THE ABALONES OF CALIFORNIA 533 



THE ABALONES OF CALIFOKNIA 



By Professor CHARLES LINCOLN EDWARDS 



MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFOBNIA, 

 ASSISTANT, CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



THE abalone belongs to a family of marine snails, the HalioticUe, 

 which has many representatives in the waters about Africa, 

 India, Japan and the neighboring islands. Six species and one variety 

 have been described from the Pacific coast of North America, but none 

 from the Atlantic coast. Under the name of ormers, sea-ears, or ear- 

 shells, this gastropod occurs on the coast of France and among the 

 Channel Islands, but the species are most abundant in tropical and 

 semi-tropical regions. 



The abalone is of importance because of its beautiful shell, polished 

 as an ornament, or manufactured into many kinds of novelties and 

 jewelry. Gleaming with the iridescence of the rainbow and the aurora 

 this lovely shell is fit to be the chalice of Eos. Pearls may be secreted 

 around foreign particles accidentally, or designedly, introduced between 

 the mantle and the nacreous layer of the shell. The mollusk PJiola- 

 didea may bore through the shell and cause the formation of the blister- 

 pearl, or we may bring about the same result by inserting a prepared 

 form. Then the meat, either fresh or dried, is of much, food value. 



In the commercial fishery of abalones, one or more crews are 

 employed, generally made up of Japanese, but sometimes of Chinese 

 or American fishermen. The boat containing a crew is either rowed, 

 or driven by motor, from the camp to the fishing grounds. The crew 

 consists of the diver and his six assistants. When over the right bot- 

 tom the diver is clothed with his suit, the helmet screwed upon the 

 brass collar, the heavy lead breast and back weights adjusted, and the 

 anvpump manned. One man takes the diver's signal rope, another the 

 hose from the air-pump, and the diver, with a net attached to a rope 

 and his shucking-chisel in hand, is assisted over the side, climbs down 

 the short ladder and drops through the water to the bottom. If he 

 finds the abalones plentiful, work is continued in depths of from twenty 

 to sixty-five feet, in four-hour shifts. The man on the boat with the 

 signal rope in hand follows the course of the diver by the constant 

 stream of air-bubbles rising to the surface. When the kelp is thick one 

 man has a knife on a long pole, with which he cuts the sea-weed and 

 keeps the air-tube clear. 



The diver finds it an easy task to detach the abalone from the rock 



