Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-03-28
The Perlls Of the Pearl Fisheries.

age aid every country been q standing
synonym for whatever is OF priceless
value or conspicuous beauty, and all
the ordinary associations of the pretty
gems arc SO dainty that it is difficult to
connect with them the grisly dangers
which really attend their collection.
Yet when we consider that on an aver
age from thirty to forty lives are annu-
ally lost, from sharks and other mon
sters, in the gathering of the precious
81 s, it would seem as if the deep was
as jealousy guarded as in the olden
days of myth, wen the sea-caves were
watched by dreadful Scylla dragons.
and the mermen's boards We're in. the
safe-keep:ng of Acntcs's s~ailor-devour-
ing crew. Indeed, beautiful though
pearls are, ard romantic as are all their
traditions. the actual circumstances I'M
der which they are sought and collected
are so singulariy d;sagreeable that it
would as if nature had sought TO
teach nan a lessen by showing him I'M
der what ugly conditions the most ex-
qu;sitc results may be attained. 10 the
oyster itself the pearl must be an un-
qualified abomination, and it is a
strange rejection that what the unhap-
Ply mollusk would gladly get rid of,
mar imperils his life and sguanders his
substance to obtain. In some unluckv
moment the oyster has admitted into its
shell a grain of sand, and the sharp
edged atom irritates the tender creature,
and to defend itself against the obnox-
ious intruder, which it can neither eat
o expel, it covers the grain with the
substance we call pearl. The eccentric
magician who, thus returning good for
evil, endows with priceless value the
vagabond atom so incomparably worth
less before, does not, however, remain
content with rendering the intruder
harmless, but continues TO heap Goals
of fire upon its head, continues, that is,
to lap Or film after film, and to smother
the wretched grit deeper and deeper in
the precious substance, until the speck
once only a grain of sand upon the sea-
shore becomes at length the fascinating
gem against which divers stake their
lives and which the East and West CON
pete to buy. Rarelyindeed do such ex-
tremes meet, and it is no wonder, then,
that fable is so full of morals drawn
from the ''fair pearl in The foul o,s-
ter" or that nature, having given the
groveling shell-fish on the sea-beach
such a high prerogative of distinction,
should have kept The secret of all o,her
gems within her own laboratory. Men
ia lie at first to catch the moaning of her
conduct and looked in nobler creatures
the tigers heart, the eagles brain,
the %serpent's head-for natures most
precious works; and while philosophers
stones and the aetites and basilisk jew
els were sought in perpetual disappoint-
ment, the pearl, which the oyster all the
while was celebrating, was pronounced
a product of the skies, for it seemed to
mar too exquisitely far to be a creature
of the wave.
That it fell from the heavens, nobody
at one time doubted; and even after it
was known to come out of oyster shells
it was believed that the spherical treas
ures were drops Of dew which had
fallen into the sea, and py some occult
alchemy of the deep had hardened into
pearls. 1t was, indeed, suggested that
they we're the oysters hearts, or the
tears of sea-nymphs; but the well-in-
formed agreed that they were products
rare, divine"-the motto of the sad
Margaret of Navarro, who took the
pearl as her sad but appropriate en-
blem-and, as Pliny opined, more of
the sky and air than of the water and
the sea-" We later folk have inherited
exact knowledge, and knowing
the true story Of the pride OF the cask-
cts, can trace back the pretty pearl to
the morbid section of an ailing oyster.
and read in q hundred narratives how
the divers Of the Persian Gulf and the
Ceylon coast risk their lives in quest of
it. Such is the value of the jewel that
lives will always be risked for its attain
ment; and if the sharks would only SOW
the banks with pearls, they might con-
fidently rely on a regular harvest of
men. AS it is, they levy q grim tax
upon TIE diver, and but for the noise
and hustle along the oyster beds during
the fishery, which frighten off the less
daring monsters, the percentage of
death would inevitably be greater.
The Bahrein and Ceylon fisheries are,
OF course, the largest and most valua-
BILE: but China and Japan, South Ameri-
ca and Australia, as well as some OF the
islands off the African coast. produce
the precious oyster in abundance. The
number OF shells. however, is not any
guide to the number of pearls, and even
the toughest average which the diver
may make OF the value of the seasons
collection is liable to be utterly wrong
The shells themselves, however, are Of
great commercial value, and often yield
a larger profit than the seasons find of
gems, so that the diver never really
goes down in vain. Norris the smallest
''seed-pearl'' ~valuelcss, for it is a pref
ty natural fact that only pearl powder
will properly polish pearls; and, more
over, the gems ground up command a
ready market IN the East. where they
are supposed to have a surprising eli-
cacy in restoring exhausted vitality and
renewing wasted vigor.
The diver, therefore, has always en-
enlargement in his perilous laeor: and
to the last, even when he takes his fatal
dive to the waiting shark, he has still
the fascination before him of q possible
prize that shall send him to live ut his
ease for the rest of his life. SO he calls
out TO the shark-charmer to charm his
best, and, with the delusive shell ringing
in his ears, plunges down to death.
But the monster of the deep, that has
been lying waiting for him under the
shadow OF the boat, cares little for ex-