[47] The Venezuelan pearl-oyster—Margaritifera Radiata—is related to the Ceylon species, Margaritifera vulgaris, and ranges in color from white to bronze and, sometimes, black. It is slightly larger than the Ceylonese gem, and is occasionally of excellent quality.
About three hundred and fifty boats, each manned by five or six men, are now engaged in the pearl fishery of Venezuela. Most of them are from the ports of Cumana, Juan Griego and Carupano.
The reader who is interested in the pearls of Margarita and of the Pearl Coast, may consult with profit the very elaborate work, The Book of the Pearl, by George F. Kunz and Chas. H. Stevenson, New York, 1908, and The Pearl, by W. R. Castelle, Philadelphia and London, 1907. [↑]
CHAPTER II
TRINIDAD AND THE ORINOCO
“The battle’s rage
Was like the strife which currents wage,
Where Orinoco, in his pride,
Rolls to the main no tribute tide,