TJte American Pearl-Fisheries. 229
of
them. Acosta, in the fourth book of his history, glorieth that he had
eat of these oysters, and found Pearls in the middle of them. When the
night cometh, the fishermen retire to the island and carry the oysters
home to him that employeth them. Upon the opening they find in some
none, in
others from one to six Pearls, more or less, and in
•
some
great numbers of grains, which we call seed Pearl. These oyster shells
are within of a lively colour, towards an azure, they make spoons of
them and other toys, such as we call Mother-of-Pearl. The Pearls are of
very different forms, bigness, figure, colour and polish, and differ
also much in their price."
The
principal fisheries or Pearl-producing centres on the West coast of
America, are those of Panama and California. It is believed that
Pearl-banks extend with more or less interruption, from the Gulf of
Danen to the Gulf of California, though generally at too great depths
to be reached by the ordinary methods of fishing. The Pearls from the
Western coast of America are obtained from the Meleagrina Californiea, a mollusc which has a smaller and thinner shell than the common Pearl-oyster — M. Margaritifera. The Mother-of-Pearl shell of this species is known in commerce as "Panama" or "bullock-shell," but the principal
