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Distribution of Pearls and Peart-shell. 109 
pearl fisheries in this region, detailed above, may be 
survivals of an ancient industry. 
In northern Siberia, according to Witsen, pearls were 
found in the waters around Mangasea on the Turuchan; 
and a manuscript in the Moscow College notes that they 
were found in the river Tunguska which flows into the 
Veniser. Witsen also refers to their occurrence-in the 
rivers and streams of Irkutsk and Onon; Pallas speaks 
of the Ilim,a tributary of the Angara, as another river 
where they occur.” 
Kunz and Stevenson (of. c¢., p. 410) mention an in- 
teresting discovery (made in southern Siberia in the time 
of Peter the Great) of a broken gold ring with a roughly- 
cut turquoise and two pendants, each set with two pearls 
separated by a garnet. This object is thought to belong 
to the second century before Christ." 
In the Pacific Islands pearls and pearl-shell seem to 
have been appreciated for centuries. Among the native 
ornaments noted by Captain Cook at Tahiti were feathers, 
shells and pearls ; but the latter were worn chiefly by the 
women. In the Marquesas Islands, plates of mother-cf- 
pearl decorated the principal head-dress of the natives, 
while ornaments consisting chiefly of pearl-shell were seen 
in Toobouai; Friendly Islands; Mangeea Island; New 
Caledonia; New Zealand ; etc. The pearl-shell was also 
found to be employed in the construction of fish-hooks in 
many of the islands visited by early navigators," 
Since Cook’s time a considerable literature has accu- 
mulated on the subject of these pearl-shell fish-hooks. 
Hedley, in his “Ethnology of Funafuti?" gives a most 
DOA LUC ie ZOU 
105 Given as second century A.D. on plate figuring the specimen. 
SUC Gay Ae COOKG raphe Ze url LOOM Pp Peug24 S002, 1055 04,05, LOM, 
LOG MIC MUST S. 27 apand) so. ; 
107 Mem. Aust. Afits., ii., pp. 266 et seq. 
