFE.
Pearls and Pearling Life. By Edwin VV. Streeter, f. r. a. s. e (London: George Bell and Sons, 1886.)
The book before us, according to the preface, and as far as we aro
aware, is the only work in the English language which is entirely
devoted to the history of pearls. The introductory chapter is
immediately followed by one which gives a brief historical account of
pearls in connection with India, China, Persia, Palestine, Egypt,
Ancient Greece and Italy, and Europe in the middle ages. This is
succeeded by a resume of the ancient ideas respecting the
origin and supposed medicinal qualities of pearls, and by a few words
on "breeding" pearls. The next chapter treats of the different kinds of
pearl-forming mollusks, both marine and fiuviatile. The writer then
gives an account of the true mother-of-pearl shell, describing its
geographical distribution, the different varieties, its structure, the
parasites found within the shells, and their external enemies, their
method of getting rid of extraneous substances (stones, small shells,
&c.) accidentally introduced within the valves of the shell, and
the uses to which the mother-of-pearl is put. The sixth chapter,
although headed "The Origin and Formation of Pearls," also refers to
the different kinds, such as bouton pearls, baroque pearls, and coq de ferle, the
mode of life of the oyster, the positions in which pearls are found,
&c. It also treats of the qualities which regulate the value of
pearls. The next chapter gives a short account of the Sooloo
Archipelago, the natives as pearl divers, and their method of dredging.
Then follows a good description of the fisheries of North-West
Australia and Torres Strait, and this is succeeded by an interesting
chapter entitled " Pearling Life at the Present Day," which is
practically descriptive of pearling expeditions made by Mr. Streeter's
vessel, the Ski lJas Sair, from
Singapore to the North-West Australian coast and the Sooloo
Arclii-palago. Chapter XL is devoted to a condensed account of the
pearl-fisheries of Ceylon and Southern India, and this is followed by a
resume of what is known respecting the fisheries in the Persian Gulf, (He Red Sea, on the west coast
