Mother -of- Pearl and its Uses. 393 



fish, out of which the cable, as it is called, springs. This is 

 about the thickness of that part of a man's hand which is 

 next to the thumb. The flesh being semi-transparent, the 

 pearls are at once seen from their brightness, which refracts 

 the light. Their presence is easily detected. Sometimes 

 they exist in great numbers in one mollusc, but in such 

 cases they are generally small and ill-formed. There are 

 other pearls which are found loose in the shell, and these 

 are always of very fine quality, perfectly round, and very 

 often large. If the shell be carelessly opened, such a pearl, 

 if it be in it, invariably falls out, being carried away by the 

 beard in the agony of the mollusc when divided by the 

 knife, and is thus almost sure to be ejected from the shell. 

 Thus it has been that upon the Pacific fisheries by far the 

 greater number of the most valuable of these gems have 

 been irretrievably lost, for the reason that the natives, how- 

 soever experienced, never look for a pearl elsewhere than in 

 the muscle of the fish. They squat down on the sand, place 

 the shell between their legs, stick in the knife, and wrench 

 it open ; and if there be one of these beard pearls (which 

 are often worth a hundred of the others), dov/n it slips into 

 the sand, and is never seen ; but as a rule not more than 

 one oyster out of a thousand contains a pearl upon the 

 beard. 



Fine, calm weather is most favourable to pearl-fishing, 

 but not indispensable, as the amphibious natives of some 

 groups seek the shell by swimming with their heads below 

 the surface of the water, and having discovered it, inhale a 

 good draught of air, and then go down and fetch up as 

 many as they can readily lay hold of. Polynesian divers 

 do not use any stones to sink them, or any apparatus to 

 close the nostrils, as do the Singalese. They will stay 

 under water about a minute or two, sometimes longer, and 



