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CHAPTER V.
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Mother-of-Pearl Shell.
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Fool: " Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell ?"
—King Lear. Act I. Scene v.
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HE
principal sources . of supply of Mother-of-Pearl shell are the Torres
Straits and West Australian fisheries, and the trade-centres of
Singapore and Macassar. Manila, situated on the Isle of Luzon and the
capital of the Philippine Islands, was until quite lately the greatest
centre of this trade in the East ; and thus most of the shell from the
surrounding seas has obtained, and still retains in the trade, the
distinguishing name of "Manila shell." But the geographical advantages
of Singapore, added to the enterprise of the Chinese steam-ship owners
there,
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