Distribution of Pearls mid Pearl-shell. 107 



In 1727, Kaempfer noted that pearls were obtained 

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

 not unlike the Persian pearl-oyster ; also from the yellow 

 •snail shell and from the taira gai {Placuna), and especiall)' 

 from the awabi or abalone {Haliotis)™ 



From narratives of China by the Jesuits, there appears 

 to be some evidence of a former pearl fishery in the 

 neighbourhood of Saghalin Island, but the intelligent 

 navigator, M. de la I'erouse, expressed much 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 ; but 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 Von Hessling in 1859 {op. cit., 

 pp. 201-4). In Manchuria, he tells us, pearls have been 

 -fished, from the oldest time to the present day, in the 

 streams which flow into the Songari, a tributary of the 

 Amur. Witsen, writing in 1705, mentions the pearls from 

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

 islands of the Amur at the junction of the Skilka and 

 Argun. Pearl-fisheries were established here by the 

 Russians nearly two centuries ago. Pearls are finer and 

 more plentiful, says Hessling, in southern Manchuria, 

 especially in Lake Heikow or Hing-tchou-men, " Black 

 Lake " or " Gate of Precious Gems," where they have been 

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



'"'" Kunz and Stevenson, of. cit., pp. 147-8. 



i»i G. A. Cooke, "System of Universiil Geography," vol. i. (1801),' 

 P- 574- 



