SHARK FISHING. 



703 



some pearl that has been overlooked; as in our cities the 

 ashes, barrels and gutters are searched by the same wretched 

 class for the refuse of luxury. 



The pearls are polished by shaking them together in a bag 

 with nacre powder. By this process they are smoothed and polish- 

 ed. Then they are assorted according to sizes by being passed 

 through a series of copper sieves, placed over each other, and 

 pierced with an increasing number of holes, growing smaller. 

 Thus, sieve number twenty has twenty holes in it ; fifty, fifty 

 holes, and the last of the series of twelve, one thousand holes. 

 The pearls retained between twenty and eighty are called mill, 

 and are considered to be of the first order. Those between 

 one hundred and eight hundred are vivadoe, and class second. 

 Those which pass through all but the thousand are tool, or seed 

 pearls, and are third. The seed pearls are sold by measure or 

 weight. The larger ones are drilled, strung on a white or 

 blue silk thread, and exposed for sale. 



In the American fisheries the oysters are opened each separ- 

 ately with a knife, and the animal is pressed between the 

 thumb and finger in the search for pearls. This process takes 

 longer, and is not considered as certain to find them all as 

 that followed in the East, but the nacre and the pearls thus 

 taken from the live animal are fresher and more brilliant 

 than from those oysters which have died and decayed. Other 

 mollusks also furnish pearls, but not in a regular enough supply 

 to justify their fishing. In fact pearls are often found in our 

 common oysters. 



Fishing for sharks is one of the most exciting kinds of sport, 

 lad has the further merit that its success is the destruction of 

 ; he most destructive inhabitant of the sea; a predatory rob- 

 ber, who spares none that come in his way. The prey in 

 which the shark most delights is, however, man himself. Ho 

 even manifests, according to some authorities, a preference for 

 Europe<\ns over the Asiatic or the Negro races. A shark who 



