Distribution of Pearls and 1 ^earl-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 

 Yenisei. Witsen also refers to their occurrence in the 

 rivers and streams of Irkutsk and Onon ; Pallas speaks 

 of the Him, a tributary of the Angara, as another river 

 where they occur. 104 



Kunz and Stevenson (op. cit., 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 lor> 



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-of- 

 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. 10fi 



Since Cook's time a considerable literature has accu- 

 mulated on the subject of these pearl-shell fish-hooks. 

 Iledley, in his "Ethnology of Funafuti" 107 gives a most 



1 u * Il> id., p. 20 1. 



105 Given as second century A.D. on plate figuring the specimen. 

 111 " G. A. Cooke, op. <;/., i. (1801), pp. 32, 36, 62, 65, 84, 85, 101, 

 105, 113, 131, 178, 273 and 318. 



107 Mem. Aits/. JIus., iii., pp. 266 t_t seq. 



