sea
to pick out and get the oysters which they thought might contain
pearls, but since the demand has so largely increased, divers are no
longer employed. Grapples are used in their stead and are operated in
the same way as dredging machines, scraping up everything, large and
small. When these small oysters are opened and seed pearls taken,
there is obviously no chance for the pearls to grow larger, "on the
same principle that where one picks a peach blossom, one cannot pick a
peach." In this manner the pearl fisheries are being robbed instead of
being conserved, and the supply must continue to decrease.
Drilled
pearls are practically the only ones found on the European market
today, and this fact points to the second source of supply. These
drilled pearls are old pearls gradually accumulated and held for
centuries by the pearl-loving princes of India. New pearls from the
fisheries are never drilled, both because the gems may be desired for
other purposes than for necklaces, and also because the moisture
otherwise held within the hard outer skin can, in the case of drilled
pearls, ooze out between the skins, the pearl little by little dries up
and becomes lighter. The old pearls of the Indian princes were always
drilled so that they might
