In the deeper waters of the Charente, the fishery is prosecuted on a

larger scale. Until recently, the _palourdes_ were caught by means of a

dredge towed by a small boat, which was raised from time to time and the

catch removed. Ten or fifteen years ago the scaphander or diving

apparatus was introduced, requiring seven men for its operation, and by

its use large catches have been made. The mussels are taken to the bank

and there boiled for a time to cause the shells to open, so that the

contents may be easily removed.

The shells are examined one by one to find any pearls that may adhere

thereto, and then the flesh of the mollusk is crushed between the

fingers to locate pearls contained in the mass; this is done largely by

children, working under competent supervision. Many pearls of fairly

good size and luster are obtained. The flesh of this mollusk is edible

and well-liked in southwestern France; and the shells are also of value

in the manufacture of buttons and similar objects.

In Germany the pearl fisheries are most important in streams of the

southern districts, in Bavaria, Saxony, and Silesia. The pearl-mussel in

these waters is not so abundant as formerly; yet, owing to the care

which has been given to these resources, it is probably as numerous here

as in any other part of the continent. The mussel rarely occurs singly,

generally in small beds or banks contiguous to each other, and in some

favorable regions these are extensive.

The pearl fisheries of Bavaria have been prominent since the sixteenth

century. They exist principally in the districts of Upper Franconia

(_Oberfranken_) and Upper Palatinate (_Oberpfalz_), the several

tributaries of the Danube between Ratisbon and Passau, and in those

tributaries of the Main and the Saale which rise in the Bavarian

mountains, such as the Oelsnitz, the Lamnitz, Schwesnitz, Grünebach,

Vils, and the Perlbach; also in the district of Lower Bavaria, where in

nine districts alone there are one hundred pearl-bearing streams and

lakes, of which the most important are the Regen, the Isar, and the

Ilz.[211]

Early in the sixteenth century, the river Ilz had the reputation of

yielding the choicest pearls in Lower Bavaria. The right to them was

reserved to the bishop of Passau, and a decree was made in 1579 that

persons convicted of poaching on these reserves should be hanged.[212]

Since that time there have been few decades in which the gems have not

been found in the woodland brooks and mountain streams that flow through

the ravines and past quaint, interesting castles of the wonderful

Bavarian highlands. Most of the prominent families in this beautiful

region have collections of native pearls, and there is still some trade

in them in picturesque Passau, at the junction of the Danube, the Ilz

and the Inn.

Tavernier wrote about 1670: “As for the pearls of Scotland, and those

which are found in the rivers of Bavaria, although necklaces are made of

them which are worth up to 1000 _écus_ (£225) and beyond, they cannot

enter into comparison with those of the East and West Indies.”[213]

The official returns for the Bavarian fisheries, dating from the latter

part of the sixteenth century, were examined by Von Hessling in 1858. He

noted many gaps in the statements of the yearly returns, partly on

account of the loss of the records and partly because the pearls were

delivered directly into the hands of the princes. The results of the

first fisheries are recorded in the district of Hals for the years

1581–99, in Viechtach for 1581–83 and 1590–93, and in Weissenstadt and

Zwiesel for 1583. The range of the fisheries was enlarged through the

discovery of new areas during the first half of the seventeenth century;

but this was offset by the bad seasons and by disturbed conditions

during the Thirty Years’ War. From 1650 to 1783 the pearls in the forest

lands of the Palatinate were exploited regularly and uninterruptedly,

with the exception of the district of Wetterfeld and that of Neunburg

vor dem Wald, where they were prosecuted for a few years only. From 1783

to 1814, they were almost entirely neglected, and the take was confined

to a few streams in Upper Palatinate and in the Bavarian forests. In the

former episcopal principality of Passau, where, according to general

accounts, the waters were rich in pearls, the records were scanty

previous to 1786; this was probably owing to the fact that the head

gamekeeper was obliged to transmit the catch of pearls directly to the

prince-bishop. The records for the fisheries in the districts of Rehau

and Kulmbach began with the year 1733.

From these fragmentary returns—making no estimate for the years for

which there were no figures available—Von Hessling found that from 1600

to 1857 there were taken 15,326 pearls of the first class, which were

clear white in color and of good luster; 27,662 pearls of the second

class, which were somewhat deficient in luster, and 251,778 pearls of

the third or poorest class, or “_Sandperlen_,” which, though of poor

quality, had sufficient whiteness and luster to be used as ornaments.

Had the records been complete, these figures would probably have been at

least fifty per cent. greater, or a total of about 445,000 pearls in the

257 years. In the last forty-three years of this period, for which the

records are fairly complete, the annual average was 208 pearls of the

first, 395 of the second, and 3091 of the third class, a total each year

of 3694 pearls of all grades. This was divided among the districts as

follows:

ANNUAL AVERAGE

District First class Second class Third class Total

Upper Franconia 13 34 52 99

Upper Palatinate 38 77 207 322

Lower Bavaria 157 284 2832 3273

——— ——— ———— ————

Total 208 395 3091 3694

Probably the most interesting of the pearl fisheries in Germany are

those prosecuted in the extreme southwestern part of the kingdom of

Saxony, in the picturesque region known as Vogtland. This is not on

account of their extent, for the output rarely exceeds $2000 in value in

any season; but because for nearly three hundred years they have been

conducted with the utmost care and regard for the preservation of the

resources. Indeed, a record exists of practically every pearl obtained

for nearly two centuries.

The waters in which the Saxon Vogtland fisheries are prosecuted are the

Elster River, from the health resort of that name to a short distance

below Elsterberg; its tributaries, the Mülhaüser, Freiberger, and

Marieneyer brooks; the Hartmannsgrüner and the Triebel brooks, the

Trieb, the Meschelsgrüner, the Teil, and Loch brooks, and twenty-five or

more small ponds.

For most of the data relative to these fisheries, we are indebted

to J. G. Jahn’s “Die Perlenfischerei im Voigtlande,” Oelsnitz,

1854; to Hinrich Nitsche’s “Süsswasserperlen, Internationale

Fischerei-Ausstellung zu Berlin,” 1880, and to O. Wohlberedt’s

“Nachtrag zur Molluskenfauna des Königreiches Sachsen,”

“Nachrichtsblatt der deutschen Malakozoologischen Gesellschaft,”

Frankfurt-am-Main, 1899, pp. 97–104.

In the year 1621, the electoral prince, Johann Georg I, reserved the

pearl fishery of the Vogtland in Saxony as a royal privilege, and

appointed Moritz Schmerler as superintendent and fisherman. From that

time until the present, this fishery has remained a royal prerogative;

and, remarkable to state, except at the close of the seventeenth century

when the father-in-law of a Schmerler enjoyed the privilege, all the

superintendents of the fishery—twenty-four persons in number—have been

direct descendants of the second pearler, Abraham Schmerler, who, in

1643, succeeded his brother Moritz. The present superintendent Julius

Schmerler has been in charge since 1889.

This fishery is conducted in accordance with regulations of the chief

inspector of forests for the district of Auerbach. The present

regulations date from June 15, 1827. In compliance therewith an

inspection is made of the waters each spring to remove all obstructions

and debris that would injure the resources; and, if necessary, entire

beds of mussels are removed from one locality to another which appears

more favorable. No mussels are opened at that time, for the real search

for pearls does not begin until the season is far advanced and the

fishermen can wade up to the waist in the water without discomfort.

Dr. Nitsche states that the whole pearling district is not searched over

every year, but is divided into 313 sections, each one constituting a

day’s work for three fishermen, and rarely are more than twenty or

thirty of these fished in any one year. Thus each section or district is

permitted to rest and recuperate for ten or fifteen years before it is

again invaded. Every mussel is opened carefully by hand, with the aid of

a peculiarly constructed iron instrument. By inserting the edge of this

between the nibs of the shell and turning it at right angles, the valves

are opened sufficiently to determine whether a pearl is contained

therein. If none is observed, the instrument is released and the mussel

returned uninjured to the water; but if a pearl is found within, the

shell is forced open and the find removed. In case small pearls are

observed which give promise of growing larger in time, they are not

removed, but the year is marked upon the shell with the opening

implement and the mussel returned to the water. It often happens that

good pearls are later removed from shells marked in this manner.

Complete records exist of the yield of this fishery during each year

since 1719, when the Vogtland passed to the electorate of Saxony. The

following is a summary of these records arranged in series of twenty

years each.

[Illustration]

DOWAGER CZARINA OF GRAND DUCHESS VLADIMIR GRAND DUCHESS MARIE

RUSSIA PAVLOVNA

Years Half

Clear clear Sand Damaged Average

pearls pearls pearls pearls Total per year

No. No. No. No. No. No.

1720–1739 1,809 727 1,201 552 4,289 214

1740–1759 1,412 578 484 281 2,755 138

1760–1779 1,042 272 427 219 1,960 98

1780–1799 1,261 243 357 179 2,040 102

1800–1819 1,603 261 325 203 2,392 120

1820–1839 1,659 340 326 326 2,651 133

1840–1859 1,884 610 387 505 3,386 169

1860–1879 1,618 682 450 514 3,264 163

1880–1899 471 394 86 373 1,324 66

1900–1905 79 161 22 86 348 58

—————— ————— ————— ————— —————— ———

Total in

186 years 12,838 4,268 4,065 3,238 24,409

Average per

year 69 23 22 17 131

In recent years the development of manufacturing industries in Saxony

and the resultant pollution of the water has greatly reduced the

abundance of the mollusks and consequently the output has been much

restricted. The average annual yield in the twenty years ending in 1879

was 163 pearls; in the twenty years ending in 1899 it was 66 pearls, and

in the six years ending in 1905 the annual average was 58 pearls. Owing

to high water, there was no fishing in 1888; and with a view to

permitting the resources to recuperate, the fishery was suspended from

1896 to 1899, inclusive. Omitting these five years, the average yield

during each season in the two decades ending 1899 was 88 pearls.

At the end of each season, the pearls secured are turned over to the

director of forestry for the district of Auerbach; by him they were

formerly sent to the royal cabinet of natural history, or to the royal

collection at Dresden, but since 1830 they have been sent to the royal

minister of finance, by whom they are sold each year. The total proceeds

from these sales now amount to about 55,000 marks.

In former times, according to Dr. Nitsche, it was customary to use these

pearls in making royal ornaments. This was the origin of the famous

Elster necklace, consisting of 177 pearls, now in the art collection in

the Grüne Gewölbe in the palace at Dresden. Another assortment in that

collection consists of nine choice, well-matched pearls, weighing 140

grains. For a necklace of Saxon pearls, the property of a duchess of

Sachsen-Zeitz, the sum of 40,000 thalers ($28,400) is said to have been

refused.

In Prussian Silesia the pearl-mussel is found in the upper tributaries

of the Oder, especially in Bober River from Löwenberg to the sources

among the foot-hills of the beautiful Riesengebirge, in the Lusatian

Neisse to Görlitz, the Queiss above Marklissa, and in the Juppel as far

as Weidenau. The Queiss has been famous for its pearls since the

sixteenth century, and even yet specimens of great beauty are obtained

therefrom. As long ago as 1690, Ledel complained of the diminution of

the number of mollusks owing to their wilful destruction by children;

and in 1729 the government issued a rescript in Upper Lusatia

(_Oberlausitz_) recommending the care of the young mollusks.[214]

Pearls are also found in the White Main a short distance from its

source, in the head waters of the Saale, and in numerous other

mountain-draining streams of middle Germany. Indeed, references could be

made to the discovery of pearls in nearly every stream of Germany at

some time during the last three or four centuries.

The records of pearl fisheries in the province of Hanover were traced by

Von Hessling as far back as the sixteenth century, when they were

prosecuted in the Aller, Ovia or Om, Lua or Low, and in the Seva in the

district of Lüneburg. During the reign of Christian Ludwig (1641–65) and

in that of George William (1666–1705), pearl fishing was carried on by

the state, and old records of the former district of Bodenteich note the

customs and practices of that period and of earlier times, and the

implements employed. In 1706, for instance, 265 clear and 292 imperfect

pearls were taken by three official fishermen from the Gerdauerbach.

Gradually, however, owing to indifferent management, the brooks yielded

less and less; the government seems to have entirely abandoned

supervision of them, so that, according to Taube’s “Communication,”[215]

slight results were obtained in 1766; indeed, only a few pearls could be

shown as curiosities.[216]

Regarding the condition of the Hanoverian pearl-brooks, especially of

those in the vicinity of Uelzen, Möbius wrote: “Uelzen lies at the

confluence of eleven small rivulets, three of which, the Wipperau, the

Gerdau and the Barnbeck, contain pearl-mussels. Fishing has been pursued

here for centuries, and there exists an old regulation of the sixteenth

century in regard to the pearl fisheries in the Ilmenau. Even at the

present day, hundreds of pearls are found here which command a good

price when they are bright and of good form. These either have a silvery

sheen or they are of a reddish color. The season for fishing is during

the months of July and August. The pearls are usually found in deformed

shells. Their shape varies greatly; most of them are flat on one side.

Naturally those which are spherical are the best, but the pear shapes

are highly prized.” Möbius frequently failed to find one pearl in a

hundred shells, but at other times he came across six or eight in this

quantity. Most of the mussels are found in the deepest places,

especially near the banks of the streams. One end of the shell usually

projects out of the sand. The fisherman is represented as feeling about

the bottom with his feet, and when he finds a shell, he seizes it

between his toes, picks it out, and then places it in the basket

suspended from his neck.[217]

[Illustration:

MITER OF PATRIARCH NIKON

Presented by the Czar Alexis Mikhailovitch and the Czarina Marie

Illiinichna. Decorated largely with European fresh-water pearls. Now

in the treasury of the Patriarchs, Moscow.

]

In Baden and in Hesse are small pearl fisheries. In 1760, Elector

Maximilian III sent to Mannheim, then in the Palatinate, eight hundred

living pearl-mussels from the Bavarian forests, and again in 1769, he

sent four hundred mussels from Deggendorf on the Danube, so that they

might be established in the Palatinate. The mussels were placed in the

Steinbach not far from Heidelberg, where they thrived so well that

fishing was instituted in 1783. Soon, however, most of the mussels

became buried in the sand, and the remainder were transplanted into a

quieter portion of the Steinbach, between Kreutzsteinach and Schönau,

about five miles northeast of Heidelberg. Here they seem to have been

forgotten, and were left undisturbed until, about 1820, a fine pearl

valued at two louis d’or was found near Schönau. This discovery soon led

to such reckless exploitation that the government reserved the fishery

as a state monopoly. The mussels were examined and sorted, and a portion

of the brook was specially prepared for their reception. However, the

cost of supervision was greater than the proceeds of the fishery, and

the business was rented to private parties for a very small amount. This

was paid as late as 1840 by the Natural History Society of Mannheim, the

annual rate then being ten florins.

An effort was made nearly two hundred years ago to develop the pearl

fisheries in Hesse. In 1717, Landgrave Prince William requested his

cousin, Duke Moritz of Saxony, to send a pearl fisherman “to examine

some streams in his territory where mussels have been found and to

determine whether they are fitted for pearl fishing and whether

fisheries can be established.”[218] In the following year, a member of

the famous Schmerler family from the Saxon fisheries was sent to Cassel,

but with what result is unknown.

When the pearling excitement developed at Schönau about 1820, Landrath

Welker, of Hirschhorn on the Neckar, requested the grand duke of Hesse

to place him in charge of the fishery, and when the proposition was

declined, he formed a small company for pearl-culture. In 1828 his

company had 558 mussels, 88 of which showed pearl formations; in 1833,

out of 651, 98 contained such objects, and in 1851, 117 mussels were

found with pearl formations out of 867 examined.[219] Owing to the

policy of the company in selling the pearls only among the members

thereof, the profits were altogether insufficient to cover the expenses,

and gradually the fishery dwindled down until it was prosecuted only as

a pastime.

Pearls are found in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, which formerly

belonged to Denmark, but since 1866 has been a part of the kingdom of

Prussia. Möbius relates that the Bavarian soldiers in 1864 collected

large quantities of pearls from the streams of this province and sold

many of them to jewelers in Hamburg.[220] Most of them were of good form

and luster; milky white was the prevailing tint, but some were pink and

others were rose-tinted.

In Austria, pearl fisheries are most important in the province of

Bohemia, where they are prosecuted in the headwaters of the Moldau from

Krumau, a few miles above Budweis, to below Turenberg, and to a much

less extent in its tributary, the Wottawa, on the northeastern slopes of

the Böhmer Wald or Bohemian Forest mountains. From very early times the

right of fishery belonged to those domains and estates through which the

streams flow, as for example, the cloister of Hohenfurth, the domain of

Rosenberg, of Krumau, etc. The Schwarzenberg family formerly drew a

considerable revenue therefrom. Over a hundred years ago the fishery was

actively prosecuted by Count Adolph Schwarzenberg, who exhibited at the

Bohemian Exposition, held in Prague in 1791, an interesting collection

of shells, apparatus employed in the fishery, and many beautiful pearls

obtained from his domains. The fisheries of the Wottawa were noted in

1560 by the Swiss naturalist Konrad von Gesner,[221] and again in 1582

by the district treasurer, Wolf Huber von Purgstall. In 1679, Balbinus

referred to the excellent qualities of the pearls, estimating the value

of many of them at twenty, thirty, and even one hundred golden florins

each. He described the methods by which they were taken, and also

complained of the destruction of the reefs by depredations of

poachers.[222]

The Wottawa or Otawa River has long had linked with its name the epithet

“the gold- and pearl-bearing brook.” Formerly, along its shores gold

washing was more or less carried on, as well as the fresh-water

pearl-mussel industry. At the present time, every third or fourth year,

these mussels are gathered, by means of small, fine-woven nets, from the

bed of the river, and a goodly number of pearls are collected.

The reefs in the Moldau from Hohenfurth to Krumau were almost entirely

ruined in 1620 by the troops who were cantoned there when the Bohemian

Protestants were overthrown near the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War,

and they never regained the reputation they formerly enjoyed. According

to the Vienna “Handels- und Börsenzeitung,” the output of the pearls

fifty years ago in the upper Moldau, in the Wottawa, and in the

Chrudimka—a tributary of the Elbe—reached in some years the sum of one

million florins in value, and as much as eighty and sometimes even one

hundred and twenty florins were paid for an individual specimen.[223]

These pearls closely resemble those from Passau in Bavaria, and some

approach the oriental gems in luster.

In the archduchy of Austria, pearls occur in several of the tributaries

of the “beautiful blue Danube.” They are especially important in streams

within the former district of Schärding, such as the Ludhammerbach, the

Ranzenbergerbach, the Glatzbachenbach, the Brambach, the

Schwarzbergerbach, the Mosenbach, and the Hollenbach; those in the

former district of Waizkirchen, including the Pirningerbach, the

Kesselbach, and many of their tributary brooks, and the Michel, the

Taglinsbach, the Fixelbach, and the Haarbach, in the domain of

Marbach.[224] Fishing in the Pirningerbach and the Kesselbach was

prosperous about 1765, and Empress Maria Theresa received a beautiful

necklace and bracelets of the pearls therefrom. In the district of

Marbach, the fishing was prosecuted as long ago as 1685 for the account

of the archbishop of Passau.

In Hungary from time immemorial, the native pearls have been popular

with the Magyar women, and very many yet exist in the old Hungarian

jewelry worn with the national costume. A century ago there was scarcely

a family of local prominence which did not possess a necklace of pearls,

although these were frequently not of choice quality or of considerable

size. With a falling off in the output of the native streams there has

been a great increase in the quantity of choice oriental pearls

purchased by the wealthy families, and some of the most costly necklaces

in Europe are now owned here.

In the kingdom of Denmark no pearl fisheries are now prosecuted, but

three centuries ago the gems were taken in the Kolding Fjord in the

province of Veile, Jutland. The great Holberg, who ranks first in Danish

literature, wrote that the governor of the castle at Kolding employed as

a pearl fisherman a Greenlander who had come to Denmark in 1605 or 1606,

and who “had given the governor to understand that in his native land he

was accustomed to fish for pearls.” Being required to work continuously,

both winter and summer, he fell ill and died, and as no one else wished

to pursue the occupation, the fishery ceased.[225]

In many of the Norwegian brooks, pearl fishing has been carried on for

two or three centuries, and often with satisfactory results. It appears

from ordinances dated November 10, 1691, May 14, 1707, and May 28, 1718,

that the fisheries were under special supervision as a royal prerogative

of the queen of Denmark.[226] Jahn notes that in 1719 and in 1722, Saxon

pearl fishermen were sent for. In 1734 Charles VI of Denmark requested

the elector of Saxony to send one of the pearl fishermen of Vogtland to

examine the brooks of Norway in reference to the pearl resources, and to

determine the practicability of establishing fisheries there. In

response to this request, C. H. Schmerler was sent to Copenhagen and

thence to Christiania, where he began an investigation of the Norwegian

waters, the governor himself attending at the beginning of the work. So

great was the estimation of its importance, that Schmerler was soon

afterward received in audience by the king and queen of united Denmark

and Norway at Frederiksborg palace near Copenhagen, and was awarded a

gift of one hundred ducats and a life-pension.[227]

In 1751, according to Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, the Norwegian pearl

fisheries were placed under the jurisdiction of the diocese of

Christiansand. Among the principal pearling regions at that time were

the Gon, Närim and Quasim rivers in the Stavanger district or amt; the

Undol, Rosseland and other brooks in the Lister and Mandal province; and

several streams in the district of Nadenäs.[228]

The returns from the Norwegian fisheries gradually decreased. After 1768

the rights were leased, and the revenue therefrom was paid into the

royal treasury. Owing to small returns, this source of revenue received

less and less attention, and about a century ago it was altogether

neglected, although from time to time choice finds were made. Due to

unusually low water in 1841, a number of valuable pearls were found near

Jedderen in the province of Christiansand, some selling as high as $300

each; several of these were shown at the London Industrial Exhibition by

the diocese of Christiania.

[Illustration:

PANAGIA OR ORNAMENT WORN ON THE BREAST OF A BISHOP IN RUSSIA

]

The pearl fisheries of Sweden were noted, nearly four centuries ago, by

Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala.[229] The gems were sought for by

expert fishermen in the interior districts, and were brought in large

quantities to the coasts for sale, the women and girls of all classes,

rich and poor, using them extensively in personal decoration.

The celebrated Linnæus left a detailed account of the method by which

mussels were caught in Sweden nearly two centuries ago. He wrote: “In

the summer season, if the water is shallow, the fishermen wade in the

stream and gather the mussels with their hands. Should the water be

deeper, they dive for the mussels and place such as they find in a

vessel made of birch bark, which they carry with them. Sunny days are

selected, because then they can see deeper into the water. But, should

this not suffice, they traverse the river on rafts which are painted

white beneath so that the bed of the stream may be illumined by the

reflected light. The men lie prone on the rafts and look down into the

depths so that they may immediately seize with wooden tongs the mussels

which they discover. Or else, hanging by their hands to the rafts, they

seize them in the water with their toes. If the water is too deep even

for this, they dive and feel around on the bottom with their hands until

it becomes necessary to rise again to the surface in order to breathe.

However, out of a hundred mussels, scarcely one contains a good pearl;

but sometimes as many as twenty pearls of the size of a grain of sand

are found in one shell. Many of the larger pearls are reddish or dark,

but occasionally a beautiful white pearl is hidden under such a

covering; although, naturally, it is rare that this is altogether

perfect. It has been noted that mussels seven years old contain pearls;

and in each of two mussels eighteen years old, a pearl was found

attached to the shell.”[230]

The list of streams in Sweden from which pearls were taken, as noted by

Olaf Maimer, J. Fischerstein, and Gissler[231] a century and a half ago,

seems to cover nearly all the rivers and brooks which flow from the

mountains of this beautiful country.

In Russia the love for the pearl has been almost as great as in Persia

and India. During the Middle Ages, pearls were worn upon the clothes of

nearly all well-to-do Russians. The great head-dresses of the women were

ornamented with them; and they were used in decorating the stoles,

vestments, crosses, and the priceless relics in the churches.

The pearl-mussel is found in very many of the Russian streams. It occurs

throughout Archangel, in most of the rivers which flow into the White

Sea, into Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, and the Baltic Sea; and likewise in

the Volga watershed. Von Hessling states that east of the Volga its

southern boundary extends to Lat. 56°, while on the west it extends

further southward, so that in the region of the Dnieper it reaches Lat.

51°. The extreme southern limit is near the mouth of the Don, about 47°

north latitude.[232]

In northern Russia pearls are secured in the provinces of Livonia.

Esthonia, and Olonetz, and in the grand duchy of Finland, where they

have been sought after for three centuries or more. Most of them are

bluish gray in color and they attain a maximum weight of about twelve

grains. Although not equaling the oriental gems, these pearls are of

good quality and are highly esteemed, not only by the peasants but by

the nobility and by the royal family of Russia. For reference to most of

the historical data relative to the fishery in Livonia, we are indebted

to an account written by H. Kawall.[233]

So long ago as 1612, Dionysius Fabricius compared the pearls of Livonia

with those of India. Said he: “Nor should I omit to mention that there

are rivers in Livonia wherein large pearls are produced in shells; and I

myself have seen some as large as the oriental, especially when they are

well grown. But because the peasants of this region are too ignorant to

determine with certainty when they mature, they are unable to collect

them properly, and therefore the pearls have become rarer.”[234]

According to Mylius,[235] in the seventeenth century, when Livonia

belonged to Sweden, the pearl resources received attention from the

government. Charles IX of Sweden decreed October 22, 1694, that the

pearls therefrom should not be exported but should be sold to officers

of the crown at a definite price. In 1700, an inspector of the fishery

in Livonia, whose name was Krey, reported that the peasants collected

pearls secretly from the small rivers and brooks, and forwarded them to

Moscow for sale. As the peasants objected to selling them to the king’s

commissioners at the prices fixed, the fishery soon dwindled in extent.

However, on the annexation of Livonia to Russia in 1712, and the removal

of these restrictions, it revived and became of local importance during

the last years of the reign of Peter the Great.

In 1742 the Livonian fishery was reorganized at the suggestion of a

Swede named Hedenberg. Furnished by the government with funds and an

escort, he began an exploration of the pearl-bearing waters, commencing

with Lake Kolk, where he secured many pearls of value, some of which

were presented to Empress Elizabeth.[236]

The fishery then came into great favor. To the nobility of Livonia, in

whose domains the brooks were situated, the crown accorded sixty rubles

for each half ounce of choice pearls secured, and for every half ounce

of the second class, thirty rubles; but the nobles were obliged to

renounce their rights to the fisheries and to permit the lakes and

brooks to be guarded by imperial soldiers. Owing to the very great

destruction of mussels which yielded no pearls, a reward was offered to

any one who would discover a method of determining from external

characteristics those individual shells which contain gems of value.

In 1746, when the Empress Elizabeth passed the summer in Livonia, large

quantities of pearls from the neighboring brooks were presented to her.

But, owing to the cost of supervision, the expenditures soon exceeded

the revenues and the government abandoned the guard and dismissed the

fishermen. Little by little the search decreased, and by 1774 relatively

few pearls were found.[237]

According to Hupel, the Schwarzbach River, near Werro, was celebrated

for its pearls, which were noted for their size and beauty; one of the

tributaries of this river is named Perlenbach (Pearl Brook). The Ammat

and Tirse streams, and forty other brooks and lakes also yielded them.

Pearls of slight value were likewise produced in the Palze and the

Rause, near Palzmar; the Paddez, a tributary of the Evest which empties

into the Düna, and the Voidau and the Petribach, each of which flows

into the Schwarzbach. Near the Tirse was a very old road house,

patronized by the peasants, which from time immemorial had borne the

name Pehrlu-kroghs (Pearl Tavern).

Formerly some of the brooks of Esthonia on the Gulf of Finland, and

principally those near Kolk and the adjacent lakes, furnished beautiful

pearls. From these waters came the beautiful necklace which is yet an

heirloom in the Kolk family. The choicest of these weighed from five to

ten grains, and the color was grayish blue. The Emperor Alexander I is

said to have received a present of pearls collected in the vicinity of

Tammerfors, in the government of Tavastehus, in the grand duchy of

Finland. The development of manufacturing in that region, however, has

destroyed most of the mussels.

Von Hessling notes that in the province of Olonetz, pearls are found in

the Poventshanka, in the Ostjor, and in the Kums, where they are secured

by the neighboring peasants who sometimes make valuable finds.[238] When

the brooks dry up, the mussels are easily secured; old inhabitants note

that on one occasion of this kind many superb pearls were found in the

Poventshanka, and a necklace of them was presented to the Empress

Catherine Alexievna. These pearls rarely leave the province in which

they are collected, as the inhabitants are fond of using them for

personal decoration. Young girls attend to the fishing, and workmen

pierce them for about two copecks each. Choice ones sell for thirty to

one hundred rubles apiece.

In the government of Archangel pearls have been collected for centuries

from the streams flowing into the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean. An

extended account of the fisheries of this region was given by Von

Middendorff.[239] He states that the _Unio margaritifera_ inhabits all

the rivers in which the descent is not too rapid, and especially in the

Tjura, the Tuloma, the Kovda, Kereda, the Kanda, etc. The fisheries have

been conducted exclusively by the shore Laplanders; but they have been

neglected in recent years owing to the small returns. Von Hessling notes

that the pearls are dull in color; in the opinion of the fishermen this

is caused by the mysterious influence of the copper money which they

carry with them. The Tuloma was formerly a productive river; its pearls

were sold in Kola, whence they were carried to Archangel, 335 miles

distant, where they were pierced by expert workmen. The Tjura also

yielded many pearls; but since a Laplander was drowned while fishing for

them, a legend has spread that the spirit of the river guards the

pearls, and the natives hesitate about seeking them.

Probably the occurrence of so many in the home streams had much to do

with developing in Russia that great love for the pearl which has made

it the national ornament, all classes finding pleasure in its

possession. While the superb gems treasured by the nobility are mostly

from oriental seas, a considerable percentage of those worn by the

peasantry are from the native waters. An interesting account of this

fondness among a certain class of Russian women—the Jewesses of Little

Russia—was given sixty years ago by the German traveler Kohl.

[Illustration:

RUSSIAN BOYARD LADIES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, SHOWING CAPS AND

OTHER ORNAMENTS OF PEARLS

]

In Alexandria, a small city in the government of Kherson in South

Russia, a Jew kept a café, and his charming daughter served us with

coffee. We paid her compliments on her beautiful eyes and teeth. But

she seemed to be much less vain of these natural ornaments than of

the acquired ones in the magnificent glittering pearl-cap which she

wore upon her head. For all the women through South and Little

Russia even as far as Galicia wear a certain stiff, baggy cap which

is very disfiguring, and is covered all over with a great number of

pearls, upon a foundation of black velvet. It is called a “mushka.”

This cap, with very unimportant modifications, has almost always the

same form; the only difference is that, in the case of the wealthy,

the pearls are larger, and sometimes a number of small pearls and

precious stones are suspended here and there, set in the same way as

the earrings of our ladies. It is common for them to wear half their

fortune on their heads in this way. For these caps generally cost

from five hundred to one thousand roubles, and many are worth five

or six thousand and even more; they wear them every day, holidays as

well as ordinary days, and strut around the kitchens and cellars

with their “mushka.” They spend their last penny in order to secure

such a pearl-cap, and even when they are clad in rags their head is

covered with pearls. In order to furnish the requisite material for

this wide-spread fashion, the commerce in pearls of Odessa, Taganrog

and some other places in southern Russia is not unimportant. There

may live in the region where the pearl-caps of which I speak are

worn at least 2,000,000 Jewesses. Let us estimate that among them

there are but 300,000 adults, and that only half of these, 150,000,

wear pearl-caps (only the most indigent and the most aristocratic do

not wear the “mushka”); let us then estimate the average value of

such a cap at only five hundred roubles—these are the lowest minima

and fall far short of the real figures—and we have a total capital

of 76,000,000 roubles, which the Jewesses of this region wear upon

their heads. Naturally the annual diminution of this capital is

small, since these pearls are transmitted from the mothers to their

daughters and granddaughters. Still, if we estimate that they last

for a century, the necessary yearly contribution amounts to nearly

one million. It is, however, probable that a much larger capital is

employed in the commerce of pearls. They are, for the most part,

oriental and come by way of Turkey and Odessa or else by way of

Armenia and Tiflis. We inquired of our beautiful Jewess whether she

was not in perpetual dread on account of her pearl-cap, and how she

protected it from thieves. She answered that she wore it on her head

all day and at night placed it in a casket which rested under her

pillow. So that the whole short life of these Jewesses of the

steppes revolves around their pearl-cap as the earth does around the

sun.[240]

Several species of marine mollusks on the coasts of Europe yield pearly

formations, but none of much ornamental or commercial value. Probably

the most interesting of these are from the Pinna on the Mediterranean

coasts, and especially on the coast of Sardinia and the shores of the

Adriatic. An interesting collection of these Pinna pearls was furnished

to the writers by Alexandro Castellani of Rome.

IX

ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC

SOUTH SEA ISLANDS, AUSTRALIAN COASTS, MALAY ARCHIPELAGO

IX

PEARL FISHERIES OF THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS

Sea-girt isles,

That, like to rich and various gems, inlay

The unadorned bosom of the deep.

MILTON.

Gathering pearl shells and pearls is the principal industry of the

semi-amphibious natives of the hundreds of palm-crowned and foam-girdled

islands of the southern Pacific, commonly known as the South Sea

Islands. Among these the most prominent for pearl fishing are the

Tuamotu Islands or Low Archipelago, the Society Islands, the Marquesas,

the Fiji Islands, Penrhyn or Tongareva, and New Caledonia. These are

under the protection of the French government, except Fiji and Penrhyn,

which belong to Great Britain.

Almost ever since the South Sea Islands have been known to civilization

they have contributed pearls; and the fishery has been one of the

principal industries, not only for the natives, but also for the not

inconsiderable number of sailors who, preferring the lotus on shore to

the salt pork and monotony of ship life, have yielded to the insular

attractions and formed domestic ties. The industry has been especially

extensive during the last seventy years, when there has been a

profitable market for the shells. Most of the natives—men, women, and

children—follow it for a living. Domestic duties rest very lightly upon

the women, and many of these, and even young girls, find employment in

diving, in which at moderate depths these dusky mermaids are nearly, if

not quite as expert as the men and boys.

Tahiti, the largest of the eleven Society Islands, is the center of the

pearling industry of French Oceanica. It is situated in about Lat. 17°

S. and Long. 150° W., and has an area of approximately 410 square miles

and a population of 11,000, nearly one half of whom live in Papeiti, the

principal town. This is one of the most agreeable of the “Summer Isles

of Eden,” Nature furnishing food in abundance, and climate and social

customs requiring little in the way of dress and habitation.

Notwithstanding its importance as the headquarters of the pearling

industry, few pearl-oysters are caught at Tahiti, most of them coming

from the archipelagoes of Tuamotu, Gambier, and occasionally Tubai.

The Tuamotu Archipelago is the scene of the principal pearl fisheries of

the South Seas; and from the local importance of this industry the group

is sometimes called the Pearl Islands. These coral-formed islands are

strung out for a distance of 900 miles in a northwest and southeast

direction, and extend from Lat. 14° to 23° S. and from Long. 136° to

149° W. They number about seventy-eight, many of them made up of small

atolls only a few feet above the surface of the ocean, and with an

aggregate area of about 360 square miles. The total population is

approximately 6000, with many visitors from Tahiti and other neighboring

islands during the pearling season. The principal products are pearl

shell and pearls, copra, and cocoanut oil; and nearly one half of the

islands yield nothing but shell and pearls. The chief port is Fakarava

on an island of the same name, and the trade is almost entirely with

Tahiti.

As the Tuamotus are of coral formation, they produce little vegetable

growth, and the people seem often on the brink of starvation, forming a

striking contrast with those of the neighboring Society Islands. Drawing

their subsistence entirely from the sea, except for the native cocoanuts

and breadfruit, these people have, at times, been in great straits for

food, and it was doubtless severe hunger that drove them to the acts of

cannibalism with which they have been charged. And the sea which

supplies them with food has also visited them with great destruction. As

recently as January, 1903, a great storm swept over this group, drowning

over 500 of the inhabitants, and destroying a very considerable portion

of the pearling fleet and other property.

The pearl-oyster reefs of the Tuamotu Archipelago are very extensive,

only eight or ten of the islands failing to contribute to the supply.

They occur in the protected lagoons of the atolls, where the bottom is

well covered with coral growth, with numerous elevations and depressions

of various sizes; and it is about the bases and in the recesses of these

coral growths that the best shells are usually found. Most of them are

of the black-edged variety of _Margaritifera margaritifera_, which here

attains a great size, reaching a diameter of twelve inches in extreme

cases.

While pearl-oysters are found about nearly all of the Tuamotu Islands,

the reefs are richest at Hikueru or Melville Island. When that lagoon is

open it is the scene of the greatest operations, and it is credited with

nearly one half of the total product of the archipelago. At the opening

of the season, this is the resort of fishermen from all over the group,

even from a distance of five hundred miles, and thousands of natives

camp in temporary leaf-thatched huts among the cocoanut-palms on the

beach, those from the different islands congregating in isolated

settlements. As many as five thousand persons are sometimes brought

together in this way.

[Illustration:

THE PEARLING REGIONS IN OCEANIA AND MALAYSIA

]

The volcanic-formed Gambier Islands, with high peaks reaching, in one

instance, an altitude of over 1200 feet, present a striking contrast to

the Tuamotu atolls. This group consists of five large and several small

islands, surrounded by a coral reef of an irregular triangular figure.

The 1100 inhabitants of the Gambier Islands derive a large percentage of

their support from the pearl fishery. The patches of pearl-oysters are

located between the islands and the barrier reefs. They are numerous

about the island of Mangareva, which is well surrounded by them on the

north, east, and southeast. Oysters from the reef of Tearae, which

extends from the eastern point of Mangareva to the small island of

Aukena, a distance of two miles, are especially rich in pearls. On this

reef, where the water is from one to four fathoms in depth, the mollusks

are small, rarely exceeding five or six inches at maturity, but the

shell is very thick and coral covered; these yield many pearls. In

greater depths, the oysters attain a larger size, but they yield few

pearls.

The first white man to attempt the exploitation of the pearl resources

of the Tuamotus appears to have been Mörenhout. In a voyage to the

Oceanic Islands in 1827, he learned of the great wealth of pearl shell,

and applied to Queen Pomaré at Tahiti for permission to employ the

natives in the fishery. With an eye to business, she required a fee of

$5000 for herself before granting the desired authority.[241]

Considering this excessive, Mörenhout attempted to deal with the natives

without permission of the dusky queen, but under these adverse

conditions he found the trade unsatisfactory and soon abandoned it.

In 1830, and the years immediately succeeding, desultory pearling

voyages were made from Valparaiso, Chile, and these were followed by

expeditions from America and elsewhere. An interesting account of the

trade at that time is contained in Lucatt’s “Rovings in the Pacific from

1837 to 1849,” published in London in 1851.

The Mormon influx in 1846 resulted in a further development of the pearl

fishery; and Grouard, the local leader of that denomination, is credited

with making a fortune in the business.

From the beginning of the industry up to 1880, when control of the

islands passed to the French government, it is estimated that about

15,000 tons of pearl-oysters were secured. The extent of the fishery

during the few years preceding 1880 made such drains upon the

productiveness of the reefs that many of them gave signs of exhaustion.

With a view to adopting methods for conserving the industry, so

essential to the welfare of the natives, the French Ministry of Marine

and Colonies in 1883 inaugurated an investigation of its condition, and

of the possibilities for improvement. This was made under the immediate

direction of G. Bouchon-Brandely, whose interesting report[242] contains

much data on this subject.

As a result of these investigations and recommendations, a restricted

season for fishing was adopted, and only a portion of the reefs was

thrown open each year, a decree of the governor, published in the

“Journal Officiel” of the colony, determining the islands in which the

fishery might be prosecuted. This interdiction, known locally as

_rahui_, is for the purpose of permitting the oysters to develop, and

thus prevent the exhaustion of the reefs.

By decree of January 24, 1885, a restriction was made against taking

shells measuring less than 17 centimeters in diameter on the interior

nacre, or weighing less than 200 grams per valve. But this was repealed

in 1890, and since then there has been no restriction on the size of the

oysters that may be fished.

The pearl fishery and the isolated leper station are the principal

claims which attract the attention of the outside world to the island of

Penrhyn or Tongareva, one of the Manahiki group, in Lat. 9° S., and

Long. 158° W. This desolate atoll island consists of a ring of land a

few hundred yards in width, inclosing a lagoon nine miles long and five

miles wide, and it produces little else than pearls and pearl shell. The

white gravelly shore yields little vegetation except cocoanuts, which

share with fish in furnishing sustenance to the semi-amphibious natives.

At Penrhyn the pearl fishery is carried on in the clear, limpid waters

of the atoll where the oysters are undisturbed by storms. The shells

belong mostly to the golden-edged variety, and are of good quality, the

value in London ranging from £100 to £250 per ton. Relatively few pearls

are found, amounting in aggregate value to only about one fourth of the

value of the shells. These are the principal objects of the fishery; the

finding of pearls is incidental, but careful search is always made for

them, and some choice specimens have been secured.

On the coast of New Caledonia, pearling is of recent origin, dating as

an industrial enterprise from 1897, although previous to that time some

shells and pearls had been secured by native beach-combers. This island

is 220 miles in length and 30 in width, situated 850 miles southeast of

Australia, and about the same distance from New Zealand. It is a French

colony, and has been used by that government as a penal settlement since

1864.

In 1897, rich beds of pearl-oysters were discovered off the west coast

of this island. They are most numerous between the shore and the barrier

reefs on the west coast from Pouembout River to Gomen Bay, and

especially about the small island of Konienne at the mouth of the

Pouembout River. They are also abundant among the Loyalty Islands off

the eastern coast of New Caledonia, and especially at the island of

Lifu.[243] The shell is similar to that from Torres Straits, and the

yield of pearls is very large. Several concessions have been obtained to

exploit these beds, one of them covering 130 miles in length. The

industry is carried on by means of scaphanders, in a manner similar to

that of Torres Straits. Virtually all of the catch is sent to France.

The natives of the South Sea Islands, and particularly of Penrhyn and

the Tuamotu group, are doubtless the most expert divers in the world.

This can be readily appreciated by those who have read of Hua Manu in C.

W. Stoddard’s thrilling narrative, or have heard the story of the brown

woman who swam for forty hours in a storm with a helpless husband on her

back. Accustomed to the water from infancy, these human otters swim all

day long as readily as they would walk, go miles from shore without a

boat in search of fish which they take by means of baited hook and line,

and boldly attack a shark single-handed. Seemingly fabulous stories are

told of their descending, unaided, 150 feet or more beneath the surface,

and remaining at lesser depths for nearly three minutes, far surpassing

any modern records of the divers of India.

The water in the South Seas is wonderfully clear, enabling the fishermen

to detect small objects at considerable depths, and especially so when

using the water-telescope, similar to that employed in the Red Sea

fisheries. By immersing this to a depth of several inches and cutting

off the light from the upper end as he gazes through it down into the

waters, the fisherman can readily inspect the bottom at a depth of

fifteen fathoms, and thus locate the shells before he descends.

The diving is quite unlike that in Ceylon and Arabia. The men do not

descend on stones, but swim to the bottom. The diver is stripped to his

_paréu_ or breech-clout, his right hand is protected by a cotton mitten

or by only a wrapping of cotton cloth, and in his left hand he carries a

pearl shell to assist in directing his movements and in detaching the

oysters at the bottom. In preparing for a deep descent, he sits for

several minutes in characteristic attitude with hands hanging over

knees, and repeatedly inflates his lungs to the fullest capacity,

exhaling the air slowly through his mouth. After five or six minutes of

“taking the wind,” the diver inhales a good breath, drops over the

gunwale into the water to give him a start, and descends feet foremost.

At a distance of twelve or fifteen feet below the surface, gracefully as

an otter or a seal, he bends forward and turns head downward and, with

limbs showing dimly in frog-like motion, he swims vertically the

remaining distance to the bottom. There he assumes a horizontal position

and swims slowly just above the ground, searching critically for

suitable oysters, in this way traversing a distance possibly of fifty

feet or more. When he has secured an oyster, or his breath is

approaching exhaustion, he springs from the ground in an erect position

and rapidly swims upward, the buoyancy of his body hastening his ascent

so that he pops head and shoulders above the surface, and falls back

with laboring pulse and panting breath. In case the dive has been

unusually extended, a few drops of blood may trickle from the nose and

mouth. His find—consisting frequently of nothing and rarely of more than

one oyster—is carried in a cocoanut fiber sack suspended from the neck,

or is held in the left hand, or may be hugged beneath the left arm.

Ordinarily in actual fishing operations, the fishermen do not descend to

greater depths than fifteen fathoms, and remain from sixty to ninety

seconds. Writing in 1851, a trader who had spent several years in

collecting pearls and pearl shells among the Tuamotus stated: “I timed

several by the watch, and the longest period I knew any of them to keep

beneath the water was a minute and a quarter, and there were only two

who accomplished this feat. Rather less than a minute was the usual

duration. It is unusual for them to attempt deep diving; and let the

shells be ever so abundant, they will come up and swear there are

none.”[244]

However, in mutual contests or in special exhibitions, reports of

twenty, twenty-three, and even twenty-five fathoms are numerous, and

they have repeatedly been timed two and a half to three minutes.

Bouchon-Brandely speaks of a woman at Anaa, one of the Tuamotus, who

would go down twenty-five fathoms and remain three minutes under

water.[245] This seems very unusual, but there are numerous reports of

two and a half minutes at about seventeen or eighteen fathoms. In

October, 1899, at Hikueru Island, another of the Tuamotu group, a young

native made an exhibition dive for the officers of the United States

Fish Commission steamship _Albatross_. He reached bottom at a depth of

102 feet under the boat’s keel, and remained submerged two minutes and

forty seconds. The water was so transparent that he was clearly seen

from the surface. After he touched bottom at that great depth, he calmly

picked over the coral and shells to select a piece to bring up.[246] The

diver was ready to go down again only a few minutes after he came up.

In his work on French Oceanica, Chartier states: “There are three women

well known in the archipelago [of Tuamotu] who have no equals elsewhere;

they explore the depth at twenty-five fathoms and remain not less than

three minutes before reappearing at the surface.”[247] However, these

unusual depths and extensions of time are dangerous, and care must be

taken or serious results follow. Most of the catch is obtained in about

ten fathoms of water.

At the request of the writer, Mr. Julius D. Dreher, American Consul at

Tahiti, made inquiries among the South Sea Islands in regard to the

record of the best divers, and wrote as follows:

Mr. J. L. Young, who has lived in these islands for thirty years,

informs me that he has never seen a diver remain under water longer

than 80 seconds, and that at a depth of twelve to fifteen fathoms.

At one time he tested a man who claimed to be able to stay under for

three minutes, yet this man could hold his breath on land less than

80 seconds by the watch.

Elder Joseph F. Burton, who has spent many years as a missionary in

these islands, states that once in Hikueru, of the Tuamotu group, he

went out in a boat with the divers to time them. The best record

made was 107 seconds, but he was informed that there were better

divers on the island than those he tested. He thinks the water was

ten to twelve fathoms in depth. A native of Takaroa, named Metuaro,

told Mr. Burton that he could stay under water three minutes or

longer. When these divers come up they take a breath and immediately

put their head under water to prevent headache.

Mr. J. Lamb Doty, formerly Consul and now Vice-Consul at Tahiti, who

has spent eighteen years here, is willing to be quoted as affirming

that he once timed a diver who remained under water 2 minutes 35

seconds.

Mr. Henry B. Merwin, a leading trader with the Tuamotu Islands, is

willing to be quoted as saying that he saw a diver remain under

water 4 minutes 45 seconds by the watch. This is generally regarded,

so far as my inquiries go, as improbable; but most persons

interviewed believe that men do remain under water 2½ to 3 minutes.

A native of Takaroa, named Tai, assured me in the presence of others

that there were twenty men in that island who could remain under

water 2½ to 3 minutes at a depth of twenty fathoms. He claimed to be

able to stay 3 minutes at that depth.

[Illustration:

Pearl-divers of the Tuamotu Archipelago; men, women and children dive

in these waters

]

[Illustration:

Settlement of pearl fishermen at Hiqueru, Tuamotu Archipelago

]

Diving-suits, or scaphanders, have been used at most of the South Sea

Islands, but in a very irregular manner. In 1890 the use of scaphanders

was restricted in the Tuamotu group, and by decree of December 28, 1892,

it was interdicted altogether with a view to preserving the industry to

the natives, as it represents their principal means of livelihood. The

suit commonly employed at Penrhyn consists of a helmet and a jumper,

neither boots nor trousers being worn. Owing to the absence of weights

on the feet, it rarely but nevertheless sometimes happens that a diver

turns upside down, and the unwieldy helmet keeps him head downward while

the air rushes out under the bottom cord of the jumper and he is

suffocated. Also, when a good patch of shells has been located, the

temptation to remain down too long is great, and paralysis often

results. On the whole, these diving-suits have proven very dangerous to

the light, graceful swimmers of these southern seas, to whom they are

about as much of an impediment as was Saul’s armor to the shepherd lad

who slew the giant with the simple pebble from a sling.

And there are dangers also in nude diving, even to those who have spent

a lifetime about the water. Sharks and sting-rays and devil-fish there

are in abundance, and many of them know the taste of diver’s flesh; on

the other hand many a daring South Sea Islander could tell of a fierce

combat more thrilling than even those pictured by Victor Hugo. One of

the chief advantages of the diving-suit is that in case a shark comes

along, the diver can bide his time until the fish is ready to leave, or

he can frighten it away by ejecting air bubbles from the sleeve of his

suit or by other demonstrations; whereas a nude diver is obliged to seek

the air without delay, and in the retreat is seized by the fish who,

human like, has his appetite increased by the visible retreat of the

object of his desire.

Not Schiller nor Edgar Allan Poe ever conjured up a picture more

ghastly than that of a Penrhyn diver caught like a rat in a trap by

some huge, man-eating shark or fierce kara mauua, crouching in a

cleft of the overhanging coral, under the dark green gloom of a

hundred feet of water, with bursting lungs and cracking eyeballs,

while the threatening bulk of his terrible enemy looms dark and

steady, full in the road to life and air. A minute or more has been

spent in the downward journey; another minute has passed in the

agonized wait under the rock.... Has he been seen?... Will the

creature move away now, while there is still time to return? The

diver knows to a second how much time has passed; the third minute

is on its way; but one goes up quicker than one comes down, and

there is still hope.... Two minutes and a half; it is barely

possible now, but—the sentinel of death glides forward; his cruel

eyes, phosphorescent in the gloom, look right into the cleft where

the wretched creature is crouching, with almost twenty seconds of

life still left, but now not a shred of hope. A few more beats of

the laboring pulse, a gasp from the tortured lungs, a sudden rush of

silvery air bubbles, and the brown limbs collapse down out of the

cleft like wreaths of seaweed. The shark has his own. (Beatrice

Grimshaw in the “Graphic.”)

At the end of the day’s work, the catch is opened by means of a large

knife, and carefully searched for the much prized pearls. Usually the

fisherman finds none; occasionally he discovers a small round one or a

large baroque, and at long intervals—possibly once in two or three

years—his search is rewarded with a fine pearl for which he may receive

$50 or $60, and there is always the chance that the very next oyster

will disclose a gem which will make him independent for the remainder of

his life; and if no pearls whatever are found, there are the shells, the

sale of which furnishes sufficient to purchase tobacco, knives,

fish-hooks, the gaudy cotton cloths, the flour and other simple articles

of food, and especially rum, that fatal gift of civilization which has

been the curse of so many primitive peoples.

Some of the individual pearls secured have been remarkably large,

weighing 100 grains and over. Returning visitors from Tahiti, with views

magnified doubtless in proportion to the distance of the objects of

their description, credited Queen Pomaré with the possession of some

sufficiently large to be used for billiard-balls. Sixty years ago superb

pearls could be obtained from the natives for a few gallons of rum or a

small number of pieces of cheap calico, and several shrewd traders made

great profits in the business. But as trade at the islands was open to

vessels of all nationalities, the competition increased, with the result

that the natives gradually learned the high estimation in which pearls

are held, and in recent years it has not been unusual for one of medium

grade to sell higher in Oceanica than it would in Europe.

It is difficult to form a reliable estimate of the value of the pearling

industry of the South Sea Islands. The Tuamotu group, with 4000

fishermen, yields, in an average season, about 450 tons of

mother-of-pearl, worth about £65,000 in London, where most of it is

marketed. The yield at the remaining French islands is less than that of

the Tuamotus. Probably the total yield of mother-of-pearl in all the

South Sea Islands is not far from 900 tons, worth about $700,000.

No statistics whatever are available regarding the yield of pearls, and

the estimates sent from the islands are small compared with those made

by London and Paris firms who import the pearls. A large number of

persons living in Papeiti and many traders visiting the islands depend

very largely on pearl-dealing for a livelihood. From the yield of pearl

shell and estimates made by dealers, we are inclined to put the value of

the pearls secured in an average season from all the South Sea Islands

at about $125,000, only a small portion of which goes to the fishermen

themselves, the greater part representing profits of the traders.

PEARL FISHERIES OF AUSTRALIA

Ocean’s gem, the purest

Of nature’s works! What days of weary journeyings,

What sleepless nights, what toils on land and sea,

Are borne by men to gain thee!

UNKNOWN.

As regards area of distribution the most extensive pearl-oyster grounds

of the world are situated on the northern and western coasts of

Australia. These are located within the jurisdictions of Queensland,

Western Australia, and South Australia; and extend in irregular patches

from near Cooktown on the northeast almost to Fremantle at the

southwest, a distance of nearly 3000 miles. Those in Queensland are

commonly known as the Torres Straits fisheries, as they are especially

important there; but they extend a considerable distance beyond each end

of the strait, and pearling expeditions are made from the limits of the

Great Barrier coral reef northward to the vicinity of New Guinea.[248]

Those of Western Australia are commonly spoken of as the Northwest

fisheries.

The fisheries of Queensland and of Western Australia are approximately

equal in extent, as regards number of vessels, boats, and men employed,

and the quantity and value of the catch, with the advantage slightly in

favor of the Northwest fishery in the last four or five years. In 1905,

according to the official figures, the Queensland fishery gave

employment to 348 vessels and 2850 men, and yielded shell and pearls

worth £135,000, which was the smallest output since 1890. The Western

Australia fishery, exclusive of Sharks Bay, employed 365 vessels in

1905, and about the same number of men as in Queensland, and yielded

£196,000 worth of shell and pearls. The fishery of South Australia

employed about 60 vessels and 375 men, and yielded about £25,000 worth

of shell and pearls. This makes for the whole of Australia, except

Sharks Bay hereinafter noted, a total of 773 vessels, 6075 men, and an

output worth £356,000. It should be understood that the South Australia

fishery is not prosecuted on the southern coast of the continent, but on

the northern coast, in what is known as the Northern Territory of South

Australia.

Three species of pearl-oysters are found in Australian waters. The

largest species, _Margaritifera maxima_, which is by far the most

important and widely distributed, occurs to a greater or less extent

throughout the whole of this region. This yields the standard

motherof-pearl of commerce. Although the pearls which it yields are

among the largest and finest in the world, this mollusk is sought more

particularly for the shell, the value of which from season to season

averages three or four times as much as that of the pearls. Ordinarily

this shell is uniformly white over the entire inner surface, and is

commonly known locally as “silver lip”; but some “golden-edged” shell

occurs on the muddy grounds in narrow passages between the islands on

the northwest coast.

While this species is gregarious, it is not located in densely covered

beds, but is scattered in patches over the reefs. Some of these are

miles in length and contain scores of tons, but visually they are very

much smaller. The oysters occur principally on rocky bottom, and also on

clay and sand when well covered with seaweeds, but are rarely found on

muddy ground. They are most numerous in the channels where the current

is strong. The small oysters are generally loosely attached by the

byssus to rock, gravel or other shells; while the mature ones lie

loosely on the bottom or slightly turned in the sand.

The second species of the Australian pearl-oysters, _Margaritifera

margaritifera_, is smaller, rarely exceeding eight inches in diameter

and a weight of two pounds. The distinguishing characteristic is the

black edge bordering the inner surface of the shell, whence it acquired

the local designation “black lip.” This variety is not rare in

Queensland, and in Western Australia its range extends as far as

Champion Bay in Lat. 29° S. However, the catch is small compared with

that of the _Margaritifera maxima_, amounting to only two or three per

cent. in Queensland. In 1905, the export of “silver lip” and

“golden-edged” from Thursday Island was 527 tons, and of “black lip”

only 11 tons; in 1904, these figures were 778 and 7 respectively. In

Western Australia the percentage of yield is much larger than this.

The third species, _Margaritifera carcharium_, is confined almost

entirely to the limits of Sharks Bay, on the extreme western coast of

Australia. At maturity it is the smallest of the three, averaging three

or four inches in diameter, and about equals in size the Lingah

pearl-oyster of the Persian Gulf. The percentage of pearls therefrom is

relatively greater than from the larger variety; but, owing to its small

size and lack of thickness, the shell is of little commercial value. The

value of the output in recent years has approximated two or three

thousand pounds sterling, which is very much less than formerly, the

value of the shell having greatly decreased since the introduction of

the Mississippi shell in button manufacture.

The pearl fishery on the coast of Australia originated about 1861. It

appears that an American sailor named Tays was the pioneer in the

business; and on his death by drowning, the business was conducted by

his partner named Seubert.[249] This was on the northwest coast, and the

output reached the market by way of Singapore. At first the oysters were

so abundant in shallow water that they could be picked up at low tide,

and beach-combing was profitable, especially when carried on with cheap

native labor. As the beach-beds became exhausted, the natives were

encouraged to wade out to greater depths, and soon they became

accustomed to “bob under” for those oysters visible from the surface.

The Australian blacks were thus taught to dive, and in 1867 diving from

boats in two or three fathoms was attempted with such success that in

the following year the practice was generally adopted, the depth in

which they worked gradually extending to six or eight fathoms. In diving

from a boat, the men imitated “bobbing under” which they had practised

in shoaler water; they slipped off the gunwale feet foremost, and when

six or eight feet below the surface, turned and swam downward.

Owing to the close labor relations existing between the natives and the

sheep-raisers of northwestern Australia, the latter were brought into

the business, and for a number of years pearling and sheep-raising were

closely associated. The blacks were employed in various duties in

connection with raising and shearing sheep, and it was important to find

some occupation for them when ranch-work was slack, not only for their

own subsistence but for the protection of the herdsmen and their

property. Fortunately, this opportunity was furnished by the pearl

fishery, for which these men were well qualified.

The profits of the business soon attracted many outside capitalists, and

it became difficult to procure divers. Not only did the pearlers—and

particularly new-comers—resort to impressing the blacks into service,

but skilled fishermen were brought over from the Malay Archipelago, and

in some cases the methods used in securing them were by no means

regular.

In 1871 the Northwest pearl fishery gave employment to 12 vessels of 15

to 50 tons each, and yielded about 180 tons of mother-of-pearl. During

the same year, in Torres Straits, where the industry had extended about

1868, there were 10 vessels—mostly from the port of Sydney—and the catch

of mother-of-pearl approximated 200 tons, valued at £60,000 in

London.[250] Each vessel was commonly manned by two or three white men

and from ten to fifty divers, who worked from dinghys, in gangs of six

or eight each with an overseer in charge.

As the fishery increased rapidly in extent, the problem of securing nude

divers became a serious one, and “nigger hunting” became rather common,

the Australian black man representing the cheapest form of labor,

working for his food, tobacco, and the simplest articles of clothing.

There was no complaint that the men thus impressed were treated with

inhumanity; on the contrary they were well fed and cared for; yet, with

a view to protecting them and preventing even a suspicion of

wrong-doing, the Australian government enacted regulations restricting

pearling contracts with the natives. Nearly every year these regulations

became more stringent, affecting the hours for diving, and limiting the

work to depths of six and a half fathoms, so that the employment of

Australian aborigines in the fishery became extremely troublesome and

annoying.

The government of the Netherlands also placed severe restrictions on the

employment of natives of the Dutch Indies, requiring security of £20 per

head for the repatriation of each man; and the local chiefs or rajahs

also expected a rake-off before permitting their men to ship. These

Malays—from the islands of Solor, Allor, Adonare, etc.,—also expected

much better pay and better provisions than the Australian blacks.

The following interesting account by Henry Taunton gives a graphic

description of the fishery as carried on at that time:

The work was far from easy. It was exhausting and perilous for the

divers, and full of privation, exposure, and danger for the white

men. Only the hope of a prosperous season reconciled one to the

life. When shells were plentiful and the weather fine, the work was

exciting and interesting enough; but during rough weather, when one

had to be constantly straining at the oar to keep the dinghy from

drifting too rapidly, or when hour after hour might pass without the

men bringing up a single shell, the discouragement was great. The

rays of the vertical sun beating down on one’s shoulders at such

times seemed as if it would never reach the western horizon, which

was the signal for returning on board.

As may well be imagined, when three or four white men had to control

and compel some thirty or forty natives to carry on work which they

detested, a very strict discipline had to be maintained. It was the

rule that no talking was allowed amongst the divers when in the

dinghy, nor were they even permitted to address the white man,

unless, maybe, to answer a question as to the nature of the bottom,

whether _nanoo_ (sand) or _bannin_ (shelly bottom), etc., or unless

some urgent necessity arose. Sometimes, indeed, I have pushed off

from the vessel’s side of a morning and have not heard a word spoken

until we returned on board at night, unless chance might take me

within hail of some other dinghy, when felicitations or condolences

would be exchanged, as good or bad luck might happen. At times, when

the “patch” was small, the dinghys of the whole fleet might be

congregated on a very small area, in which case the scene was

animated enough. On all sides you could see divers slipping into the

water and others just coming to the surface, puffing, blowing, and

coughing to clear their eyes, ears, and mouth from the salt

water—some with, others without shells. Others would be swimming to

regain their dinghy or squatting in their places for the few

minutes’ rest permitted, and, if the wind were at all fresh,

shivering with cold; for although the weather might be extremely

hot, the constant plunging in and out for many hours at a time

tended to reduce the bodily temperature considerably. The white men

would be seen standing up in each dinghy. They were lightly clad,

with shirt sleeves and trousers rolled up, in all varieties and

colours of costume, from the regulation shirt, trousers, and felt

hat, with leather belt sustaining sheath-knife and pouch, to the

more comfortable pyjama suit, or even the Malay sarong. Some would

be straining hard at the end of the scull-oar, forcing the boat

against wind and tide in the endeavor to keep it as long as possible

on the “patch,” which was marked by the discoverer’s buoy, which

also might be observed nodding on the surface, and canted over by

the swiftly rushing tide. Others, their men all being below, just

kept the dinghy’s head to wind until, by judicious use of the oar

and well-calculated drifting, all the divers reappear on the surface

within a short distance from their own boat. This is the secret of

saving the divers from wasting their powers and time uselessly....

As may be supposed, where the tide sweeps the divers along the

bottom at the rate of three or four or even six miles an hour, they

have to be very smart in seeking and grabbing any shell within

reach. I have never tested them with a time-keeper; but by counting

seconds on many occasions, from the moment a diver’s head sank below

until it again came above the surface, I estimated the average time

under water was fifty-seven seconds. Part of this is of course

expended in swimming to the bottom, where they can remain only a

very few seconds, as time must be allowed for reaching the surface

before letting go their breath. Practice in ever-varying depths

enables them to gauge this limit of time to a nicety. But sometimes

they cut things too fine, and then a catastrophe was inevitable,

unless much watchfulness was exercised by the white man, who has to

keep his eyes turned in all directions once his men are down. So

long as a diver can hold his breath the pressure forces him to the

surface at a speed which seldom requires accelerating by strokes

with the hands or feet; but the moment he lets go his breath—if

under water—his upward course is arrested and his body commences to

sink. Now, when the white man sees this, either he must plunge in to

the rescue himself, or direct such divers who may be on the top to

do the needful.

On a calm day, when one can see far into the blue clear depths

below, I have often seen one of my men shooting rapidly upwards

until within perhaps a foot or two from the surface, when a sudden

gush of bubbles from the man’s mouth would tell its own tale.

Instantly he would begin to sink gently downwards, and only quick

action could save this diver who had miscalculated his time.

However, as it was not infrequent for divers to go down and never

come up at all, one may conclude that, where the time to be allowed

is comprised in so few seconds, even the most experienced make fatal

errors.[251]

The difficulties in securing labor at length resulted in experiments

with the scaphander or diving dress, and gradually its adoption by most

of the pearling fleet. The labor problem and the exhaustion of the

oysters in medium depths developed more quickly in Torres Straits than

on the northwest coast, and diving outfits were introduced there about

1879, while this was delayed about five years longer on the northwest

coast. The outfit did not immediately supplant nude diving in either

locality. In 1883, only 80 of the 206 Queensland vessels were supplied

with scaphanders, the others continuing to use nude diving, and even yet

nearly one third of the vessels depend on that form of fishery. Of the

353 vessels fishing in 1904, 108 depended on nude divers and 245 were

supplied with armored equipment.

In 1881 the Queensland government took cognizance of the rapidly

developing industry, and enacted a license system and other regulations.

For every boat under two tons an annual license fee of £1 (in 1886 this

was reduced to ten shillings) was enacted, and for every vessel of ten

tons or under, the sum of £3, with an additional amount for vessels in

excess of that measurement; but not exceeding £20 in any case.[252] In

1886 it was required by the Queensland government that every person

employed “as a diver, and using a diving apparatus,” must be licensed

annually, for which a fee of £1 is exacted.[253] And in 1891 it was

required that “every diving dress and air-pump and all air-tubes and

gear used in the fishery in connection with diving must be submitted to

an inspector for examination once at least in every period of six

months.”[254] The license system was adopted in Western Australia in

1886, a fee of £1 per annum being exacted for each vessel engaged in the

fishery.[255] In 1891, South Australia adopted the license system,

requiring that every boat of two tons or under should pay ten shillings,

and that each boat over that measurement should pay twenty shillings.

With a view to protecting the reefs, the government of Queensland in

1891 enacted a law forbidding the sale or removal—except for cultivation

purposes—of any pearl shell “of the kind scientifically known as

_Meleagrina margaritifera_, and of either of the varieties commonly

known as ‘golden-edged’ and ‘silver lip,’ of which the nacre or

mother-of-pearl measures less than six inches from the butt or hinge to

the opposite edge or lip, but this does not apply to the variety

commonly called ‘dwarf-shell.’”[256] Owing to the difficulty in

enforcing this regulation, the size restriction was reduced in 1897 to

five inches from the hinge to the opposite lip, or six and one half

inches exteriorly, shells of this size weighing approximately one pound.

It is claimed that many oysters less than five inches in length are

raised, opened for pearls, and then cast back into the water.[257] In

1899 the governor of South Australia interdicted the capture in the

waters of that territory of any shell of “_Meleagrina margaritifera_

measuring less than four inches from the butt or hinge to the opposite

edge or lip.” Competent evidence exists that a good-sized pearl has been

found in an oyster measuring one inch in diameter.

[Illustration:

Pearling boats at Hiqueru, Tuamotu Archipelago

]

[Illustration:

Australian pearl-diver (armored) coming up from the depths

]

The fishermen of Western Australia rendezvous at Broome, about one

thousand miles by water north of Perth, the nearest railway station.

With only a thousand or so inhabitants, under normal conditions, this is

a scene of great activity, and bears a reputation of being no

Sunday-school when the fishermen are in, with tons of shell and many a

pickle bottle more or less full of pearls. Cossack and Onslow are also

important stations.

In 1905, 340 luggers and 25 schooners were employed in the pearl

fisheries of Western Australia, exclusive of Sharks Bay. Of this number

about 85 per cent. hailed from Broome. The schooners ranged in size from

13 to 133 tons, and the luggers were mostly about 12 tons, with a

minimum of 3 and a maximum of 14 tons. The total number of fishermen

approximated 2900, a medley of races, Japanese, Malays, Chinese, Arabs,

native aboriginals and South Sea Islanders working together more or less

harmoniously. The yield consisted of 1394 tons of mother-of-pearl, with

a declared value of £146,225, and about £50,000 worth of pearls, a total

of £196,255 for the year, which was an increase of £32,286 over

1904.[258]

The headquarters for the fishery of the Northern Territory of South

Australia are at Port Darwin. In 1905 this fishery employed forty-nine

sail vessels and two canoes manned by Europeans, and two proas and

twelve canoes manned by Malays. The crews, numbering about 375,

consisted mainly of Malays, Japanese and Filipinos. In 1905, 42 per

cent. were Malays, 24 per cent. were Japanese, and 20 per cent. were

Filipinos. Owing to the low price of pearl shell, the fishery was not

prosecuted actively, and many of the Asiatics left for the pearling

reefs at the Aru Islands. The total value of pearl shells reported among

the exports for that year was £18,526; during the preceding year it was

£28,391. No record is available for the value of the pearls.

The Queensland pearling fleet has its rendezvous at Port Kennedy,

Thursday Island, which was originally maintained by the British, the

Queensland, and the New South Wales governments as a harbor of refuge

for mariners. Politically this port is important as the strategic key to

the northeast of Australia, but its prosperity is almost wholly

dependent on the pearl-oyster fishery. The population approximates 1600,

consisting largely of Japanese, Malays, Cingalese, Pacific islanders,

and Australian aborigines, with specimens from nearly every Asiatic and

European nationality, and some from America and Africa. The Japanese

predominate, their influx dating from 1891; and at present the industry

is largely dependent on these Scotchmen of the Orient for its most

skilful workmen. The heterogeneous nationalities, and the abundance of

sand-flies, mosquitos, etc., make this island rather less desirable as a

place of residence than it is interesting from a political and

ethnological point of view.

The Queensland fishery in 1905 employed 348 vessels, and yielded 543

tons of shell, according to the government returns. In 1904, 353 vessels

were engaged, and the catch was 798 tons of shell.

During the last fifteen years there has been a very steady decrease in

the average catch of pearl-oysters per boat in the Australian fishery.

The average catch in the Queensland fleet in 1890 approximated 7 tons

per boat; from 1898 to 1903 it was about 3 tons annually; in 1904 it was

only 2¼ tons, and in 1905 a trifle more than 1½ tons. The yearly

increasing number of boats would naturally lower the average, but the

decrease is generally ascribed to the denudation of the reefs, due to

close working for thirty-five years without giving them a chance to

recuperate.

The small yield in Queensland in 1904 and 1905 was due largely ta the

extended rough weather and the accompanying thick or muddy water, which

presented an obstacle to the prosecution of the work. Mr. Hugh Milman,

the government resident at Thursday Island, states that each year the

beds in the more sheltered spots have been extensively fished, rendering

it necessary for the fleet to go farther afield in places where the

depth of water is greater, and where the vessels are more exposed to the

full force of the southeast winds which prevail for about seven months

of the year, and which were unusually severe in 1905.[259] The general

denudation of the beds is not the principal cause of the decreased take.

An additional cause for the falling off in 1905 was the deflection of a

large percentage of the fleet to new fields of operation, 110 vessels

leaving for the Aru Islands in the Arafura Sea, when the season was

about half finished.

For vessels using diving apparatus, the season continues throughout the

year, but it is frequently interrupted by storms, which may cause the

boats to lie in harbor for ten days, or even two weeks at a time. The

nude divers suspend work from December to March, and also during the

season of gales.

Each vessel is manned by a diver, his attendant, and a crew of four men,

who in pairs take alternate shifts at the manual pump for supplying air

to the diver. The entire force of men take part in managing the vessel

and in caring for the catch. The vessel is provided with full equipment

and supplies of food, water, etc., to last two or three weeks, depending

on the distance of the fishing grounds from the shore station, or the

frequency of trips made by a supply vessel.

Except a number of owners and their representatives, there are now very

few white persons engaged in pearling in Australian waters. Even the

persons in charge of the vessels are largely natives of the Pacific

Islands. Owing to the hardships encountered and the small remuneration,

it is difficult to secure white labor; and aliens from Japan, the

Philippines, Java, Singapore, India and New Guinea, are employed.

The divers are of many nationalities, principally Japanese and Malays,

and the former are said to be the most efficient. Previous to 1890, they

were mostly whites, and were paid at the rate of £40 per ton of shells;

but increased competition and the influx of cheaper labor caused a

considerable decrease in the rate of compensation, driving most of the

white men out of the employment. At present the Japanese almost

monopolize the business. Of the 367 divers licensed at Thursday Island

in 1905, 291 were Japanese, 32 were Filipinos, 21 were from Rotuma

Island, 16 were Malays, and 7 were of other nationalities; this shows

how completely the white man has been driven out of this skilled branch

of labor.

The oysters are so scattered that considerable walking is necessary to

find them. They usually lie with the shells partly open, and in grasping

them the fisherman must be careful not to insert a finger within the

open shell, or a very bad pinch will result. The progress of the vessel

must be adapted to that of the diver, and when a good clump of oysters

is found it may even be desirable to anchor. If the current and wind are

just right, the vessel may repeatedly drift over a bed, the diver

ascending and remaining on board while the vessel is retracing its

course to the windward side of the reef. On new grounds, the nature of

the bottom is determined by casting the lead properly tipped with soap

or tallow, and the prospects for oysters thus determined without

descending.

During good weather and in eight or ten fathoms of water, a diver can

work almost continually, and need not return to the surface for two

hours or more; but as the depth increases, the length of time he may

remain at the bottom in safety decreases almost in geometric ratio, and

he comes to the surface frequently for a “blow” with helmet removed.

Evidence secured by a departmental commission of the Queensland

government in 1897, showed that in good weather at a depth of eight or

ten fathoms, a diver works from sunrise to sunset, coming to the surface

only a few times. In a depth of over fifteen fathoms the attendant

usually has instructions not to let him remain longer than fifteen

minutes at a time; yet a diver’s eagerness in working where good shell

is plentiful sometimes impels him to order the attendant to disregard

this rule. The very great pressure of the water—amounting to thirty-nine

pounds or more to the square inch—is liable to cause paralysis, and

death occasionally results. In working at a depth of twenty to

twenty-five fathoms, a diver is rarely under water longer than half an

hour altogether during the day. The greatest depth from which shell is

brought appears from the same evidence to be “30 fathoms and a little

over”; but at that depth—where the pressure is seventy-eight pounds to

the square inch—the fisherman remains down only a few minutes at a

stretch, and should be exceedingly careful. The work is injurious, and

even under the best conditions the diver not infrequently becomes

semi-paralyzed and disqualified in a few years. Notwithstanding that the

work is performed by men in vigorous health, nearly every year there are

from ten to twenty-five deaths in the Queensland fleet alone;[260] three

fourths of these are due to paralysis, and most of the remaining result

from suffocation, owing largely to inexperience in use of gear. From

five to ten years is the usual length of a man’s diving career, although

in the fleet may be found men who have been diving for twenty-five years

or more.

On the vessels manned by Japanese, commonly several members of the crew

are competent divers and take a turn at the work, although only one

license is secured. Such a vessel carries only one head-piece, but two

otherwise complete suits, the helmet fitting either, so that as soon as

one exhausted diver comes up to rest, a successor is ready to have the

helmet screwed to his body-dress and descend without delay, thus saving

about half an hour in the changing.

The nude divers in the Australian pearl fisheries are mostly Malays and

Australian aborigines. They work from dinghys operated from a vessel,

each dinghy carrying six or eight divers, usually with a white man as

overseer. The man in charge sculls against the tide to keep the boat

stationary over the ground, and all the fishermen of a particular dinghy

descend together for greater safety from sharks, and to cover the ground

systematically. On rising, each diver swims to the boat, throws his

catch over the gunwale, and climbs in to rest for a few minutes.

Sometimes two or possibly even three oysters may be brought up at a

single descent, but a diver is doing well if he brings up one oyster in

ten descents. The average daily catch of each man is probably two or

three oysters, but a fisherman has been known to bring up fifty in one

day. On some vessels, those who fall behind in the catch are punished by

extra duty aboard ship.

The pearling industry has had a marked effect on the industrial and

social condition of the natives of the Australian coast and the adjacent

islands. Many of these natives now have boats of their own, and others

seek employment on other vessels. Law and order and decent respect for

property have arisen, with schools and churches. The result is all the

more remarkable when it is considered that scarcely more than a

generation has passed since labor among the men was unknown, the women

doing all the work necessary to meet their scanty requirements.

As now carried on in Australia, pearling is a hard life, the men working

for two thirds of the season in a dead calm and oppressive heat, while

in the remaining months they are rolling day and night. The members of

the crew are not allowed ashore without a written permission from the

captain of the boat, and men and luggage are searched on leaving the

vessel. In addition to these objections, life on board is not unusually

made intensely disagreeable by the myriads of inch-long cockroaches,

which are attracted by and multiply rapidly on the shreds of muscle left

on the pearl shell stored in the hold. Storms are frequent on the coast.

In February, 1899, three schooners and eighty smaller vessels were

wrecked, and eleven white and four hundred colored men were drowned.

At the end of each day’s fishing, the oysters are cleaned of submarine

growths. Sometimes this is by no means an easy task, as many of the

shells are so covered with weeds, coral, and sponge as to bear little

resemblance to oysters. After they have been scrubbed and the edges have

been chipped, they are washed and stored on deck. Early the following

morning they are opened and examined for pearls. This opening is done

carefully to avoid injury to any pearl that may be within. The hinge of

the shell is placed on the deck and a broad knife forced down so as to

sever the adductor muscle, causing the shells to spring open and

permitting the removal of the soft parts. The flesh is carefully

examined, both by sight and by feeling, to locate all pearls, which are

picked out by hand and placed in a suitable receptacle. Within the

adductor muscle are found seed-pearls and small baroques; the large

pearls are found embedded in the mantle, where their presence may be

detected as soon as the shell is opened, the pearly gleam contrasting

with the light blue of the mantle. Sometimes, though rarely, large

pearls are found loose within the shell, whence they roll out when the

shell is opened. Valuable pearls are occasionally removed from blisters

on the surface of the shell, or from within the body of the nacre

itself. Even when empty, these blisters are valuable, and are especially

adapted for brooches and other ornaments requiring a broad and

relatively flat surface.

After the flesh has been carefully examined throughout, it is discarded,

as it is not considered suitable for food, and the shell is dried for

half a day or so to make the hinge brittle in order that it may be

broken without injury to the mother-of-pearl. After the shell has been

roughly cleaned, it is placed in the hold, if the vessel is operating

from a shore station, as is commonly the case in Torres Straits. Since

long exposure to the sun affects the quality of the mother-of-pearl, it

is important that it be kept under cover. On returning to the station,

it is thoroughly cleaned, assorted, dried, the dark edges clipped off,

and the cleaned shell is packed in shipping cases, each containing from

250 to 325 pounds. On the west coast, where the vessels at times operate

200 or 300 miles from port, the shell is cleaned, assorted and crated on

the vessels; whence it may be delivered direct to the steamers. The

Northwest shell is somewhat smaller than the mature shell of Torres

Straits, averaging about 1100 to the ton, whereas that of Thursday

Island runs about 725 to the ton.

It is very difficult to prevent the theft of pearls by the fishermen as

they are liable to treat them as perquisites if not carefully watched.

Indeed, on the Torres Straits vessels it has come about that pearls do

not constitute a recognized source of income to the proprietors. There

the fishery is now conducted almost exclusively for the shells, as the

wage-earners secrete probably as many valuable pearls as they turn over

to the rightful owners. The hot sun causes many of the oysters to open,

and deft fingers quickly pick out such pearls as may be visible. An

oyster may be induced to open its shell by being held near the galley

fire on the lugger, and the insertion of a piece of cork holds it open

while a pearl is shaken out or hooked out by means of a piece of wire.

Then the cork is removed and the oyster closes again with no evidence of

robbery. The proprietors of boats who themselves open the oysters almost

invariably secure larger yields of fine pearls than those who depend on

paid employees, who rarely have the luck to find choice pearls, judging

from what they turn in. The government of Queensland has endeavored to

put a stop to pearl stealing, and by enactment[261] of 1891, it

restricted all selling or buying of pearls within the fishing region

except through regularly licensed dealers, whose transactions are open

to examination.

But the fishermen seem to have little difficulty in evading the laws,

and throughout the fleet the men have become so adept that they regard

the pearls as their contraband perquisites. And the ease with which

these may be secreted is surpassed only by the facility with which they

may be sold, notwithstanding legislation to the contrary. Indeed, some

employers make no claim to the pearls found, thus enabling them to

secure fishermen at lower rates of wages.

As previously noted, the pearls constitute only an incidental catch in

the fisheries on the Australian coast, but in the aggregate the yield is

very large. The yield in the northwest Australian fishery in 1906 is

estimated at £50,000, local valuation; in the Queensland fishery

£33,000; in that of South Australia £5000, a total of £88,000 or

$440,000.[262] Relatively few seed-pearls are obtained, and some of the

pearls are of great size. Some beautiful specimens have been found, but

usually they have less luster and are more irregular in form than the

Persian or the Indian output.

Among the remedies suggested for improving the condition of the

Australian pearl reefs may be mentioned the establishment of six inches

as the minimum size of the shell that may be taken (five inches is now

permitted in Queensland, and there is no restriction in Western

Australia), the closure of certain areas for stated periods from time to

time, and a limit on the number of vessels employed. The government

resident at Thursday Island, Mr. Hugh Milman, who has had long

acquaintance with the industry, strongly recommends the adoption of a

system of artificial culture; and in the meantime, to foster the

industry, “licenses should be granted to a reduced number of boats and

certain sheltered areas should be closed altogether for a few years to

give the beds time to recover. This latter procedure, however, the

pearlers themselves are not in favor of, as they are of the opinion that

the weather conditions against which they have to contend are sufficient

protection to prevent the denudation of the principal grounds.”

A few years ago certain areas in Torres Straits were proclaimed closed

for a period against the removal of pearl shell; but, owing to the want

of effective patrol, the shell was poached to a very large extent, and

consequently the good that should have resulted from the experiment was

not apparent. Owing to the impracticability of continuous patrol, and

the want of proper legislation to bring die offenders to book, it was

decided to remove the restrictions.

The Sharks Bay fishery, to which we have previously referred,[263] is

prosecuted by means of small sail-boats using light dredges, except in

the case of the very shallow or “pick-up banks,” where the oysters are

commonly removed by hand. Some years ago this fishery was of much local

importance; but the developing scarcity of the oysters, and the present

low value of this grade of shell in Europe, due to the competition with

Mississippi shell, have resulted in a great reduction. In 1905, the

industry gave employment to 17 small boats and 42 men, of whom 18 were

Europeans, 13 Asiatics, and 11 aboriginal natives. The yield of pearls,

according to official report of the government of Western Australia,

approximated £2000 in value, and of pearl shell there was 88 tons, with

a declared value of £607. In 1896 the government of Western Australia

surveyed the Sharks Bay reefs, and opened them to preëmption in small

areas for cultivating this species of pearl-oyster. At present they are

mostly held under exclusive licenses for a period of fourteen years. The

business is under an elaborate system of regulations; but as appears

from the above figures the results have not been important.

Pearls are more numerous in this pearl-oyster than in the two other

Australian species. In removing them from the flesh, a modification of

the Ceylon process is adopted. The mollusks are opened by means of a

knife, and the contents of the shells are placed in vats or tubs—known

locally as “poogie tubs”; and, exposed to the hot sun, are allowed to

putrefy. Sea water is added, and the putrid mass stirred; after several

days the water and the thoroughly disintegrated flesh tissues are

decanted, leaving the pearls at the bottom. The odor from a number of

these “poogie tubs” is said to almost rival that of the “washing

toddies” at Marichchikadde.

The Sharks Bay pearls are commonly yellowish or straw-colored, and

sometimes have a beautiful golden tinge. Although obtained from small

shells, they are sometimes of considerable size—twenty grains or more in

weight, and fine specimens sell for several hundred dollars each. China

and India furnish better markets for them than Europe or America.

PEARL FISHERIES OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO

My thoughts arise and fade in solitude;

The verse that would invest them melts away

Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day.

How beautiful they were, how firm they stood,

Flecking the starry sky like woven pearl.

SHELLEY, _My Thoughts_.

[Illustration:

Opening pearl-oysters and searching for pearls, off the coast of

Australia

]

[Illustration:

Grading, weighing, and packing mother-of-pearl, off the coast of

Australia

]

For nearly four hundred years, pearls and pearl shells have been the

most beautiful objects which have reached the outside world from the

many islands of the Malay Archipelago. On his visit to this part of the

world in 1520, Pigopitta, a companion of Magalhães, reported pearls

among the prized possessions of the natives. The fisheries have never

been of great importance, although the reefs are widely scattered

throughout the archipelago, and the possibilities seem favorable for

very great development. Thomas de Comyn stated a century ago, that pearl

fisheries had been undertaken “from time to time about Mindanao, Zebu,

and some of the smaller islands, but with little success and less

regularity, not because of a scarcity of fine pearls, but on account of

a lack of skill of the divers and their well-established dread of

sharks.”[264]

Giacinto Gemmi,[265] writing of Philippine pearls, repeats a strange

tale from the “Storia de Mindanao” by the Jesuit father, Combes, to the

effect that in a certain spot, under many fathoms of water, there was a

pearl of inestimable value, as large as an egg; but, although the king’s

ministers had made every effort to have it secured, they had always been

unsuccessful.

During the last thirty years, pearls and pearl shells have been secured

from most of the inshore waters of Malaysia, but the output has not been

so regular or so extensive as the conditions seem to warrant. Our

observation leads to the conviction that this is not due so much to lack

of skill on the part of the divers, or to their dread of sharks,

mentioned by Comyn; but to the fact that foreign capital, attracted to

this part of the world, has found more security and profit in developing

plantations, and the natives have not had sufficient enterprise to

systematize and develop the fishery resources.

Throughout Malaysia, including the Philippine Islands, the pearl is

known as _mutya_, _mootara_, or a similar name, closely resembling the

Sanskrit _mukta_ or the Cingalese _mootoo_, indicating the source of the

influence originating the fishery and trade.

The most widely-known pearl fisheries of Malaysia are in the Sulu

Archipelago, a group of islands comprising about 1000 square miles in

area, and containing a population of 100,000. The beautiful yellow

pearls shared with the many acts of piracy in attracting attention to

this group previous to 1878, when the islands were brought under the

influence of Spanish rule; and since the Spanish-American War, pearl

fishing has been the leading industry, though it has received less

attention from outside sources, perhaps, than has the existence of

slavery and harems as part of the social system.

Writing in 1820, John Crawfurd stated that the annual export of pearls

from Sulu Islands to China approximated 25,000 Spanish dollars in value,

and the mother-of-pearl similarly exported was worth 70,000 dollars.

“Considering the turbulent and piratical habits of the natives of the

Sulu group, it is certain that a greater share of skill and industry

than can at present be applied to the fisheries, would greatly enhance

the value and amount of their produce.”[266]

In the Sulu Archipelago, the pearl-oyster reefs exist from Sibǔtu Pass

to Basilan Strait, and roughly cover an estimated area of 15,000 square

miles; that is, in the most favorable localities throughout this area,

pearl-oysters occur to a greater or less extent. The fisheries are

prosecuted by Malays and Chinese, and are largely centered at Sulu.

Pearl-oysters occur about many other islands. They exist at Maimbun and

Parong; and also off the island of Tapul and its neighbor Lagos, both

southwest of Maimbun. In the channels among these islands, on the rocky

gravelly bottom where there is a good current, oysters are commonly

found. They also occur off Laminusa, northeast of Tawi-Tawi, at Cuyo

Island, and in the waters about Malampaya and Bacuit.

The large mother-of-pearl oyster (_Margaritifera maxima_) known locally

as _concha de nacr_, is by far the most abundant. When full-grown in

this region it is ordinarily between ten and thirteen inches in

diameter. The young oyster attaches itself to the bottom by means of the

green byssus; but after attaining a weight of one pound, it is too heavy

to be easily moved by the tide, and the ligature gradually disappears.

The Australian “black lip” (_Margaritifera margaritifera_), known here

as _concha de nagra_, is also found. In these waters it attains a

diameter of about eight inches, but most specimens are considerably

smaller.

There is another pearly shell in the Philippines, a spiral gasteropod

known locally as _caracoles_, which is ordinarily five or six inches in

diameter, and has a beautiful pearly surface. This yields very few

pearls; it is sought for pearl-button manufacture, selling for about the

same as the _concha de nagra_.

Streeter states that it is declared by the natives of the Sulu

Archipelago that pearls of a yellowish hue have been found in the pearly

nautilus (_Nautilus pompilius_), one of the group of cephalopodous

mollusks. As, however, there is a superstition that they bring ill luck,

the natives say that they throw them away, believing that any one who

should fight while wearing one of these pearls in a ring, would

certainly be killed. If we consider the habits and organism of this

remarkable animal, and the splendid nacreous coating of its shell, the

assertion that pearls are found in it seems quite natural. Indeed, the

occurrence of pearls in the pearly nautilus is generally recognized.

For many years the successive sultans of Sulu exercised authority over

the fisheries and—in addition to exacting certain percentages and

presents from the fishermen—claimed as their perquisites all pearls

exceeding a designated weight. The fisheries were prosecuted by nude

divers, of whom there were a large number. A Chinese company had been

particularly fortunate in its relations with the Sulus, and had an

extensive equipment in the fishery, consisting of a number of small

vessels, each carrying a crew of seven men, who used diving-suits. In

addition to these, some of the native Moros owned boats from which

diving-suits were employed.

Following the Spanish-American War and the transfer of the Philippine

Islands to America, several vessels proceeded to engage in the fisheries

without previously consulting the representatives of the Sultan of Sulu.

This called forth from that official an appeal to the American

authorities for protection in his claims. He gave an account of the

pearl fishery in this interesting document, which we quote at

length—through the courtesy of the American Bureau of Insular

Affairs—because of the light it throws, not only on the industry, but

also on the characteristics of these people with whom the American

government is now dealing.

STATEMENT MADE BY THE SULTAN OF SULU RELATIVE TO THE PEARL FISHERIES

(Forwarded by the Governor of Moro Province.)

[Translation.]

(SEAL of the SULTAN.)

No date.

I beg to inform my father, the civil governor, Major Scott, as you

want to know about the mother-of-pearl shell, why it is the right of

all Sulu people, above all my own right, this is the reason:

The forefathers of the Sulu people used to take the mother-of-pearl

shell from the downs because the mother-of-pearl shell belonged to

the downs, and they took them to eat the oyster with other food; of

the shell they made plates and saucers to put the food on, and the

pearls they used to make a hole through and put them on a string as

necklaces for their children. This was at a time when no other

nation had come to Sulu to buy the mother-of-pearl shell.

Later, a big boat, called the _Sampang_, wandered from China to

Sulu; there were on board many people, all Chinese; it was loaded

with merchandise. The people came ashore and saw the mother-of-pearl

shell which the Sulu people were carrying. The captain of the boat

said: “Have you many more of these things?” and the people answered,

“Plenty; this is what we take from the downs to eat with other

food.” The Captain said. “Gather me plenty. I will buy them from

you.” The people went and gathered them and bartered them for plates

and saucers. When all the shells from the downs were finished they

looked into the deep, and that is how they found the pearling

grounds, and the people noted them, and remembered them. This is

what they agreed upon; whoever finds pearling grounds they belong to

him from generation to generation. That is what they agreed upon.

That is the reason why the Sulu people have the right, and that they

came to make the dredge (_badja_) to get the mother-of-pearl shell

from the deep, because they can not see them.

Later Salips came from Mecca of the Arab nation; they came to Sulu

to convert the people into Mohammedans, as they had no religion. And

when the Sulu people, including the islanders, adopted the faith,

then they agreed to have a sultan and they elected Saripul Hassim to

be sultan. Saripul Hassim said: “I don’t want you to make me your

sultan if I do not know what the rights of the sultan are, and who I

have to govern over, because this is not my country, this is your

country.”

And this is how everybody agreed to accept him as sultan over Sulu

and all the islands; this is how he became Sultan and governed over

all, and this is how Saripul Hassim accepted to be the sultan of

Sulu, to have full power over land and sea, and the people’s rights,

where they got their living from on land and sea, were left to them,

because they were the means of their getting their livelihood.

But a law was made, if they found valuables in the sea, such as

pearls, tortoise shell, ambal or anything extraordinary, they have

to show it to the sultan, and if the pearls weigh six chuchuk or

over they become the share of the sultan; if they do not have that

weight, the people can do with them as they please and sell them. If

the sultan wants them, he will buy them according to custom. As to

tortoise shell, if they weigh two ketties, they go to the sultan,

and as to the ambal, whether it is much or little, it falls to the

sultan. Whoever finds it must take it to the sultan. Whoever of his

subjects violates this law as agreed upon, the sultan can punish him

as he pleases.

They accepted this law as agreed upon, to be carried out by them

(sultan and people), and their descendants, and not to be changed;

but they asked of the sultan not to let any other nation take a

share in this industry; it is enough for them; and the sultan agreed

to this because they did not know how to earn their living

otherwise. This is what the sultan and his subjects agreed to

because the Sulu had no other treasures on land beyond the

cultivation; the treasures came from the sea only, therefore other

people are forbidden because this is the property of all my

subjects, and especially my own.