proof
which can be given of the insignificance of this trade is that it has
escaped the notice, or is deemed unworthy the attention of the pasha's
officers. A few boats are occasionally despatched by the Jeddah
merchants to search for Pearls, but the precarious and ill-paid task of
collecting them is left mostly to the Tuwal and Huteimi tribes. The
former have about forty boats engaged in the trade, which are mostly
employed upon the Abyssinian coast. Their mode of collecting Pearls
differs entirely from that adopted in the Persian Gulf, where they are
found in nine or ten fathoms of water. The fishermen wait for a calm
day, when they pull along the outer edge of a single reef, until they
discover the oyster from the boat in three or four fathoms."
The
,Pearl-shells from the Red Sea were formerly sent to Alexandria,
and.being shipped thence to Europe were known commercially as "
Egyptians,"— a designation which they still retain. At one time large
supplies were sent to Trieste, and thence by rail to Vienna, where the
Mother-of-Pearl was worked into a variety of ornamental objects,
chiefly for the American market. A good deal of the Red Sea produce
also finds its way directly to London. The little Pearl-fishing that is
still prosecuted in the Red Sea is not now a government
