The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-09-24
GIANT ABALONE SHELLS
A MODEST MoLLUsK WITH A
MIGHTY GRIP.
His Polished Shell Makes Beautiful
Ornaments and His Flesh En-
riches the Chinaman's Soup.


Ornaments and His Flesh En-
riches the Chinaman's Soup.
The Chinese and Italian fishermen who
live on the sand-hoored bays of the
mighty cliffs of the coast from Cape
Mendocino southwark to Point Concep-
ton know the abalone thoroughly, and
they never despise the muscular grip of a
large one. They carry pointed bars of
iron, with which to pry them off the
rocks at low tide; they cut them out of
the half-shell for the abalone is "uni-
valve mollusk, " to use the phrase of the
professor of natural history, and they
broil them for dinner, or dry them for
market. But they seldom venture TO
stoop in a cramped position down the
rock-crevices to pluck a giant abalone
from his hold, without having the iron
handy. Three or four times the body Of
drowned fisherman, who tried that once
too often, has been swept ashore day or
two later, when the mollusk released its
hold. Once, down at Point Sur, China
man was drowned in this way, and the
rest of the fishers in the village of black
huts under the yellow cliff deserted the
place within a week. They said that the
ghost of the dead Chinaman had turned
into an abalone, and would seek another
and another victim until the last of his
comrades were dead. / rode by that
day with a friend, and saw them pile the
dead Chinaman's clothes and belongings
on the leach and burn them. Then they
put sign in Chinese on the top of the
cliff, and, as l have heard, no Chinaman
has ever since ventured to fish in that
cove.
Polished abalone shells, and ornaments
made from the "buttons of pearl' which
every large shell contains, are very com
mon in California, but one sees little in
these days of the old native Californian
use of them on saddles and briddes. If
a vaquero were too poor to sport pounds
of silver on bride rein and saddle leath-
er, he could at least wear abalone buttons,
polished by hand. The shells, too, were
carried far inland, aud used on hundreds
of ranches for such homely purposes as
soap.dishes and candle holders. Up and
down the coast, in willow copses, or set
in seas OF tule, are the ancient "Kitchen
Middens, where, mingled with oyster
shells, broken abalone shells often form
the greater part of the vast mound of
debris. Inland too, in the valleys where
Indians once lived, abalone shells are
found, carried there ages ago The aba
lone must have been one of the principal
foodresources of the California sea- coast
Indians, and was probably exchanged by
them for the acorns and pine-nuts gath
cred by the Indians of the interior.
The abalone is fast disappearing. The
Chinaman has conquered. The profits
Of the modest mollusk, when dried and
shipped to China for the soup of the rich
merchants and high dignitaries of the
Empire, are so great that he is pursued
summer and winter, and thousands of
tons of him have been dried, sacked and
shipped away. There are but few large
abalones left. One can find wave worn
shells on the beach, or in the deep lime
stone caves, that arc larger than any now
obtained. You will still find thousands
of about the size and shape of a gentle.
mans watch-crystal, but the shells that
are eight inches across only turn up al
rare intervals, and are much sought foI
by collectors, and jewellers who know
their beauty when polished. There are two
sorts of abalones on the Californian coast,
! one black on the outside, the other red.
When this outer shell is ground partly
through the effect is either black or red
as the case may be, on a pearly ground.
The abalone pins and sleeve-buttons that
contain green or blue shades come from
the pearl buttons in the ack-backed
abaloncs, while those that contain silvery
and gray tints, come from the buttons in
In the red-backed species.-NeU YorA
Tribune.