THE ABALONES OF CALIFOKNIA.^ 



By Professor Charles Lincoln Edwards. 



Medical Department, the University of Southern California, Assistant, Cali- 

 fornia Fish and Game Commission. 



[With 10 plates.] 



The abalone belongs to a family of marine snails, the Haliotidse, 

 which has many representatives in the waters about Africa, India, 

 Japan, and the neighboring islands. Six species and one variety 

 have been described from the Pacific coast of North America, but 

 none from the Atlantic coast. Under the name of ormers, sea-ears, 

 or ear-shells, this gastropod occurs on the coast of France and among 

 the Channel Islands, but the species are most abundant in tropical 

 and semitropical regions. 



The abalone is of importance because of its beautiful shell, polished 

 as an ornament, or manufactured into many kinds of novelties and 

 jewelry. Gleaming with the iridescence of the rainbow and the 

 aurora this lovely shell is fit to be the chalice of Eos. Pearls may be 

 secreted around foreign particles accidentally, or designedly, intro- 

 duced between the mantle and the nacreous layer of the shell. The 

 mollusk Pholadidea may bore through the shell and cause the forma- 

 tion of the blister-pearl, or we may bring about the same result by 

 inserting a prepared form. Then the meat, either fresh or dried, is 

 of much food value. 



In the commercial fishery of abalones, one or more crews are em- 

 ployed, generall}?^ made up of Japanese, but sometimes of Chinese or 

 American fishermen. The boat containing a crew is either rowed, or 

 driven by motor, from the camp to the fishing grounds. The crew 

 consists of the diver and his 6 assistants. ^Vlien over the right bot- 

 tom the diver is clothed with his suit, the helmet screwed upon the 

 brass collar, the heavy lead breast and back weights adjusted, and the 

 air pump manned. One man takes the diver's signal rope, another 

 the hose from (he air pump, and the diver, with a net attached to a 

 rope and his shucking chisel in hand, is assisted over the side, climbs 

 down the short ladder, and drops through the water to iho, bottom. 



1 Reprinted by permission from The Popular Science Monthly, June, 1913. 



429 



