it
is occasionally employed as a decorative material in architecture.
Thus, in Manila, the verandahs of the houses are ornamented with
Pearl-shells, while in Panama the cathedral and some of the churches
are similarly adorned. Even in our own Channel Islands, where the
lustrous ear-shells or " ormers " (Haliotis tuber culata) are
abundant, the shells are utilized by being let into the walls of some
of the houses and disposed in symmetrical patterns. The brilliant
effect of nacreous shells when massed together on a large scale, was
well illustrated by the column of Mother-of-Pearl shells, which formed
so conspicuous a trophy in the Western Australian Court of the
Colonial Exhibition of 1886.
The present value of Mother-of-Pearl varies from £60 to
;£200 per ton, and the Australian fisheries of Torres Straits and the
North West Coast and those of the Sooloo seas, contribute about one
half of the total supply.
