98 SEALE. 



in some cases at least, cultural pearls have been produced; but when the 

 methods have been brought to the crucial test there is always some small 

 point or flaw which has prevented their application with profitable results. 

 This is at least true concerning the forming of the free, round, cyst 

 pearls of fine luster, but in so far as the production of half-p6arls and 

 blisters is concerned, the Mikimoto pearl farm in the Bay of Ago, Japan, 

 need only be visited to carry conviction that the artificial production of 

 pearls is both practicable and profitable, for at this place several hundred 

 people are employed in the work, and the cultural pearls harvested find a 

 ready market at a good price. In fact some of the "antique" jewelry 

 sold in Manila was found to be set with these. ( See photograph of some 

 of these culture pearls, natural size, Plate VI, fig. 1.) 



From 200,000 to 300,000 oysters are treated each year at this pearl 

 farm. The method employed is similar in most respects to that used 

 by the Chinese hundreds of years ago, when small, rough images of 

 Budda were placed between the mantle and shell of the live river clam, 

 which was then' returned to the water until the images were coated over 

 with nacre, after which they were taken out and sold as charms. The 

 Japanese use a small canula to insert a minute mother-of-pearl bead 

 which is flat on the side and which fits against the shell. The oyster is 

 then again placed in the water and allowed to grow for six or seven years, . 

 when the pearls are harvested. The undertaking is profitable, owing to 

 the large number of oysters treated. 



However, the chief object to be desired is to grow round, perfect, cultu- 

 ral pearls of fine luster ; in other words, to produce a cyst pearl, or one so 

 closely resembling it as to be indistinguishable from it. Our efforts have 

 been directed to this end, but the results so far obtained do not warrant 

 publication. As an illustration of some of the difficulties encountered 

 by those engaged in experimenting in pearl growing, a gentleman from 

 Australia, who some time ago purchased the experimental pearl farm 

 inaugurated at Tuesday Island by Seville Kent, and who had spent 

 several thousand pounds in attempting to grow cultural pearls, remarked 

 to me, "I have succeeded in growing the perfectly round jearls, but my 

 great difficulty is to prevent their discoloration." 



It may be predicted that within the next few years perfectly round 

 cultural pearls of fine luster will be produced commercially and that the 

 undertaking will prove to be the most profitable achievement of modern 

 zoology. 



Pearls of value sometimes are found in other mollusks of the Philip- 

 pines, as, for instance, in the Taclobo (Tridacna gigas Linn.) which 

 occasionally contains pearls of great beauty. (See Plate VI, fig. 2.) 

 However, these usually are without luster and hence valueless. 



