The Pearl, its story, its charm, and its value

by Wallis Richard Cattelle

At longitude 165 degrees E. the fisheries of New Caledonia are becoming notable for the number of fine fancy colored pearls found there. Both avicula margaritifera and meleagrina margaritifera are taken off the west coast.

In the waters of the Fiji Islands, longitude 180 degrees E. pearl oysters of the black-edge shell variety similar to the Bandas but a little larger are fairly abundant.

Fine shells, often containing very beautiful pearls, are taken off the coasts of Tahiti, Gambier, and throughout the Tuamotu Archipelago, lying between longitudes 130 degrees W. and 150 degrees W. The shells are of the black-edge type, large and heavy. The nacre is thick and has a particularly mellow luster; throughout this section both shells and pearls rank among the best.

All over the South Sea, pearl oysters are found about the islands and in the lagoons within the atolls which stud it, but in quantities too small in many places to induce capital to establish fisheries. Fishing for them is confined therefore to native divers who are rewarded by the occasional find of a few pearls, which often they sell at ridiculous prices to the stray traders who may chance to come their way.

This eastward journey now brings us to the Pacific coast of the American continent. Here the pearl-bearing mollusk is found on the shores of Lower California, about the Islands of the Gulf of California, at various points on the Mexican coast-line south to Acapulco and at Panama. They exist also on the coast of Ecuador but of late years fishing has not proved remunerative and it is now carried on in a desultory way only. They are found also on the western coast of Nicaragua.

The Mexican shells known as Panama shell or bullock shell have a dark, dirty, greenish rim and are much less valuable than the white or black shell. Similarly, dark, slaty-colored pearls are known as Panamas because many pearls taken on this coast are of that character. This color tendency however often results more advantageously as many of the pearls are sufficiently dark to be classed as fancy and some beautiful black and red pearls are found in these waters. Panama pearls also have the reputation of being softer than others. There are pearl oysters also on the Peruvian coast but this section has not yet been fished.

On the Atlantic side of America pearl oysters are abundant in the Gulf of Campeche and on the shoals about the islands and shores of Venezuela. The shells of Central America are similar to the Panamas only more yellow, while those of Venezuela are small and valueless. Between the east coast of America and the Red Sea are no fisheries save at Haiti, for no discoveries of any importance have been made on the western coast of Africa.

Consideration of these homes of the pearl oyster shows it to be a tropical fish and that it attains greater dimensions in the Pacific Ocean and near the equator than elsewhere. Beyond 30 degrees north it is found only at two points, the western shore of America and on the Japanese coast. These shores are washed by equatorial currents. The small varieties of the Indian seas and Venezuela, mature rapidly in four to six years, and if not taken they die out after the seventh year. The meleagrina of the Pacific however, though it attains its full size in six to eight years, continues to lay on shell-nacre up to twelve and even twenty years. A shell which is of good size but comparatively thin is called by the dealers in mother-of-pearl a "young shell." The Australian pictured at page 129 is such an one. The Tuamotu at page 127 is not full grown but well along in years, probably fourteen to sixteen years old.

Of the sea mollusks yielding formations which, though not true pearls, are so called, (Strombus gigas), is a native of the West Indies. Another, a gasteropod, the ear-shell (Haliotis) known in the United States as the abalone, is found on the coasts of California, Japan, the English Channel Islands and elsewhere. The Californians are divided into three classes, the blue backs, about six inches long, and green and red-ears, which are half as large again. Pinnas yielding black seed-pearls are found south of the Island of Mafia on the east coast of Africa. On the banks and shoals between Mafia and Zanzibar is a red mussel from which white pearls are taken.