The American Pearl-Fisheries. 231
vessel's account. The working season is about three months."
Unusually
fine Pearls have at various times been recorded from the Bay of Mulege,
near Los Coyetes, in the Gulf of California. It is not only, however,
along the Western coasts of North and Central America that Pearls occur
; they are also to be found on certain parts of the Western shores of
South America, especially off Ecuador. Mr. P. L. Simmonds states that
in 1871 an American schooner was engaged in Pearling near Guayaquil,
the government receiving one-fifth of the produce. On the Eastern side
of South America they are found to a limited extent, in the waters off
the coast of Brazil.
Several
of the West Indian islands, especially St. Thomas and those on the
North coast of South America, have at various times produced large
quantities of Pearls. The island of Margarita off the Venezuelian
coast, takes its name from the Pearls which it has yielded. In 1574, a
Pearl found here weighed 250 carats.
It
is said that in 1597, as much as 350 lbs. weight of Pearls were brought
into Spain, from the fisheries of the Caribbean Sea. It appears that
the earliest connections with the American fisheries, were by far the
most profitable, for although in the
