imports
of pearls average in value about .£100,000; Prance receives about the
same. The marketable value of pearls is much higher in Asiatic
countries than elsewhere, hence the best are sent to Bombay, where
fancy prices are often given for good pearls.
At
the Bahrein fishery in the Persian Gulf, many hundred boats are
employed manned by from eight to twenty men, and the value of the
pearls obtained is stated to average £1,000 yearly, but this amount of
course varies. The larger and more valuable pearls are believed to be
sold secretly. The men receive two-thirds of the catch, after deducting
expenses, and for food, &c.
The
great pearl fishery of Ceylon is carried on at stated periods on the
banks of the north-west coast of the island, at the entrance to the
Gulf of Manaar. As it is a Government monopoly, great care is now taken
to gve rest to the fishery, so as to allow the oysters to
attain a maturity of five o r six years, which will warrant a rich
yield of pearls. There is a prospect of a good pearl fishery in 1888,
and it is confidently expected that as many as 300,000,000 oysters will
be fished, requiring every boat and every diver procurable in Ceylon
and Southern India. The small, thin shells of this oyster (Avicula fucata), unlike the heavy, true ' mother-of-pearl oyster (Mtleagrina margaritifera), have little or no commercial value, and are chiefly burnt for lime.
When
a fishery is proclaimed, the arid sands at Arippu, on the north-west
coast, becomes as it were, a bustling town of tents, filled with people
of varied races and occupations, including boatmen from the Coromandel
coast, pearl dealers from India, Malaya, and China, with the
accompaniments of merchants and traders of all classes. The Ceylon
Government takes as royalty two-thirds of the oysters gathered, which
are sold by auction at the close of each day's fishing. Only a limited
number of boats'and divers are licensed to fish.
The
fishing can be carried on only during the very calmest period of the
north-east monsoon—February to April. In these months the wind blows
off the land during the night, and off the sea during the day, which
enables the large fleet of fishing boats to reach the pearl banks by
daylight on each morning, returning with their cargoes shortly after
noon. The boats, containing twenty men (half divers), are divided into
two fleets, which go out to their work on alternate days. The price
realised for the oysters varies froin£2 to £7 the thousand, the value
depending to a great extent on that of a sample of 5,000 lifted in the
.early part of the fishing. The contents of the mollusc being allowed
to decay before the pearls can be obtained, the stench is horrible. The
congregation of pearl dealers, petty traders, official subordinates,
and labourers on the shores, is enormous.
About
the island of Borneo there is a good deal of fishing for pearls, which
are found in a thin, flat, pinkish-shelled oyster, known locally as saksiep. This
lives only in shallow brackish water at the mouth of rivers. Several
boats rendezvous at the same time and place to frighten the crocodiles
and sharks. Twenty or thirty persons will be in the water at once,
diving, splashing, laughing, and shouting, and bringing up three or
four shells at a time; extra yells from all hands salute a rather
larger find than usual. Very few of the pearls obtained are of any
value individually; they are chiefly seed-pearls, which are sent to
China, where they are pounded up, made into powder, arid:
this is swallowed by ladies' who desire to improve their complexion; at
least, such is the story. From British North Borneo the value of the
pearls exported in a year is £500. Pearls of a very high price are not
infrequently to be bought at Sandakar, but they come principally from
the islands of the Sooloo Archipelago. The largest ever seen there was
valued at £1,600.
The formation of pearls is not limited to the bivalves, they are produced on several univalves, especially on the Strombs and Turbimllas, but.
are more rare in these than in the bivalves. About the Bahamas group of
islands and cays the shells of the king, queen, and common conch were
much sought after for $*le to the eameo-cutter, but the fashion for
cameo jewellery has passed
