IX] PEARLS IX JEWELLERY, ETC. 117 



increased in the last decade, notwithstanding the 

 oijening of new fishing grounds. The pearl industry 

 (speaking only of the actual fishing itself) plays no 

 small part in the economics of the world, and the 

 folloAving table, from Kunz and Stevenson's volume, 

 showing the number of fishers and the approximate 

 value of the products found by them in 1906, supports 

 this statement. 



It would be quite impossible to make any state- 

 ment as to the value of pearls, for so many details 



