Not 1, 1901.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
345 
diseased mollusc should bestow upon the 
world as a result of its ailment that ' white 
wealth of the sea,' which, from the night 
when Cleopatra feasted with Antony to the 
present time, human beings have valued as 
the queenliest of gems. For who is there 
who is not aware that the finest pearl is only, 
as the dictionaries coldy say, ' the calcareous 
concretions produced by certain molluscs, 
valued as articles of personal adornment ' ? 
And further inquiry proves the fa.tal card in 
the jeweller's to be only too accurate : for 
whether it be as some believe a parasitical 
growth, or a malignant eruption which attacks 
an oyster who lives ' not wisely but too well ' 
it is certainly the experience of all pearl- 
fishers that the shells which bear the most 
beautiful pearls are those which by their 
distorted shape and ugly excrescences give 
most signs of disease in che creature itself. 
Someone once criticised theNorwegian author 
Henrik Ibsen as a man 'who mistook every 
pimple on the face of humanity for a cancer.' 
But in the matter of the pearl the human 
race has reversed this and ' gone one better ' 
for we have mistaken the cancer of the 
oyster for a jewel. But even if he could 
give the lie to the cynical man of science who 
would have us believe that we owe these 
natural wonders to a diseased mollusc, the 
pearl is at its best but a lowly object, nothing 
grander in fact than carbonate or sili- 
cate of lime. In old days few mortals had 
such disagreeable knowledge. For the early 
inhabitants of the globe the pearl was simply 
a lovely miracle of Nature, and many were 
the beautiful myths which were current to 
account for it. But even today ' the treasures 
ot an oyster ' are able by sheer loveliness to 
survive the fatality of fact. Much can be 
pardoned to beauty; and no one is so impolite 
as to inquire into the pearl's past. 
A perfect pearl is indeed one of the most 
beautiful objects in the world. But jewellers 
will tell you that it is hard to come by. First, 
it must be accurately spherical, and not spoilt 
in shape by its contact with the shell. And 
then it must have a faultless ' skin ' and a 
fine 'orient,' which are jewellers' terms for 
the delicate texture and delicious milky color 
of the natural product. The " pearl of pearls" 
is said to be a specimen in the Zosima Museum 
at Moscow, called La Pellegrina and weighing 
28 carats. It is absolucely perfect in form and 
color. The famous pearl of the Hope collec- 
tion at South Kensington weighs 3 oz., and 
has a circumference of 4^ inches, but it is of 
irregular shape. It is specially in the oyster 
of the Persian Gulf and that fished in the 
Straits of Manaar, near i'uticorin, that the 
finest pearls are found. But there are many 
other places where they are to be found. 
Philip the Second of Spain had a pearl, 250 
carats in weight, fished off the island of Mar- 
garita, in the West Indies, and Columbus 
found the natives fishing for them all round 
the Gulf of Me^iico. One of the most im- 
portant industries of the Bahama Islands is 
the gathering of pink pearls. It is the only 
place in the world where the variety is found. 
They are not taken from the oyster shell, but 
from a shell resembling a large snail shell 
called a ' conch.' These pearls, when perfect, 
fetch very high prices, ranging from £10 to 
£1,000! In the East Indies, whence, as has 
been said, Uie world's supply comes, the 
month of March is the pearling season. The 
fishing lasts four or five weeks ; the boats 
go 60 or 70 together, beginning work at sun- 
rise and leaving off at noon. The men labor 
in pairs, one diving naked without apparatus 
except a 'sinking-stone' while the other 
holds the cords and the diver, himself des- 
cending in his turn when his companion re- 
turns wearied to the surface. Hard labor 
enough, and risky too is the industry, but 
round it has grown a romance which must be 
always irresistiblj' associated with the won- 
drous chanceo of the work The pearl fisher 
has symbolised for poets those entrancing 
vicissitudes of fortune which must secretly 
fascinate even the most sober of the sup- 
porters of the Anti-Gambling League. The 
bard will have it that there are two periods 
in the ideal pearl-seeker's life : 
One, wlieu a be<,'(;ar lie prepares to plunge; 
One, when a prince lie rises with tlie pearl. 
— Morning Leader, Sept. 27. 
— — — 
NEW COMPANY: BRAZILIAN RUBBER 
TRUST, LIMITED. 
Registered on September 28, by Maddiaons, 6, 01 ^ 
Jewry, E.C., with a capital of i;37,.500 in 53 shares. 
Object, to acquire certain rubber-producing properties 
in the State of Para, in the Republic of Brazil, to 
adopt an agreement between the Rubber Estates of 
Para, Limited, of the one part and T Y Curtis, for the 
Company, ot the other part, and to carry on in Brazil 
nr elsewhere the businesa of planters, growers, col- 
lectors, manufacturers, curers, merchants, salesmen, 
iaiporters and exporters of nnd dealers in indiarubber 
and other articles and substances, timber growers and 
merchants, and farmers and planters generally, No 
initial public issue. The first directors (to number 
not less than two nor more than five) ar« to be ap- 
pointed by the subscribers. Qualifioatlon, J250 shares. 
Remuneration, £100 each per annum (£150 for the 
Chairman,) and a share in the profits (latter not 
to exceed £1,000 each in any yee.i).— Financial News.f 
October 4. 
PLANTING IN SAINT LUCIA. 
According to the late.st report of tlie Adminis- 
trator of Saint Lucia, last year was, on the whole, 
the most prosperous in the history of the colony 
since the time when .sugar was "supreme. There 
were no hurricanes, earthquake.«, or fires in popu- 
lous places , the cocoa crop was the largest ever 
exported and prices were good for this as well 
as for sugar, while the coal trade was the largest 
of any year since Castries became a coaling-station. 
The Administrator hopes that soon the means of 
communication may be extended, the cultivation 
of the land increased, and the harbour improved. 
"Saint Lucia seems now to be established in a 
career of prosperity, and 1 can foresee nothing in 
the near future which is likely to interfere with 
it." The total exports amounted to £229,436, ot 
which bunker coal was valued at £124,554,' or 
54 per cent., while sugar and its products 
amounted to 24 per cent, and cocoa 17 per cent. 
The population is very nearly 50,000, and 1900 
was the first year in liie history of the colony in 
which no death from snake-bite was recorded,— 
London I'imes, Sept. 30. 
