246 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



All Australian colonists have heard of the extraordinary 

 profits made some years ago by men like Captain Cadell and 

 other pearl-fishers on the coast of North Australia. The same 

 shell exists in vast quantities in various localities of the South 

 Pacific under more favourable conditions, inasmuch as the 

 divers are obtainable on the spot or in the neighbourhood, 

 with the additional advantage that the food they require is 

 produced spontaneously on the scene of their labours. For 

 many years past, in the Pacific, men accustomed to the shell 

 trade have been in the habit of collecting shell and disposing 

 of it to such vessels as might chance to visit them, at prices 

 ranging from 12 to 20 per ton, and considered themselves 

 well paid, whereas the prices obtained in the London market 

 have varied from 80 to 150, or even more. 



It has been said that the South Sea shell is inferior to that 

 obtained on the coasts of North Australia, Manilla, or Ceylon. 

 This, however, is not really the case ; but it is quite true that 

 years ago Tahitian, the name by which South Sea shell is 

 usually known, became greatly depreciated in the European 

 market, in consequence of the merchants of that place having 

 foolishly persisted in cleaning the shell before shipment. To 

 accomplish this object the more readily, the traders used to 

 throw them out on the sandy beach of the island where they 

 were obtained, and let them lie for a day or two in the hot 

 sun ; the effect of which was that all the rough edges, knots, 

 and coral lumps which were attached to them cracked off and 

 left them smooth, but at the same time denuded of the 

 splendid natural lustre they would have retained had the}' 

 been placed under cover immediately the living fish were 

 removed from them. The Manilla fishers were always aware 

 of this fact, and profited by their knowledge ; in consequence 

 of which their shell has for years past commanded a very high 



