382 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



and inventive genius are being constantly devoted to its 

 utilization. 



We may now turn to a few details of the commerce in 

 pearl shells. It was only in 1853 that mother-of-pearl 

 shells were deemed of sufficient importance to appear in 

 the Board of Trade returns. The imports from that period 

 to 1870 were as follows. No official returns have, however, 

 been published since : 



Cwts. Value. 



1853 15,480 



1854 36,644 88,305 



1855 20,120 34,634 



1856 42,032 76,544 



1857 34,324 57,819 



1858 25,108 60,448 



1859 40,003 67,859 



1860 30,054 



1862 25,442 



1863 ... ,.. 20,322 



1864 ... ... 19,415 



1865 27,262 



1866 24,022 



1867 36,175 



1868 32,002 



1869 37,662 



1870 26,197 



59,707 

 38,677 

 35,3^ 

 30,416 

 42,663 

 41,746 

 70,426 

 64,869 



94,0! 5 

 76,489 



In the time of the Jesuit missionaries the pearl fishery 

 was actively carried on, and produced great wealth to the 

 people of Lower California. The value of the shells is 

 sufficient to pay the expense of the fishing, leaving the 

 pearls which may be obtained as clear gain. The best 

 pearl-bearing shells are found at between 14 and 18 

 fathoms, but locality has, apparently, much influence both 

 on the shell and the pearl, not only in quantity but also 

 in quality. At some of the islands, the banks, even in 

 shallow water, are quite choice in their yield, while at 

 others, as in the Isle de Puercos, the shells are tortuous 



