33S 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [November I, 1887 
perienced divers, who are obliged to signal those above 
to lift them up and remove the pearl-oyster from their 
hands. The monsoons which blow in the strait from 
May until the end of September are often so severe that 
boats hare to lay up for as much as ten days at a time. 
The average catch for each boat is from one ton to a 
ton and a half shells per month. Unlike the fisheries 
in Oeylon and the Persian Gulf there is little or no 
difficulty in collecting the shells, for they either lie 
loose on the ground or are only partially buried in the 
mud or sand. The fisheries off the coast of West 
Australia, and especially at Shark Bay, produce the true 
pearl-oyster Avicula margaritifera. For a long time 
this shell was supposed to be valueless on account of 
its thin and fragile structure, but now there is a great 
demand for it both in America and in Europe.* It is 
especially prized by the French and German artists for 
fine inlaid cabinet work. The young or chicken shell 
is the best, and commands the highest price. When the 
pearl-oyster is five or six years old the shells become 
blistered and wormy, and it is said the oyster dies 
about the age of seven years. The divers in fishing 
make no effort to select any particular shell, but take 
every one that they can get, even the dead shells, which 
have the least value of any on account of various blem- 
ishes, rottenness, lack of lustre, &c. Pure white silver- 
edged shells are the best. The oysters in the West 
Australia fisheries are generally obtained by pass- 
ing an iron dredge over the banks, but divers 
are also employed. Pearl-oysters are gregarious in 
their habits, and whenever one is met with it is almost 
certain that numbers of others will be found in the 
immediate neighbourhood. Divers are expert swim- 
mers, and they go down to a depth of four or five 
fathoms, where it is said some of them can remain 
two minutes. The occupation is an unwholesome one, 
and soon produces deafness and diseases of the chest 
and lungs. Blood not unfrequently flows from the 
mouth, ears and nostrils after the usual dip of forty 
or fifty seconds, which is repeated fifty or sixty times 
a day. The men also run the risk of being eaten by 
sharks, although death from this cause is not apt to 
occur except in untried fishing-grounds, as the noise 
of the divers is almost certain to drive the sharks away. 
The Pearl Stations. — All the pearl-fishing stations 
in Torres Strait bear a close resemblance to one another, 
and consist of a small but nice-looking residence for 
the manager and one of less pretension for the men, 
a warehouse for storing provisions, &c, and several 
sheds for drying the shells. Before the shells are 
brought to the station the boats usually run into land, 
and the men open the oysters, take out the pearls, 
if any, and throw the soft parts overboard. The shells 
are then roughly cleaned and stowed under the hatches. 
At the end of the voyage they are taken to the station, 
where they are counted and thoroughly cleaned. The 
shells are then assorted and dried, and after the outer 
edges are chipped off they are packed in cases, each case 
weighing from 270 to 300 pounds, and are ready for ship- 
ment. No systematic effort has yet been made to collect 
pearls at Torres Strait, and such as are fouud become 
trie property of the men, who secrete them in various 
ways, often by swallowing them. Some very fine speci- 
mens of pearls about the size of a hazel-nut, and of 
remarkable beauty and clearness, have recently found 
their way to the market from Torres Strait. Other 
specinii-us of a rriuih larger size have been found there, 
but tlx/y were imperfect in shape and colour. 
Formation of Pearls. — In oysters aged four years — 
which are judged by the shells, weight and appearance 
— the best pearls are found. The shell, like the pearl, 
is formed by the secretion of the animal, and is com- 
posed of animal matter and lime. The iridescent hues 
ou the inside of the shell are occasioned by the edges 
of the thin, wavy, concentric layers overlapping one 
another and reflecting the light. The minute furrows 
c wtaining translucent carbonate of lime, produce a 
aeries of more or less brilliant col>urs, according to 
the angle at which the light falls upon them. Occa- 
sionally some of the finest pearls aie fouud loose in 
• Some mistake, or the Australian shells must be 
superior to those of Oeylou, for which there is now no 
lie.- 1 1 
the shell. As many as one hundred pearls have been 
found in one oyster, but of little or no value. The pearls 
of the young oyster are yellow, and in the older oyster 
are of a pinkish hue. 
The Use of Pearl-shells. — The pearl-shells ship- 
ped from Australia to the United States and Europe 
are used principally for the manufacture of knife- 
handles, shirt-buttons, &c* Considerable quantities are 
also used for papier-mache, and other ornamental work. 
The pearl buttons, shirt-studs, &c, now made in the 
United States, are said to be the best and cheapest in 
the world — a fact due in great measure to the care 
used in selecting the material and to the improved 
methods of cutting. — Held. 
«. 
PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
The Government will lose heavily by the short 
Java coffee crop. The Minister for the Colonies 
endeavours to make the best of a bad job, by 
assuring Parliament that it is no great matter for 
the estimate all at once to shrink from one million 
to 377,000 piculs. The cultivators who are forced 
to grow the berry for the State hardly get 14 
guilders a picul, but only for the quantity actually 
delivered into the Government storehouses. The 
market value at present stands at about 60 guilders 
a pieul. In the present straitened condition of the 
finances there is hardly any likelihood of the Gov- 
ernment giving a higher price to the growers to 
make up for the short yield. The struggle for life 
among the Javanese has become so hard that fiscal 
illiberality of this kind aggravates their miserable 
condition. The general run of the people live 
in wretched looking houses made of bamboos. 
The furniture is mostly the worse for wear and 
tear. The inmates live from hand to mouth, 
and bring up their children in ignorance. The 
parents have for the most part no other clothing 
than that on their hacks. The children wear 
none when very youDg, and the minimum for the 
requirements of decency when further on in years. 
Cultivators of this class can only get on by 
falling into debt, which they do their best to 
pay off by the proceeds of the produce of their 
land. They eke out their income by working as 
labourers on sugar estates, and by earning a little 
money in delivering coffee at the Government 
store-houses. The burden of taxation comes very 
hard upon this class of the population, millions 
in number as they are. The authorities too 
often in realising revenue demands, show little 
consideration for them. To meet the claims of 
the Government, the poor people have to borrow 
money, sell their produce for what it will fetch 
no matter how ruinously low prices may be, 
and stint themselves in the necessaries of life. In 
the west monsoon a good many villages actually 
suffer from hunger. Under such circumstances no 
wonder that parents instead of sending their children 
to school are driven to turn them to account as 
wage earners as early as possible. The land tax 
relentlessly levied in coin helps materially in re- 
ducing well to do families to poverty. 
The planting community are also hard put to it 
by the fall in the price of produce. Two monetary 
institutions in the island, the Dorrepaal Bank and 
the Samarang Trading Company have had to go 
into liquidation from inability, any longer, to struggle 
on. Hopes are entertained that fresh companies 
on a new basis may take up their business and 
carry it on with better chances of success, especially 
in the direction of plantation enterprise. 
* The large mother-o'-pearl shells are now meant, but 
the writer confuses the two species.— Ed. 
