Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1893-01-20
Pearl Fishing.

La paz, in Lower California, who's
chief industry is pearl filing. present
very animated spectacle between ths
months of May and November, wher
the season is on. The port, says TIT
Globe Democrat, is full of fishing boat
and smacks of all dimensions anC
builds, which are moving continually
over the placid waters of the Gulf of La
Paz, and the piers and other landing
places are full of people preparing tc
embark, or awaiting the return of the
fishermen. At least two-thirdS Of the en-
tire population of La Paz is engaged in
the pearl fisheries.
The oyster beds or fisheries which ex.
tend from Cape st. Lucas 10 Bunlegc
were divided by the Mexican Govern
mcnt into four sections i'll 1872, and a
law was passed which only, allowed one
section to be worked upon every two
years. This measure was taken TO pre-
vent the exhaustion Of the fisheries.
The barques which engage i'll this indus
| try are boats from two to three tons
burden, manned ordinarily by six men
including the diver, who is, of course,
the most important parsonage on board.
He is usually provided with water
for the breast and shoulders, or copper
or lead shoes, which weigh altogether
some $50 pounds.
The boats generally gather in groups
of twenty and leave the port at midnight
so as to reach the oyster beds at early
dawn. When all have arrived, a CAN
non shot is fired as signal, and the
diving commences. When the diver is
below his companions watch the signal
and haul up the baskets of oysters as
rapidly as he can fill them, and finally
bring up the exhausted diver himself,
as he can rarely remain under water
over eighty or ninety seconds, though
some have been known to resist The
enormous pressure for long time,
Before the divers suit was introduce d
in these parts it was the custom of the
native hShH.ltmeu to anoir.tc their bodies
with -, I'D dive to .,,o bo+to~,, Nth
nothing about them bat belt to which
the basket was attached in which the
oysters were thrown. Even now the
practice exists among some few divers,
but the sword fish, sharks, and the
devil fish, of different varieties, which
abound in the waters of the gulf render
this work extremely dangerous.
The diving goes on from six O'Clock
| in the morning until midday, when an
other signal is fired to announce that
the fishing is over, and the rest ofthe day
is employed in opening the oysters.
Formerly it was customary to pay the
pearl divers one quarter Of the proceeds,
but now the owners of the fishing outfits
pay their divers and helpers a fixed
salary.
The pearls are separated or classified
by running them through different
straining pans, commencing with the
largest and running down to the small
est, after which operation they are ap-
praised and sold invariably by the
weight. a fotilla of pearl fishing boats
is supposed TO gather some three tons
daily of oysters, and it is estimated that
one in a thousand bivalves contains a
pearl. During the season Of 1881 there
was larger amount of pearls extracted
than at any former period; and some
Of the specimens were remarkable for
their size and beauty. A black pearl
taken out that season by the divers OF
Juan Hidalgo weighed twenty-eight
carats, and was sold in Paris for $40, 900.
This year there have been sent over
$4,000 in pearls to Paris and New
York, and the season is not yet
through.
The pearls of this section were held in
great esteem in Mexico and Peru three
hundred years ago. During the first
quarter Of seventeenth century Antonio
de Castillo, a Spanish colonist, who
was living south Of NIazatlan, made an
enormous fortune i'll the pearl fisheries.
About this time, also, Captain Iturbe
Ortega engaged in the same business
and took some very valuable pearls to
Mexico, one of which he sold for
s., 500. This gave great impetus to the
industry.
The most precious pearls to be found
to-day among the crown jewels Of Spain
were taken from the fisheries near La
Paz before the French war of interven-
ton, and they have always been in
great demand since the time of Cortez.
III 1867 an American ambassador to the
Court of Spain said that he had seen
pearls Of the size of plover's egg
among the crown jewels of that country,
and that they were esteemed as among
| NLAS ulOSl vi bllN 10
The value of the mother of pearl
shells is from $40 to SI2 per one hundred
pounds. The proceeds of these are
sufficient to pay all the expenses of the
fishing and the pearl is a net gain
when found. Several years ago it was
quite problem to find some use for the
pearl oyster shells, and they accumula-
ted rapidly on the hands of their owners.
But now they are sent to Europe,
whence they are returned to Americh in
the form of buttons, knife handles and
several other articles. The price OF
pearls huctuates less than that of dia-
monds because their production is lesser
and more regular. At present the