Mother-of-Pearl Shell. 83
fostered
by the far-seeing policy initiated by Sir Stamford Raffles, have
transferred the whole of this trade from the Spanish port to the
Straits' Settlements.
The
innumerable islands of the North and South Pacific oceans, all
contribute more or less to swell the supplies—notably the Tuamotus of
the French colony Tahiti ; but the shell usually finds its way either
to Sydney or to Auckland, and from its final port of shipment it
receives its commercial nomenclature.
Three varieties are usually recognised in Commerce :—
1. White
2. Golden-Edged
3. Black-Edged
The
natives of the Sooloo Archipelago however, who raise the bulk of
"Manila" shell, profess to distinguish four varieties of the
golden-edged : namely, white or black backs, and either smooth or
wrinkled. The meaning of these terms is not sufficiently clear, but it
is not unlikely that they refer to the lines of horny substance
sometimes seen radiating from the centre of the hinge of the shell to
the circumference, produced by the successive layers of the lip in its
growth from youth
