MISCELLANEOUS PEARL FISHERIES OF AMERICA
The deep's wealth, coral, and pearl, and sand
Like spangling gold, and purple shells engraven With mystic legends by no mortal hand.
Shelley, The Revolt of Islam.
The beautiful pearls of the conch {Strombus gigas) are
sought for in the West Indies and on the neighboring continental
coasts. They are found most abundantly about the Bahamas, a group of
more than four hundred islands off the Florida coast, where many of the
fisherÂmen devote a considerable portion of their time to collecting
them. It is from this industry that the beach-combers of this group of
islands, as well as those of the Florida reefs, have received the
designation "Conchs."
Near
the shores, where they formerly abounded, a few conchs are yet picked
up by wading fishermen. In waters of medium depth they are secured
either by diving or by means of a long pole with a hook at the end. In
great depths, the mollusks are located by means of a water-glass
similar to the type employed in the Red Sea or among the South Sea
Islands.
The
animal is readily removed from the shell after crushing the tip end of
the spire where the large muscle is attached. The flesh forms an
important article of food to the fishermen and to the residents of the
outlying islands. It is said that a "Conch" can make a visit to Nassau
of a week or ten days, and subsist almost entirely on this dried meat,
with which he fills his pockets on starting. A large demand exists for
the beautiful shells for ornamenting flower-beds, garden-walks, etc.
Many of them are burned into lime for building purposes. Formerly
several hundred thousand shells were exported annually to England for
use in porcelain manufacture.
The
pearls are generally found embedded in the flesh of the mollusk ; quite
often they are in a sac or cyst with an external opening, from which
they are sometimes dislodged by the muscular movement of the
1 Illinois State has passed a bill to regulate pearl fishing. See Addendum on p. 513.
