XI, D, 4 Seale: Shells of Mindanao and Sulu 261 



unlicensed persons authorizing them to take marine Mollusca of any kind 

 or size for scientific purposes or for propagation, subject to such restrictions 

 as he shall prescribe. 



Sec. 15. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to prohibit 

 the taking of marine Mollusca, or the shells of such, of proper size by naked 

 divers using the customary native boats, rafts, rakes, or dredges in open 

 places. 



Sec. 16. The Secretary of the Interior shall make such regulations as 

 shall be necessary for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act, and 

 the Collector of Internal Revenue shall cause a copy thereof to be furnished 

 to each licensee. 



Sec. 17. Any person who shall take marine Mollusca, or any shell or 

 valve thereof, in Philippine waters contrary to the provisions of this Act 

 or otherwise violate any provision hereof shall be punished by a fine of not 

 more than one hundred pesos or imprisonment for not more than one month, 

 or both; and if the offense consists in the taking, selling, or transferring 

 of undersized shells of the species Margaritifera maxima, or the having of 

 such in possession, the offender shall be fined five pesos for each valve of any 

 shell the' subject of the illegal act. 



Sec. 18. With the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, the Collector 

 of Internal Revenue may at any stage compromise any case arising under 

 the provisions of this Act. 



Sec. 19. The term "Philippine waters," as used in this Act, includes all 

 marine waters pertaining to the Philippine Archipelago, as defined in the 

 treaties between United States and Spain, dated respectively the tenth of 

 December, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and the seventh of November, 

 nineteen hundred. 



Sec. 20. The term "open," as used in this Act applies to beds, banks, 

 shell-fields, and areas in Philippine waters which have not been brought 

 within the operation of an order of closure promulgated by the Secretary 

 of the Interior pursuant to section ten hereof. 



Sec. 21. This Act shall take effect upon its passage. 



Enatjted, February 4, 1916. 



IMITATION pearls SOLD IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Persons desiring to purchase Philippine pearls should be cau- 

 tious in parting with their money, for in certain sea ports 

 fraudulent pearls are sold that are merely beads cut from the 

 shells of various mullusks. These "pearls" are of a great variety 

 of colors — red, pink, black, gray, yellow, white, and variegated. 

 The prices asked for them depend apparently upon how pros- 

 perous the buyer appears to the vender. 



It is well known that all true pearls consist of concentric layers 

 of material around a definite center, a fact that makes the pearl 

 the most difficult of all gems to imitate successfully. 



I have made microscopic examinations of thin sections of 



many kinds of these "pearls," and all of them proved to be shell 



beads. The first one examined was a fine "red pearl," which the 



vender assured me came from a triton shell and was a true 



una — 2 



