Distribution of Pearls and Peart-shell. 107 
In 1727, Kaempfer noted that pearls were obtained 
by the Japanese from small sorts of oysters, called aaja, 
not unlike the Persian pearl-oyster ; also from the yellow 
snail shell and from the éazva ga? (Placuna), and especially 
from the awabi or abalone (//a/zo/¢is).'" 
From narratives of China by the Jesuits, there appears 
to be some evidence of a former pearl fishery in the 
neighbourhood of Saghalin Island, but the intelligent 
navigator, M. de la Perouse, expressed much doubt on 
this point. He acknowledged that his people found 
oysters that contained. pearls, and admitted it possible 
that a few families of fishermen may have united together 
for the purpose of fishing for pearls, in order to exchange 
them for nankeens and other articles of commerce from 
China ; but he did not observe that any of the natives of 
the places at which he touched on the coast estimated 
this kind of pearl more than common beads.'" There 
seems to be, however, ample evidence of old-established 
pearl-fisheries in this region, judging from the various 
records summarized by Von Hessling in 1859 (of. ct., 
pp. 201-4). In Manchuria, he tells us, pearis have been 
fished, from the oldest time to the present day, in the 
streams which flow into the Songari, a tributary of the 
Amur. Witsen, writing in 1705, mentions the pearls from 
the Gan, a tributary of the Amur, and also from the 
islands of the Amur at the junction of the Skilka and 
Argun. Pearl-fisheries were established here by the 
Russians nearly two centuries ago. Pearls are finer and 
more plentiful, says Hessling, in southern Manchuria, 
especially in Lake Heikow or Hing-tchou-men, “ Black 
Lake” or “ Gate of Precious Gems,” where they have been 
fished for ages for the account of the Emperor of China. 
10° Kunz and Stevenson, of. ce¢., pp. 147-5. 
101 G, A. Cooke, ‘System of Universal Geography,” vol, i. (1801), 
Pp. 574: 
