The pearl banks close to the shore of India and Tuticorin have yielded very insignificant returns to the
Indian Government, and a prolonged experiment in conserving certain
banks and in the culture of the oyster by Capt. Phipps, has not been
attended with success. The pearl oyster fisheries in the Persian Gulf
have long been in repute: the annual yield was lately said to be £ 300,000
(query 300,000 rupees) in value. More recently—during the last dozen
years or so—pearl fisheries have been developed on the north-west and
northern coasts of the Australian continent, and " pearling," as it is
called, now gives employment to considerable fleet of boats owned by
colonists who employ Malays or Australian aborigines as divers. Very
fine pearls of both a pale-white and' straw colour have been obtained
off Western Australia, some of the finest pearls being extracted from
the very large shells of oysters found in that quarter.* And now that
both the West Australian and Queensland authorities have become
interested in these Fisheries, we should most strongly advise them to
get such practical reports on the best mode of conserving the
available banks and arranging for systematic Fisheries as the Ceylon
Inspector of Pearl Fisheries, Captain Donnan, for instance, could so
well furnish. They ought to take warning by our Ceylon experience of
the danger of careless and persistent over-fishing. But the principal
trade off the Australian Coast is in exporting the shells to Europe,
to be worked up for " mother-o'-pearl" purposes. During the present
"pearling" season, it is reported that two or three boats have secured
as much as 30 tons of shells each. Shells from the Ceylon Fishery have
also of recent years been consigned to Europe, the demand being very
much for Continental gaols, where the prisoners are employed
manufacturing buttons, &c, out of the nacre, but the trade has not
proved profitable, and is now given up. The latest London Market Report
(May 26th 1881) on sales of Pearl Shells is as follows :—" At
•The Scientific American has the following :—"Conch Pearls.—Most
of our readers have doubtless frequently seen and admired the
delicately tinted pinkfacad shells which are extensively used for
bordering garden-walks and other ornamental purposes; but few probably
are aware that in the conch which inhabits this shell is occasionally
found a very lovely gem, known to lapidaries as the conch pearl. When
perfect, the pearl is either round or egg-shaped and somewhat larger
than a pea, of beautiful rose colour, and watered; that is, presenting,
when held to the light, the sheeny, wavy appearance of watered silk. It
is, however, a very rare circumstance to find a pearl which possesses
all the requirements that coustitute a perfect gem, and when such does
happen it proves an exceedingly valuable prize to its fortunate finder.
Pink is the most common and only desirable colour, although white,
yellow, and brown pearls are occasionally found. Even among the pink
ones there is usually some defect which mars their beauty and
materially injures them; some are very irregular in shape and covered
apparently with knobs or protuberances; others are too small, while
many lack the watering, which gives them iheir great value and chief
beauty. The conch abounds in the waters of the Bahamas, and thousands
of them are annually obtained and destroyed for their shells, which
form quite an article of commerce, but in not one conch in a thousand
is a pearl found. When this is taken into account, and the other fact,
that not more than one in twenty of pearls found turns out to be
perfect, it will at once be seen that a good conch pearl'will always be
a rare and costly gem. In fact, their value within the last few years
has almost doubled, and the demand for them is steadily increasing.
Most of the conch pearls found in the Bahamas are exported to London,
where they are readily sold."—During a visit we paid to Perth, Western
Australia, in 1875, we saw very large pearls cleverly cut out of the inside of shells (specimens of which we have placed in the Ceylon Museum), but they were not equal in quality to the Ceylon- pearls.—Compilers.
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