74 ACAPULCO. 



foreign matter with it. Hence the pearl ! This is so well- 

 known in China, Japan, and other Asiatic countries, that the 

 natives gather oysters, open them, and introduce round shots 

 or beads, or such-like, for the animals to cover them with 

 mother of pearl. 



After a certain time, they gather the shells, destroy them, 

 and take out the pearls obtained by that process, which could 

 be applied also to the Pacific oysters, and I have no doubt 

 that the industrious, who should undertake to create pearls by 

 the Asiatic process, on more scientific principles, would reap 

 a good and valuable harvest. 



Pearl fisheries, as they are conducted at the present, are 

 like a lottery. It may pay, or it may not. The fishermen 

 sell the shells without knowing if they contain pearls, and 

 the speculator buys them also without knowing what they con- 

 tain. But if what I said above, about the exterior deformities 

 to be seen on the shells containing pearls is true, with proper 

 care it would be easy to distinguish at once the shells contain- 

 ing the pearls, and probably the best of them would be found 

 in the shells most deformed. It is a very interesting study 

 to make, and I call the attention of scientists and merchants 

 to it. 



The boats used for the fishing of pearls are about ten to 

 twelve yards in length and having from four to six oars a side. 

 A sufficient store of water and provisions for eight or ten 

 days is carried. 



They start for the pearl banks from the beginning of 

 June to the end of September, the usual time for fishing these 

 molluscs. As many expert divers are taken as the boat 

 can accommodate. They are under the command of 

 the Arma dor or chief, who is generally well paid. He 

 is responsible for everything. It is he who advances 

 money to the divers, and who buys pearls from others, 

 if he has the opportunity. He selects the banks to be 

 worked, supplies food to all his men, and in fact is the 

 representative of the merchant who employs him. When on 

 the bank, he supplies the divers with victuals, a knife, and a 

 quarter-of-a-yard of blue cloth or baize. He remains on the 

 bank until the loading of the boat is completed. After 

 deducting a fifth of the whole of the shells raised for the 

 Government, two heaps are made wdth the remainder, the 

 Armador selects the one he pleases, the other belongs to 

 the merchant who supplied the money. 



Of late, I think that the Mexican Government has given 



