354 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



what cheap labor can do. Perhaps the largest number 

 of abalone shells are poHshed and sold as shells. 



Two or three species are known about the islands. 

 As a rule they are found clinging to the rocks in water 

 from eight to twenty feet deep. It is not easy to get 

 them, which possibly explains why the Americans allow 

 the Japanese to monopolize the trade. There are laws 

 limiting the catch to a certain size, but the collectors 

 often disregard it. The abalone has other values; the 

 meat is dried and exported, and in some of the shells 

 black and white pearls are found, and often black 

 blister pearls of value. Thirty years ago, so the story 

 goes, a black pearl was found in an abalone in these 

 waters that brought three thousand dollars in London, 

 and many of smaller value have been found. 



As we drew near the Japanese they were seen to 

 have on big goggles. They were perfectly at home in 

 the water and appeared like seals. Each man had a 

 short chisel and a box with a glass bottom. The 

 method of procedure was as follows: They anchored 

 the big boat and swam out to where the waves were 

 not heavy, in water fifteen feet or so deep. They then 

 tipped the box and looked down into it until they 

 located a shell, then disappeared, leaving the box to 

 float on the surface. Their method of going down was 

 so much like that of a seal — throwing the legs up 

 above their dark short bodies, that the resemblance 

 was exact at a distance. The time they remained 

 down, a minute if necessary, seemed interminable; but 

 up they would come, each man having an abalone in 

 his grasp. This was dropped in the glass box, and 

 after locating another shell, down the human seal 

 would go to pry it off. 



