Part 10
While each day's catch is being counted the average run is carefully watched by experts who judge by the size, weight and general appearance of the oysters as to the probable yield of pearls. Opinions so formed are usually quite correct and bidding at the auctions are based on them to a great extent. The principal buyers are from Madras, Bombay, and other cities on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts of India, though local speculators buy many. The catch runs about one million per day. In 1903 forty-four million oysters were taken, but they realized much less than the catch of 1904, when the number was not quite twenty-six and three-quarter millions, though it netted the government $350,000; 1905, however, will be the record year as it is claimed the profits will reach the large sum of $830,000. These figures represent the government's share only.
The price realized at these sales varies not only with the season but from day-to-day. Ten to fourteen dollars per thousand is a fair average, though there are days when as much as twenty-four dollars is realized. Prices have ranged from $7.50 to $40.00 per thousand in one season. The net proceeds go to the revenue of Ceylon.
This has been the system under which the Ceylon fisheries were managed until lately. For some reason unknown to the public, the government, after a season of unequalled profit in 1905, leased the fisheries to a company, the Pearl Fishers of Ceylon (Limited), for a period of twenty years from January 1, 1906. The company is to pay the government $103,333 per annum and is to expend annually upon the improvement of the fishery not less than $16,666, or more than $50,000, at the discretion of the government. The expenses of supervision and protection by the government must also be borne by the company.
As a result of the first fishery (1906), the company after setting aside $49,628 for depreciations and reserve and carrying forward $77,382, show a profit of $256,960 which affords dividends of 36 cents on ordinary shares and 18 cents on deferred shares, a remarkably good beginning. The government revenue from the fishery of 1905 was $801,882 after the expenses, $73,510 were deducted; over $111,000 more than the profit of 1904 which was the most successful up to that time.
The inspector of pearl-banks anticipated a good fishery in 1906 but was of the opinion that after a small fishery in 1907 and probably 1908 the banks would fail for some years as they have done in the past.
After the pearls are taken from the dead oysters they are first sorted for size. This is done by passing them through a series of ten small brass sieves known as baskets, containing from twenty to one thousand holes. The sieves have twenty, thirty, fifty, eighty, one hundred, two hundred, four hundred, six hundred, eight hundred and one thousand holes respectively. The pearls are then sorted for color and quality, weighed and valued. As with all things, really fine pieces are rare, the great mass being ordinary or poor. Herein lies the attraction and excitement of the business for some will find great gems. One may imagine the keen interest of the swarthy buyer who has parted with his hoards, hoping to find a "pearl of great price" when he washes the lustrous spheres from the putrid mass of decaying fish: the eager search; the joy when his eye lights upon a big, white, shining sphere rising up among the heap of little ones; the growing exultation as he picks it out and with feverish interest rolls it about between his fingers to find it without flaw or blemish, or the keen disappointment should his inspection show, as it most frequently does, that it is full of imperfections.
Hovering about are the buyers for the great Hindu merchants, agents of far-off princes and Europeans, all watching sharply for great finds and ready to enter into the combat of wits which marks an oriental trading.
If one remembers that there are probably twenty-five thousand traders congregated on the hot sands of this far-off shore, the fair dame, whose neck is clasped by a string of these precious globules, may conjure from their lustrous skins, scenes as wild and weird as any fairy tale that set her youth to dreaming.
The pearls are sorted into a number of grades. Those perfect in sphericity and luster are called "ani." Anitari meaning "followers" or "companions," are of the same general character, but poorer in those important qualities. Masanku are somewhat irregular in shape and faulty, especially in luster and color. The poorest of this class, lacking the essential qualities, are separated into another grade and called "kallipu." Next come "kural," double or twinned, and "pisal," are misshapen or clustered. Folded or bent pearls are "madanku," and what we would call "rejection," a mixed lot of all sorts and sizes too poor to include in any of the regular classifications, are termed "vadivu." Seed-pearls, the very small pearls of which there are great quantities, are known as "tul." Many of these are ground to "chunam" or shell-lime, and used as an ingredient in a favorite masticatory.
The assortments being made, they are weighed and recorded in kalanchu (kalungy) and manchadi (manjaday). The kalanchu is a brass weight equal to 67 grains troy, and the manchadi is a small red berry that is of very even weight when full sized, and is reckoned twenty to a kalanchu.
In the valuation of ani, anitari and vadivu, the individual size, form, and color is considered, but the others are simply valued by weight.
The modus operandi of these fisheries like all others managed by Orientals continues much the same from fishing to fishing. Experiments have been made at the Tuticorin fishery with helmeted divers but their catch compared unfavorably with that of the naked natives, who will sometimes under favorable circumstances bring up two thousand in a day. It is said that the X-ray is being used to some extent in the examination of shells and that those found to be without pearls are thrown back into the sea, but it is doubtful if the general use would be practical or advantageous while oysters remain abundant; so far, the use of it has been experimental only.
Fine pearls are found in Dutch India among the Molucca Islands. Fishing is done by the natives, and as they seldom go deeper than ten or twelve feet the probability is that they do not get the finest shells or pearls, for it seems to be quite well established that the shells taken from deep water are larger and more likely to contain large pearls. Whether this arises from deep water being more favorable to growth, or an unmolested opportunity to grow, has not been determined.
Hitherto the Netherlands Indian government has opposed encroachment upon the rights of the natives and colonists, and has patrolled the waters with small gunboats to prevent any attempt by Europeans to fish. But lately concessions have been made to British firms so that shell is being shipped direct to London, and it is now thought that these fisheries will soon rival the Australian. The pearls were formerly bought from natives, principally of the Island of Aroe, by Chinese and Arabs who took them to Macassar. From there they were sent first to Singapore and then to London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Most of the pearls brought to Macassar are baroques, though fine specimens of more regular shape arrive there occasionally. The mother-of-pearl from these shells is of good quality.
Some pearls are found at the Bazaruto Islands, Portuguese East Africa, a few miles from the coast, midway between Inhambane and Beira. A concession was granted to a company about 1892, but bad management, lack of funds and political difficulties, killed the enterprise.
General reports indicate that it is very difficult for any enterprise subject to the officials of this district to succeed. The Bazaruto Kaffirs still fish, but without system or intelligence. They are wasteful and damage many of the pearls by cooking the oyster. The few found are shipped by Indian traders to Bombay and Zanzibar.
Pearl fishing has been attempted on the coast of German East Africa at Zanzibar Island and south, between the Island of Mafia and the main coast. Mother-of-pearl is abundant but few pearls have been found and there has been no sustained effort. There are large coral banks about the islands of the coast favorable for the growth of mother-of-pearl and there is shallow water over large areas.
Good white pearls have been taken from a red mussel found there. South of the Island of Mafia are beds of large pinna shells which yield black seed-pearls. There are pearl-shell fisheries in the Merguian Archipelago and in the government of Burmah and some pearls are found. The banks, scattered over an area of eleven thousand square miles, are rented from the government and rights to fish are sublet on royalty. The fishing is nearly all done by helmeted divers.
Avicula and meleagrina margaritifera are taken off the west coast of New Caledonia. From the former large numbers of pearls are taken, and from the latter, very beautiful white pearls. Fine colored pearls pink, yellow, gray and black are often found in this district. A variety of oyster commonly called shoulder of mutton, and another shell-fish called jamboneau (pinna) of which the pearl is very fine, are also found in these waters.
A syndicate was formed in Paris to exploit these beds and obtained concessions covering one hundred and thirty miles. Owing to the difficulty of getting divers, the waters had not been exploited to any great depth up to 1898, the regular fishings being confined to the shallows of six to seven feet, though larger shells were known to be in deeper water. More systematic work with modern appliances and in deeper waters has since been done with good success, but late reports show an accumulation of shell and indications that the industry has not been profitable.
In 1904 the price of shell (black-edge mother-of-pearl) fell to $250, U. S. gold per ton of 2240 pounds, from $700, the former price, with six hundred tons stored in London, Paris, Berlin, New York and San Francisco, making a prospective loss of $270,000 for 1904. There was an attempt to limit the production by a return to native diving. With dress the output would be about 500 tons for the year, with naked-diving 200 tons less. This would operate against the local government, as it not only levies $38.60 U.S. gold per metric ton as an export duty, but makes a large profit on the diving machines by way of license. The pearl fisheries of French Oceanica therefore face a grave situation.
Pearls are found occasionally on the western coast of Nicaragua at San Juan del Norte. The Panama coast still yields great quantities of pearls as it has done for many years. When Spain controlled the northwestern section of South America with the Isthmus to the borders of Guatemala, under the name of Colombia, immense quantities of pearls were sent home by the colonists.
It is recorded that 697 pounds of pearls were imported into Seville from Colombia in 1587. A large proportion of these undoubtedly came from the coasts of what is now Venezuela. The Panama or bullock shell as it is called, is not of the finest quality and the pearls are apt to be dark and inferior to the Indian pearls in luster as well as in color; nevertheless fine pearls are found there and the fisheries yield a greater average of black pearls than any other. Beautiful iridescent pearls are also found there.
The Pearl islands are on the east side of the Bay of Panama about forty miles from the city. The banks there may only be fished by divers but between Chiriqui and Veragua dredging is allowed. Since the United States government has become interested in this section there is a tendency here to exploit the Panama coasts and companies have been formed in the States for that purpose. The pearl fisheries formerly carried on along the coast of Ecuador about two hundred miles north of Guayaquil, are no longer operated.
On the Atlantic coast of South America the most fruitful pearl-banks lie along the coast of Venezuela and west to Rio Hacha on the Colombian coast. This was the first part of the American mainland sighted by Columbus and the quantities of pearls owned by the natives did much to draw the tide of adventurers which set this way in the sixteenth century.
The oysters are taken from reefs and bars about one mile from shore and about the islands. The principal beds are at El Tirano, north-east, and Macanao, north-west of the island of Margarita. There are fisheries also at the neighboring Islands of Coche and Cubagua. About four hundred sail-boats of from three to fifteen tons, employing two thousand men, are constantly at work in these fisheries.
A French company purchased a concession about the year 1900 from a Venezuelan to fish in this neighborhood. It was to pay the Venezuelan government 10 per cent. of the profits as royalty and use divers and diving apparatus so as to select the oysters and avoid waste of the immature. Fishing by natives is done mostly by dredging with metal scoops. It is estimated that upwards of $600,000 worth of pearls are found about the island of Margarita per annum, most of them going to the Paris market.
Exclusive rights have been granted a Venezuelan citizen by the local government lately to exploit the Gulf of Cariaco for pearls and other sea products. The contract is for twenty-five years. Certain advantages are guaranteed by the government which is to receive fifteen per cent. of the net profits of the enterprise.
About forty or fifty years ago several English companies conducted profitable fisheries in the lower Gulf of Maracaibo and on the coasts of the Goajira territory and Paraguana. They employed Indians as divers. Revolutionary troubles during the last twenty-five years so demoralized the Indians, that the industry was finally broken up. Reports from authoritative sources indicate, that not only could paying fisheries be established here, but that the interior is rich in minerals and precious stones.
Until lately there have been few restrictions upon fishing along the Venezuelan coast beyond a tax of fifty dollars imposed by local authorities upon the buyers and the payment of fifteen bolivars ($2.90) by each boat for a fishing permit at Margarita.
The oysters of this coast mature rapidly and like those of Ceylon live but six or seven years. They are small and the shells are so thin that they can be crushed between the fingers. They are of the Lingah type and are named by some avicula squamulosa. The nacreous lining is also very thin, but lustrous and beautifully iridescent. The pearls run small and very many of them are quite yellow.
Many fine white pearls are found however, though they incline frequently to a waxy luster and are often marred by chalky spots. Great quantities of baroques, notably beautiful for color and orient, are found. Round pearls with a china-like skin in many colors are also quite common. The average size and quality is not equal to those of the Indian waters, though it is much better than is generally credited, as the traders in this country for some inexplicable reason have an idea that Venezuelan pearls are necessarily poorer than others.
This notion has probably been fostered among American buyers by the Parisian dealers who at present well nigh control the output of these fisheries and naturally fear the diversion to a neighboring market which now pays a heavy toll to Paris on pearls taken from this continent. It is true an unusually large percentage of cracked pearls is found among Venezuelans, and they lose perceptibly in weight after being brought from the fisheries the loss averaging fully one-eighth of one per cent., nevertheless many pearls of the finest quality are taken from these fisheries. All pearls are subject to slight variations in weight.
It was from the fisheries of Colombia that Philip II. of Spain received the large pearl of 250 carats, about the size and shape of a pigeon's egg, so often mentioned in the chronicles of precious stones.
The management of the pearl fisheries of the Colombia of to-day is in the hands of the central bank of Colombia which is empowered to transact business pertaining to property belonging to the government. This institution holds a public auction and awards the lease of the rights to fish for pearls, coral, etc., on the Colombian coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to the most desirable bidder. The lessee must be governed by the rules and regulations laid down by the bank. The lease is for five years and went into effect August 1st, 1906.
New pearl oyster-beds were discovered in 1903 in the Gulf of Campèche near Coatzacoalcos and application was made by a Mexican to the Mexican government for a concession to work them. There are extensive beds, which are constantly fished, along the eastern coast of Lower California from its junction with the United States to Cape San Lucas. La Paz is the principal centre of the fisheries. An English syndicate has a concession from the Mexican government which was lately renewed, for fishing about La Paz. Pearls worth $350,000, among them many fine black pearls, and five thousand tons of shells valued at $1,250,000, were taken in 1904. This syndicate employs all the modern appliances.
Beds are known and worked from La Paz to and about the island of Loreto on the east coast, and at the island of Tiburon over on the East side of the gulf, and from Mazatlan all along the coast of Mexico proper to the boundary line of Guatemala. These beds were discovered by Cortez in 1536 and were worked spasmodically for two centuries; then for a period they were fished so constantly and thoroughly that the market was over-loaded with pearls and the supply of oysters seriously diminished. Of late years fishing has been again carried on systematically and with sufficient judgment to prevent the immediate destruction of the beds as before.
A pearl oyster-bed ten miles long has lately been located at the Punta de Santa Cristoval. The Mexican season for fishing varies in localities from May to November, or June to December. The day's work of the diver commences at near the ebb tide and ends shortly after the beginning of the flood tide, about three hours in all. Much fishing is done by independent naked native divers, in a manner similar to that of the Hindus and Arabs, but some of the large concessionaires supply their divers with helmets and other modern appliances.
Schooners of various sizes having several boats, carry the fishing
## parties to the banks and the men live on them through the entire
season. The daily catches are delivered to an armed boat which carries the oysters ashore, where they are at once searched for pearls. These when found are immediately sorted and valued, a percentage going to the diver in addition to his wages, if he is a regular employee of the Company.
The oysters are found adhering to rocks by the byssus, generally in bunches, hinge-side down, curved side up and the shells slightly parted. The diver cuts them loose with a knife and deposits them in his basket or net. One hundred to a hundred and fifty is a good day's work for a naked diver, but with the appliances now being introduced, a diver in dress can raise fully double that number. It should be remembered that there are elements of uncertainty and irregularity in the catch of the meleagrina. As compared with the enormous and crowded beds of the small varieties as they exist in the Gulf of Manaar and at the island of Margarita, Venezuela, where they can be literally scooped up, the scattered bunches of the meleagrina do not afford easy data for reckoning averages.
On the coasts of China, Japan, Korea, some of the South Sea Islands, the English Channel islands, the Canary islands, about St. Malo on the coast of France, at Queen Charlotte's island and along the coast of California from north of San Francisco to the border of Lower California, at the Cape of Good Hope, India, Australia and New Zealand, a shell-fish is taken which has considerable commercial value and yields pearls to a limited extent.
It is called in this country abalone. In the Channel islands it is known as the ormer. It is the Haliotis or Ear-shell. The Greeks called it venus ear-shell and used it as a food, considering it most nutritious. Old English writers praised it as a delicious morsel under the name of ormond saying that it was bigger and infinitely better than the oyster. This shell-fish attaches itself to the rocks by a flat, disk-shaped foot and must be taken when the tide is low. The fisherman can then insert a knife by stealth under the foot and taking the fish unawares, destroy the suction. Otherwise the hold of the fish could not be broken without destroying the shell. New Zealanders call the fish itself the mutton fish.
The Japanese, Chinese and Indians of the Pacific coast have long used it as an article of food. The shells are valuable on account of the very beautiful nacreous lining which is exceptionally good material for buttons and various ornamental purposes. The lining has an exquisite play of colors in the richest tones of peacock greens and reds. There are about seventy species of the Haliotis and the shells vary greatly in size. The British ormer (H. tuberculata) is of small size, about six inches long and is silvery. The shells are sometimes called in trade aurora shells. After being well beaten to make them tender the animals are used for food.
The ormer or auris marina was esteemed by the ancients as a very sweet and luscious dish. The people of the Channel islands ornament their houses with the shells and farmers use them to frighten the birds from their corn-fields. They string several together and suspend them from the end of a slender pole stuck in the ground. The wind swaying them, makes a constant clatter. The Haliotis iris of New Zealand is green and brilliantly iridescent. A Cape of Good Hope species (H. Mida), under the epidermis is tinged with color, principally orange.
Some of the more beautiful species were formerly very abundant on the coasts of China and Japan, but the constant use of the animal for many years as a food stuff has made them less common there and the Chinese and Japanese now obtain a large part of their supply from California, where the haliotis or abalone, as it is called is taken in great quantities. The two most beautiful species found on this coast are, the Haliotis splendens, a magnificent shell of rainbow coloring in which peacock green predominates, and H. rufescens, the lining of which is red. When found, the latter is usually thickly incrusted and coated with vegetation. The green and red range from seven to ten inches, the latter being generally the larger.