Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1912-09-21
RVH0zAlW ZATLZHZ12ED REzRZ (uz1U2eE SZAAl"

happens that pearls are found attached to the In
ner surface of the she'll This position inter
feres with the symmetry of the pearl so that
when 1t is taken out of the shell it is fiat one
side, making what is known "perle bouton."
The attached pearls are not always or inferior
quality but are often highly valued. The world
renowned Southern Cross" which was valued at
G 10000 by the company to which 1t belonged, was
found at Cossack, Western Australia. attached to
the central part Of the inside of a she'll
When once the nature OF pearls was understood.
II was but natural that many experiments
made to produce the precious objects at will. In
fact much attention has been paid to this very
problem by scientific men, and they are still at
work upon it
1t is we'll known that Linnaeus the father OF
natural history, claimed that pearls could be pro-
cured by piercing holes in the shell of an oyster
with a fine auger, making a small wound, and
afterwards parking the oysters for many years
But his suggestions do not seem to have been
clearly understood and has been able to
pursue his method successfully. The Chinese as
is well known, have been specially successful in
raising pearls by inserting grains Of clay between
the shell and the thin outer Membrane which
covers the soft body of the freshwater musse
but the best OF these are of very inferior quality
and are valuable merely as curios
At the International Fisheries exhibition, held
In Berlin in 1880, some pearls were shown which
had been cultivated in Germany From looking
at these one could that the Esain relief might
De covered WITH nacre0uS substance, but the re-
suit was of little value. Mr.. Save Kent late
naturalist TO the government of Queensland and
to that Of Western Australia undertook the same
experiment with the large pearl-oyster, and
gentleman on Thursday island tried inserting
shot through hole In the she'll
The most important of such experiments are
probably those OF DR.. Louis Boutan of Paris who
succeeded come seven years ago In producing
pearls In the abalone shell. 20 public was nat
urally greatly interested and the newspapers in
Europe and America applauded his success and
called II great discovery
IL may perhaps come as a surprise 20 many that
before DIR. Boutan's attempts, a very extensive
and successful system Of pearloyster cultivation
mad been carried on In Japan by Mr. Mikimoto
and culture pearls" had not only beer produced
but placed regularly the market Even at the
present day, II may be claimed, that this Is the
only pearloyster farm In the world which under
takes the extensive cultivation of the precious
mollusc and produces culture pearls" on a COM
merctal scale. An account of the successful enter
prise may, therefore, be not wholly devoid of In
terest
At the Third National Industrial exhibition
held in Tokyo in 1890, Mr., Mikimoto exhibited In
the aquarium OF fisheries section some living
specimens OF the pearloyster This made him ac
quainted with Dr. Mitsukuri professor Of zoology
at the Imperial university, who first suggested to
him the possibility Of cultivating pearl-Cysters
and OF making them produce pearls by the use of
proper stimuli Being deeply interested In the
subject. mikimoto went afterwards to the marine
biological station OF the Imperial university at
Visaki where the professor was teaching, and