]h si 1 1 hill ion of l\arls ,i)id ]\'arl -shell. 



107 



In 1727, Kacinpfer noted that i)earls were obtained 

 by the Japanese from small sorts of oysters, called akoja, 

 not unlike the Tersian pearl-oyster ; also from the \-ello\\ 

 snail shell and from W\& taira o;ai {P lacuna \,^\u\ especially 

 from the awabi or abalone {I fallal is). 



From narratives of China b\- the Jesuits, there appears 

 to be some evidence of a former [)earl fishery in the 

 neighbourhood of Saghalin Island, but the intelligent 

 navigator, M. de la Perousc, expressed mucli doubt on 

 this point. He acknowledged that his people found 

 oysters that contained pearls, and admitted it possible 

 that a few families of fishermen may have united together 

 for the purpose of fishing for pearls, in order to exchange 

 them for nankeens and other articles of commerce from 

 China ; l)ut he did not observe that an\- of the natives of 

 the places at which he touched on the coast estimated 

 this kind of pearl more than common beads."" There 

 seems to be, however, ample evidence of old-established 

 pearl-fisheries in this region, judging from the various 

 records summarized by \'on Hessling in 1S59 (0/^. cit., 

 Ijp. 201-4). 1" Manchuria, he tells us, pearls have been 

 fished, from the oldest time to the [^resent da\-. in the 

 streams which flow into the .Scngari, a tributary of the 

 Amur. Witsen, writing in 1 705, mentions the pearls from 

 the Gan, a tributary of tb.e .Amur, and also from the 

 islands of the Amur at the junction of the Skilka and 

 Argun. Pearl-fisheries were established here b_\- the 

 Russians nearly two centuries ago. Pearls are finer and 

 more plentiful, sa)-s Hessling, in southern Manchuria, 

 especiall)- in L.ake Heikow or Hing-tchou-men, '■ Black 

 Lake " f)r '' Gate of Precious Gems." where thc\' have been 

 fished for ages for the account of the Emperor of China. 



'"" Kun/. and .Stevenson, op. cil., pp. 147-^. 



"" (i. A. Cooke, "Sy.slem of Universal Gt,()!,'raphy," vol. i. (iSoi), 



