The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-01-09
PACIFIC COAST PEARLS.
FISHING FOR tn I'M IN THE GULF
OF CALIFORNIA.
A Source oil Grcat Wealth. Company
ard aus PrOiits-IHOw the Pearls
are Found.

about one hundred years ago, Juan Oxio
first called attention to the vast source
of wealth concealed in the mud which
lay at the bottom of the waves of the
Gulf of California ad jacent to the eastern
coast of Lower California. He discovered
there immense beds of the pearl oyster
and realized great wealth. He fshed
principally for the black shell Con
chanica,) which is found in great quaint
ties from San Sebastian Bay to the mouth
of the Rio Colorado. After his death the
industry was followed in a desultory
fashion until about 1859. From that
time until 1872 it was pursued in a more
systematic manner, the trade, however,
being practically m~onopolized by the
agents OF wealthy European houses, who
established themselves on the lower
peninsula, and purchased the pearls and
shell on the ground as soon as removed
from the water. About that time some
of the merchants of La Paz discovered
that they could deal directly with Paris,
London and Hamburg, and save the
profits of middlemen, and the agents
were, SO to speak, starved out. Still the
fishing was conducted on the old and
time-houored system of using divers
trained by long experience to remain
perhaps two, or at most three minutes
under water.
In 1875 two schooners, each of about
200 tons, one from Australia, the other
from England. went to these waters, lib
orally supplied with diving apparatus,
helmets, rubber suits, hose and life lines,
and thirteen boats and boats crews to
operate them. With the aid of these
appliances they made a clear profit in six
months of 1925, 900. The merchants en-
gagged in the fisheries purchased the div
ing apparatus from the schooners, and
since that time the divers helmet has
driven the unfortunate individuals who.
unlike our politicians, made their living
by holding their breath, entirely out of
the pearl-tishing fields of labor. But the
advantages possessed by the pearl fishers
of La Paz were advantages which might
be shared in common with any other per.
sons who could command the capital
necessary to go into the same business.
The idea of seeing strangers and aliens
come in and scoop up from the bed of
the gulf the wealth which they were be-
ginning to regard as their inalicnable in
heritance was intolerable. But how to
avoid it was the question. That conun-
drum was soon solved by the elevation to
the Mexican presidency of General Con
zales. That gentleman was applied to,
and by ''properr representations" his favor
able consideration was secured and given
to a plan by which, on the 2Sth of Feb
rnary, 1884, five concessions were granted
to five gentlemen. The concessions give
these gentlemen, their associates and as
signs the exclusive right and privilege Of
all shell fisheries in their respective zones
for the period of sixteen years, paying
therefor a royalty and export daily in
full of all claims of the government,
amounting to $40 a ton on all shells ex-
ported for the first three years, and SIS
a ton tor the remaining thirteen wears.
The holders of these concessions i'm
mediately consolidated their interests,
as no doubt was the original intention,
and dispatched Juan Hidalgo, armed
with powers of attorney and all neces-
sary credentials, to obtain the capital
necessary to Systematically work one of
the most gigantic schemes of monopoly
which the world has ever seen. Senior
Hidalgo's efforts in San Francisco have
been successful, and in July last, under
the modest title of the Mother-of Pearl
Shell company, a corporation was formed
under the laws of California.
Asa an evidence Of the enormous profit to
be made by this gigantic scheme, it may
be mentioned that for the past two years
the yield of the fisheries, conducted
with four schooners and twenty boats,
has been from 5000, 900 to $3.50, 900 in
pearls, and about nine hundred tons of
shell worth from $50 to e10-say e6j
per ton, or 1922, 500, making a gross
yield of S542, 900 per annum.
The company has now four schooners
on the fishing grounds, the Porfirio Diaz,
the Adriana, the Consuelo and the Pal.
oma. The fisheries are conducted as
follows; Each vessel carries five boats,
and each boat carries a crew of six men
Il diver. two men to work the air
pumps, one at the life line and two at
the oars. The vessel having anchored
on favorable grounds, the boats put off
from the ships side early in the morning.
The diver is lowered and remains on
the bottom for two or three hours at
a time, and by 3 o'clock in the
afternoon he has filled his iron basket
with from seven hundred to two thousand
shells. AT that hour the shells are opened
ny inc OlllCerS, VINO remove ana retain IN
safe-keep;ng the pearls, which are prin-
cipally what are known as black pearls,
of great rarity and value at present.
Tho docks are then cleared up, and the
shells consigned to the hold, and work
discontinued for the remainder of the
day. The pearls and shells are sold in
the markets of London, Paris and Ham
GEOGRAPHICALLY London.
Preparations are being made by the
company to send, as soon as possible, a
large fleet of vessels equipped with all
the Improvements in diving apparatus.
AS a further instance of the enormous
powers conferred by the Gonzales gov
eminent on its favored m~onopolies, the
holder of the concessions are authorized,
without any process of law, by force of
arms. if necessary, to arrest any person
found fishing in the waters of the gulf
without a permit or license form Senot
Hidalgo or his associates or their assigns,
anH 10 caiza THAR unsco1s op1 oon,-,