498 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Island, and the crew only reached safety in an open boat after great 
privations. Very little shark fishing has been done of late years owing 
to the lack of a profitable market for the products obtained. 
Sharks’ teeth were highly prized by the natives, while the oil 
extracted was vaiuable and of a good quality. After an export trade 
had been opened with other countries considerable quantities of sharks’ 
fins were dried and shipped to China and San Francisco. 
THE PEARL FISHERY. 
During the early years of the last century pearl oysters were first 
discovered in the locality now bearing the name of Pearl Harbor, 
about 9 miles from Honolulu—a magnificent sheet of water, running 
about 10 miles back into the interior, and about 4 miles across in the 
widest part. It is divided into two parts by an island and a narrow 
strip of the mainland running down about the center of it. The 
beds were located at the head of the harbor. As the value of the 
discovery soon became manifest the King declared it a royal monopoly, 
and he employed divers to bring up the oysters, which were found in 
great plenty. , 
Speaking of the marine fauna, James Jackson Jarves, the historian 
of the islands, says: 
Kdible shell-fish are also abundant, of which the pearl oyster is very palatable. 
Pearls are common, but of no great size or beauty. They formerly constituted a 
profitable branch of trade and were monopolized by the king.* 
The shell, or mother-of-pearl, formed the more valuable part of the 
product and was usually shipped to China, where it found a ready sale, 
but the business was so vigorously prosecuted that before 1850 it had 
ceased to exist, owing to the exhaustion of the bed. 
Pearls have been found on the Puna coast, on Hawaii, inclosed in a 
large mollusk, shaped like a pearl oyster, and called ‘‘pa” by the 
natives. The pearls are of but little value, owing to dark streaks in 
the center of them. The natives use the portion of the shell around 
the valve in making fishhooks, as this part has the rough outline of 
a hook already and is easily worked. This mollusk is quite rare now 
and is highly prized by the natives when found. 
LOLI (BECHE-DE-MER) FISHERY. 
This is an edible Holothurian much esteemed by the Chinese for its 
supposed medicinal qualities, and is prepared by them in the form of 
a soup. It is a gelatinous slug, found in the sea from low-water mark 
toa depth of several fathoms, and grows from 3 to 10 inches in length. 
When taken from the rocks, to which it is generally found adhering, 
it is cut open, the entrails removed, and the body is then dried in the 
sun. After being thus prepared it is of a dark or black color. Vari- 

*A history of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, etc. By James Jackson Jarves. p.18. Boston, 
1843, 8vo. 
