The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-11-21
PEARL FISHERIES.
Description ola Peculiar Industry and tn
Periis That Attend 1t.

twenty years Is uOlnS lOI peaIlS Wna1 ~
did long ago for oysters. Fashion also
bears its part in raising prices, and a
good set OF three black pearl shirt studs
can not be got wholesale much under
f40. Four years ago they could chad
for less than third of that price.
Mother-of-pearl has risen in the market
too, and now costs nearly one shilling
the pound at the fisheries, where four
pounds could be obtained for the same
money twelve years back. The fish
cries of the Red Sea and the Bay eff Ben
gal are still, however, as celebrated as
they ever were in classic days. although
the fair can no longer hope for the pro-
duce by the peck, as Varro-at second
hand-said they used to do: "Altera
exorat virum semodium margaritarum. {"
For all the scarcity of pearls, we now
get them from also the Sunda isles of the
Malay Archipelago, the seas of China
and Japan, from Panama Tahiti, the
Gambler Islands and Australia. The
pearl market is no longer at Rome, at
the Margaritarius Porticus; but in the
hands OF the Amsterdam, Hamburg,
London and New York dealers who buy
up all this harvest of the sea.
There are numerous bivalves which
give pearls, bad, Indifferent or better;
but the true pearl-oyster-if oyster it
can be called, for it is exactly like an ex-
aggerated cockle-is the Myti'u8 Mar
g0ITtiferus, or PintGdiiaaem, which meas
ures from four to six inches in diameter
and an inch and half in thickness. The
oceanic variety differs from the East In
dian, and gives finer gem. The Tu-
amotu archipelago, to the east of the
Society Islands, is perhaps the greatest
pearl-fishery in the world. Gifts eighty
islands there are only some half dozen
whose waters do not produce the pearl
oyster. The natives of this group know
no industry but fishing. Men, women
and children, they all dive like sea-fowl,
and the women are the most expert.
Two women especially of Faiti, and one
of Anaa or Chain island, are well known
in this trade-more dreadful far than
sapphire gathering-for plunging into
twenty-five fathoms of water, in the
teeth of the sharks, and remaining as
long as three whole minutes under
water. A famous diver of Anaa escaped
not long ago from shark with the loss
of a breast and an arm, and many OF
them 60 down never to come up again
+, If they make too many plunges in theil
lays work at the beginning of thu
J,.son, which comprises the summer
:" }nths, from November to February
vvs bring on hem orrhage or congestion
m;, after some yeaNs passed in the occu
sh;rla/ ealysisj is certain. Few of thes,
- ~ lkfQrthemst'lves, but can earn
,-ssur shiIlingsl q day from the pearl
traders. With wooden tube some six
teen inches Icing, ten inches square, anC
glazed at one end, they prospect from
their boats the bottom of these SEanslu
cid seas; the glass end, whichis pVtint'
the water, serving the purpose Of sup
pressing the ye-puzzling surface ripple
The diver of the Persian Gulf or O.
Ceylon attaches a weight Of some TWEEN
ty pounds to his feet to aid in his de
scent, and carries seven or eight pounds
more OF ballast in belt. He protects
both eyes and ears with oiled cotton
bandages his mouth, and goes dowr
forty feet with rope. He remains
down from fifty-three to eighty seconds
and helps himself up again by the rope
But the Pacific diver practices the con
jurer's boast of mo preparation" Jus
before the plunge he or she draw full
breath rapidly three or four times run
ming, and finally, with the lungs full o
air, drops feet first to the bottom, no
forty feet, but twenty-five or thirt
fathoms 150 feet to 1870 feet), and come
TO the surface again with extraordinar
swiftness, unaided in any way. Fac
dive generally lasts from sixty to ninet
seconds; and only very occasionally tn
astonishing maximum of three minutes
The divers hardly ever bring up NOR
than one oyster at time; but this
chosen as likely to contain pearls b
some fancied rule of thumb of their OWL
grounded on age, form and color; an
they hold the shells tightly together a
they mount, lest the envious oyst6
should shed the pearl, which the diver
themselves are very quick to conceal
swallowing if the employers eye is nj
fixed upon them. Diving-bells hay
been introduced by some houses in Il
trade; but the natives viii no long
work in them, saying they bring c
early paralysis of the legs.
Like his edible relative, the pear
oyster also has his enemies and par
sites. A fiat fish called taheretG by Il
natives of this Polynesian archipelas
makes great ravages among the your
fry; it resembles the eagle ra
which is so destructive in Europe;
oyster-beds. There is another, lol
fish with powerful jaws for crunchil
the full-grown oyster, which is call
the oiri or kotohe. and does not seem
have been identified by naturalis
There are also two univalve shell-fish
murex, which spends its time bori
holes through the oyster, and a pholaC
which scoops nest for itself in the u
per shell. Just as its fellows do in
rocks of our own coasts. But the wo
mat of oil ic ,,rohahlv q marine wOr