The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-09

pale and become almost worthless after
fifteen or twenty years, those from Mex
lean waters remain brilliant forever. Pari!
is the great pearl market of the world
and about all the competition thai
exists is confined to a few
French houses, which, with commendable
enterprise, have agents at La Paz, who
buy up the gems as fast as found. 1t seems
a strange Indifference on the part of the
United States to treasures so easily within
her reach, mot to mention the merchants
of England and Germany, that France is
permitted to secure these, and then to sell
them again to the United States, England
and Germany at an enormous advance of
the original price
1t is difficult to approximate the actual
worth of the products of these fisheries,
because the fishers themselves, in order to
evade duties, place mere nominal price on
the pearls before sending them abroad.
Thus, a superb gem, which, when first torn
from the red hand of the coral reef, may
sell the spot for $500, may bring in DIS
ten or twenty times that amount The an
nual yield of all the gulf beds, however, is
estimated at not less than S250,000, while
many times that amount would more fifty
represent their real value in Europe
Messrs. Gonzalez & Ruffo alone ship from
$4,000 to 100000 worth per annum.
THE PROFIT OF THE FISHERIES
Is by no means limited to the pearls them
selves. The poorest of the shells sell on
the spot for from to II cents per pound,
while in Europe, where the beautiful lining
of the shells isTworked into knife-handles,
buttons, etc, they bring from 20 to 80 cents
per pound. Many of the larger and finer
shells are shipped to San Francisco where,
as mother of pearl, they find ready sale for
from 81 to s. per pound. For centuries the
entire gulf coast has been noted for its
genealogical beauties in infinite variety;
but the shells of the pearl fisheries are
most highly priced of all. Some of them
are fully fifteen inches wide and marvel
ously brilliant when polished. One may
find them for sale in the shops of San
Francisco, with birds, flowers and land
scapes deliberately carved upon them, requi-
site specimens OF art and beauty.
The meat of the pearl oyster is also made
a source of profit. Though unstable in
the American market, it is readily bought
by Cinnamon, who dry the leathery little
bivalVes or seal them up in cans and ship
them 70 San Francisco or to China. Those
scions of the fiowery kingdom who reside
hereabouts are never employed as divers
but are engaged in the unsavory occupa-
ton of digging and shipping guano, princi-
pally on the gulf islands, from wave
washed caves and rock bound coasts, where
sea-birds have been depositing it for ages
Those west guano-digging celestials are
not courageous enough to make successful
divers. They are much given to the secret
practice of the ingenious tricks by which
their countryman in far-off China produce
pearls that are partly artificial. The beau
tiful gem, so priced in all ages of the world
by admirers of precious stones, is but the
result of some lesson endured by the oyster
the soliditied tear of suffering. Hence,
an injury is often purpoSely inflicted, by in
between the shells small stone,
a shot or bit of gravel, and then
THE POOR OYSTER Is "PUT TO BED,
again. The process is said to be successful
in producing great quantities of pearls, but
always of inferior luster and durability
AS is well known, at certain seasons of the
year the pearl oyesters congregate in con-
siderable numbers on the surface of the
water. when they open their mouths to
enjoy the sun. At this period, from time
immemorial, the Chinese and Japanese
fishermen have been in the habit of throw
ing, into the open shells strings of tiny
beads made of mother of pearl, which be
come encrusted in the course of
a few months and present the same
appearance as real pearls. When the
curious process is supposed to have been
completed, the oysters are all drawn up
and robbed of their treasures. The truth
of this statement is not only confirmed by
many travellers, but by the result of num-
berless experiments. Prof. Fabricius tells
US that he ran several Chinese chamas,
the shells of which contained
iron wire covered with pearl. These
wires had once been sharp, and
the sagacious oysters, to secure
against the intrusion of such
visitors, had Immediately pro-
ceeded to encrust them, thus rendering
blunt the points that tortured them.
FANNIE B. WARD.