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abalone shell amounted to $185,414, which, together with 
$35,000, the value of the dried meat annually exported, 
makes this quite an important industry. These shells 
secrete very curious pearly masses, sometimes of fine lustre 
and choice enough to deserve a place among pearls. <A 
pearl measuring two inches in length and from { to $ inch 
in width has been found. A necklace made in California 
from the finest specimens was valued at $2,000. A pearl 
over half an inch long and of good color cost $39, and was 
used as the body of a jeweled fly. The abalone pearls from 
the coasts of Korea and Japan are often very beautiful. 
In a lot of about one hundred shells only five were found 
bearing pearls, two with three pearls each, two with two 
pearls each, and one with a single pearl. 
Capt. J. W. Cottins—lI have been very much interested 
in the valuable paper read by Mr. Kunz. It is timely and 
important, and is worthy of careful consideration by those 
of our citizens living in the interior who are interested in 
the collection of fresh water-pearls. As most of you know, 
many pearls have been gathered in the Central States, and 
especially in some of the States bordering the Great Lakes. 
I fear, however, that lack of information on the part of 
those who have been engaged in this effort has resulted in 
the practical extermination of pearl-bearing shells in cer- 
tain regions, since I believe it to be true that, practically 
in all cases, the animals have been killed in order to ascer- 
tain whether they contained pearls or not. If the people 
who sought the pearls had known that it was perfectly 
feasible to obtain them without injuring the animals, by 
the use of a simple tool, such as has been mentioned by 
Mr. Kunz, and had they realized the importance to them in 
future years of conserving the supply of these wealth-pro- 
ducing bivalves, there is reason to believe that quite a 
large collection of pearls could have been made at intervals 
of every few years. Now, however, because of a lack of 
this knowledge, the pearl producing shells in the sections 
