the
pearling industry, few pearl-oysters are caught at Tahiti, most of them
coming from the archipelagoes of Tuamotu, Gambier, and occasionally
Tubai.
The
Tuamotu Archipelago is the scene of the principal pearl fisheries of
the South Seas ; and from the local importance of this industry the
group is sometimes called the Pearl Islands. These coral-formed islands
are strung out for a distance of 900 miles in a northwest and southeast
direction, and extend from Lat. 140 to 23 ° S. and from Long. 1360 to 1490
W. They number about seventy-eight, many of them made up of small
atolls only a few feet above the surface of the ocean, and with an
aggregate area of about 360 square miles. The total population is
approximately 6000, with many visitors from Tahiti and other
neighboring islands during the pearling season. The principal products
are pearl shell and pearls, copra, and cocoanut oil ; and nearly one
half of the islands yield nothing but shell and pearls. The chief port
is Fakarava on an island of the same name, and the trade is almost
entirely with Tahiti.
As
the Tuamotus are of coral formation, they produce little vegetable
growth, and the people seem often on the brink of starvation, forming a
striking contrast with those of the neighboring Society Islands.
Drawing their subsistence entirely from the sea, except for the native
cocoanuts and breadfruit, these people have, at times, been in great
straits for food, and it was doubtless severe hunger that drove them to
the acts of cannibalism with which they have been charged. And the sea
which supplies them with food has also visited them with great
destruction. As recently as January, 1903, a great storm swept over
this group, drowning over 500 of the inhabitants, and destroying a very
considerable portion of the pearling fleet and other property.
The
pearl-oyster reefs of the Tuamotu Archipelago are very extensive, only
eight or ten of the islands failing to contribute to the supply. They
occur in the protected lagoons of the atolls, where the bottom is well
covered with coral growth, with numerous elevations and depressions of
various sizes ; and it is about the bases and in the recesses of these
coral growths that the best shells are usually found. Most of them are
of the black-edged variety of Margaritifera marga-ritifera, which here attains a great size, reaching a diameter of twelve inches in extreme cases.
While
pearl-oysters are found about nearly all of the Tuamotu Islands, the
reefs are richest at Hikueru or Melville Island. When that lagoon is
open it is the scene of the greatest operations, and it is credited
with nearly one half of the total product of the archipelago. At the
opening of the season, this is the resort of fishermen from all over
the group, even from a distance of five hundred miles, and thou-
