I
N geographic range,
the sources of pearls are widely distributed, each one of the six
continents yielding its quota; but the places where profitable
fisheries are prosecuted are restricted in area. First in point of
value, and possibly of antiquity also, are the fisheries of the Persian
Gulf, giving employment ordinarily to thirty thousand or more divers.
The yield in the likewise ancient fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar is
uncertain, but sometimes remarkably large. The Red Sea resources are
now of slight importance compared with their extent in the time of the
Ptolemies. Other Asiatic fisheries are in the Gulf of Aden, about
Mergui Archipelago, on the coast of China, Japan, Korea, and Siam, and
also in the rivers of China, Manchuria, and Siberia.
Aside
from those produced in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the pearl
fisheries of Africa are of small extent. Some reefs exist on the lower
coast of the German East African territory and also in Portuguese East
Africa, but they have not been thoroughly exploited.
In
most of the inshore waters of Australasia pearls may be secured ; the
fisheries are most extensive on the northern coast of Australia, in the
Sulu Archipelago, and about the Dutch East Indies. Tuamotu Archipelago,
Gambier, Fiji, and Penrhyn are prominent in the South Pacific Ocean.
In
the seas of Europe few pearls have been found, but the rivers have
yielded many ; and although the resources have been greatly impaired,
many beautiful gems are yet found there.
South
America contributes the important reefs on the coast of Venezuela—the
land of unrest and revolutions, whose fisheries were first exploited by
Columbus. Other South American countries in which pearls are collected
are Panama, Ecuador, Peru, etc. In
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