98 



KNOWLEDGE 



[May 1, 1899. 



According to the trade-reports of Messrs. Lewis and 

 Peat,* of Mincing Lane, mother-of-pearl oysters are 

 classified commercially into the following chief descriptions : 

 (1) Australian, (2) black-edged Tahiti, etc., (3) Fiji and 

 Sydney, (4) Egyptian, (5) Bombay, (6) Zanzibar, (7) 

 Manila, (8) Mergui, (9) Banda black-edged, (10) Panama, 

 and (11) Shark's Bay. All these different descriptions can be 

 easily recognised by commercial experts ; but, from the mix- 

 ture of localities and the observations which follow, it is evi- 

 dent that many of them do not indicate distinct local races 



Pio. 1. 



-Inner Surface of One Valve of Commercial Pearl Oyster. 

 One-third natural size. 



of the species, although others may probably be regarded 

 as such. All descriptions are further subdivided, accord- 

 ing to size, quality and condition, into " bold," " medium," 

 "small medium," " chicken," " pickings," " broken pieces," 

 and " stale and dead," which, in each description, diminish 

 in price from the first two or three to the last. Further- 

 more, the shells, irrespective of origin, vary in value accord- 

 ing as the margin of the interior is pure silvery-white, 

 yellow, as in Manilla and Queensland samples, or black, 

 as in those from Tahiti and Panama ; the white, or silver- 

 lipped, being the most, and the smoky, or black-edged, the 

 least valuable, although there is some amount of variation 

 in this respect according to fashion. 



Pearl-oysters being sold in London by the hundred- 

 weight, it might seem an easy matter to obtain from the 

 trade-reports the amount of the annual imports. Unfor- 

 tunately this is not the case, since the consignments are 

 reckoned by " packages," so that only the price per 

 hundredweight can be ascertained ; but it may be taken 

 as certain that the imports are to be reckoned by hundreds 

 of tons. As regards price, it would appear that, in spite 

 of very heavy fluctuations that have taken place according 

 to supply and demand during the last half-century, at the 

 present day the value is much higher than the former 

 average, and this, too, when the supply, owing to steam 

 communication, may be presumed to be fairly constant. 

 We read, for instance, in the first edition of Woodward's 

 " MoUusca," published in 1851, that the price per hundred- 

 weight then ranged from two pounds to four pounds, and 



* The writer takes this opportunity of expressing his thanks to 

 that firm for much valuable information on this and kindred subjects. 



that the annual import of silver-lipped shells from the 

 Society Islands to Liverpool was only about four hundred 

 hundredweights, and that of the black-edged from Manila 

 six hundred hundredweights in the year mentioned. Of 

 the smaller Panama shells, however, the average annual 

 import was at that time four thousand hundredweights, 

 and iu 1851 a single vessel brought upwards of six thousand 

 eight hundred hundredweights (three hundred and forty 

 tons). 



About 1853, from which date till 1870 annual returns 

 were issued by the Board of Trade, the mother-of-pearl 

 imports seem to have received a new impetus, the following 

 being the seven maximum years during that period : — 



1856 = 42,032 hundredweights, valued at X'76,544. 

 1859 = 40,003 „ „ 67.859. 

 1869 = 37,662 „ „ 94,015. 

 1854 = 36,644 „ „ 88,305. 

 1867 = 36,175 „ „ 70,426. 



1857 = 34,324 „ „ 57,819. 

 1808 = 32,002 „ ,, 04,869. 



From this it appears that in the last year mentioned the 

 average price was almost exactly two pounds per hundred- 

 weight, while in 1809 it was somewhat above, and in 1856 

 rather below that sum. 



Turning now to Messrs. Lewis & Peat's trade-report for 

 •January, 1898, a single glance will show the enormous 

 advance on these prices. Among the various descriptions 

 of Australian shell the highest price was obtained for best 

 Australian samples, in which " chicken " yielded eleven 

 pounds twelve shillings and sixpence per hundredweight, 

 "small medium" ten pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence, 

 and "stale and dead" a minimum of three pounds two 

 shillings and sixpence. Of other Australian shell, " Sydney 

 and Queensland " showed a maximum of ten pounds twelve 

 shillings and sixpence for "chicken," and a minimum of 

 two pounds ten shillings for " dead and stale," while the 

 descriptions respectively known as " Colonial sorted " and 

 "Port Darwin" yielded very similar returns. Ou the 

 other hand, the Australian shell known as "New Guinea 

 character'' ranged somewhat lower in value — "bold and 

 medium " realizing eight pounds seventeen shillings and 

 sixpence, and "stale and dead" two pounds. In shell 

 coming under the description of black-edged, the maximum 

 and minimum in " Tahiti " were nine pounds five shillings 

 and three pounds, respectively. Cheaper still was that variety 

 of black-edged described as " Gambia " — the maximum price 

 being five pounds fifteen shillings per hundredweight. 

 Here it should be mentioned that the word "Gambia" 

 would naturally lead the uninitiated to believe that the 

 shells came from the West Coast of Africa, where, so far as we 

 are aware, pearl-oysters are totally unknown. The expla- 

 nation of the mystery seems to be that "Gambia" is a 

 trade corruption for " Gambler," which is the name for 

 a small group of islands in the Low Archipelago, not very 

 far from Tahiti, where there is an extensive pearl-fishery. 



Another, although less glaring, misnomer occurs in the 

 case of the so-called Egyptian shell, which is really 

 obtained from the Red Sea, and was formerly shipped from 

 Alexandria. About 1870 the annual shipment of shell 

 from that port to Liverpool averaged about twelve thousand 

 hundredweights ; but some years later it fell to half that 

 amount. The maximum price for this class realized in the 

 January sale, 1898, was six pounds two shillings and six- 

 pence per hundredweight. " Bombay" shell, again, which 

 at the same sale reached a maximum of six pounds twelve 

 shillings and sixpence, instead of being dredged off the 

 city from which it takes its name, really comes from the 

 Persian Gulf. Most of these shells are small, with dark 

 edges ; and although they used to realize more than the 



