,6 



THE MUSEUM. 



from town, where it has been persist- 

 ently fished for 50 years or more. 



{To be Continued.) 



Sea Fowl Catching in the Faroes. 



Seafovvl-catching is greatly engaged 

 in by the Faroe Islanders. Puffins, 

 fulmars, guillemots, cormorants and 

 shearwaters are all eaten at some stage 

 of their existence, but puffins more 

 Ihan any of the others. During the 

 season on Naalsoe Island as many as 

 four hundred of these birds are often 

 canght by a skilled fowler in a single 

 day. At the^end of June and begin- 

 ning of July, when the young birds are 

 hatched, but still remain unfledged in 

 the burrows, the parents spend their 

 morning out at sea, fishing for them- 

 selves and their offspring. About noon 

 they begin to fly home, each with a 

 row of small sprats or anchovies in its 

 beak. At this time of day the fowler 

 seats himself in a suitable spot behind 

 a roughly built wall or a jutting rock 

 on the cliff's edge. Resting before 

 him he holds a pole some twelve feet 

 long, on to the end of which a small 

 triangular net is fixed. With this he 

 Cliches the puffins asj^they fly over his 

 )i-ad. Their flight is so feeble that 

 I hey cannot start from the ground with- 

 ,out launching themselves from the edge 

 of a precipice ; nor can they rise from 

 the sea unless they gain impetus by 

 striking the water with their wings 

 again and again. On a foggy day, 

 with the wind blowing inshore, they 

 are quite at the mercy of the man with 

 the net. The puffins' breasts are salt- 

 ed and consumed in great numbers dur- 

 ing winter, and their feathers form, 

 next to stock-fish, the most important 

 export of the islands. The other birds 

 are either shot or taken from the nest, 

 as their flight is much more powerful 

 than that of the puffin. Quantities of 

 guillemots' and razorbills' eggs are also 

 .collected in early summer, especially 

 .on the Great Diamond (Store Dimon), 

 a desolate island occupied by a single 

 family and shut off from all communi- 



cation for the greater part of the year. 

 The bird-nesters are let down over the 

 edge of the cliffs on horse-hair ropes, 

 which are twisted on a complicated 

 piece of wooden machinery, needing 

 three men to work it, and hardly doing 

 the work of one. In Myggenaes dur- 

 ing nesting-time similar ropes are 

 stretched across chasms instead of 

 bridges. 



A Brief History of the Gathering 



of Fresh Water Pearls in the 



United States. 



BY GEORGE F. KUNZ. 

 DiSTRUCTION OF THE MOLLUSK. 



As to what use or disposal, if an3^ 

 is made of the shells after being exam- 

 ined for pearls and the animals des- 

 troyed, give a painful record of the ut- 

 ter waste of an enormous amount of 

 material useful and beautiful for many 

 purposes in the arts. The question is 

 answered in seventy-four papers, with 

 a melancholy uniformity. In only 

 twelve of them is there any suggestion 

 of utilization of the shells, and in only 

 one of the use of the animals other 

 than as fish bait, manure or food for 

 hogs. Twenty-six of the answers say 

 simply that there is no use made of 

 them or that they are "wasted" or 

 "thrown away ; " nine say that they 

 are thrown into the water, and six add 

 that the fish eat them and also the 

 muskrats and tortoises ; seven speak 

 of their being used for fish bait ; six 

 for feeding hogs, and two for manure. 

 Several merely say that they are left 

 on the banks or shoals for rats, minks 

 and crows to dispose of. 



An Iowa pearler states that the 

 shells are utilized for button making 

 and that some people use the animal 

 for making soup. The actual use of 

 the shells for buttons is also referred 

 to by two pearlers and their possible 

 value for that purpose is noted in four 

 other papers, though they are not so 

 used as yet. One says that few are 

 polished for ornamental purposes and 

 another makes a similar statement, 



