5.-REP0RT UPON THE PEARL FISHERY OF THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA. 
BY CHARLES H. TOWNSEND. 
(Plates XXVIII to XXX.) 
The Pearl-Shell OompaDj of Lower Oaliforuia, with an invested capital of $ 100,000, 
has been in existence for fifteen years, and is by far the largest corporation engaged 
in the pearl and pearl-shell fishing in those waters and has more comprehensive privi- 
leges from the Government of Mexico. 
The territory over which the operations of this company extend embraces the coast 
of Lower California from Cape St. Lncas to the mouth of the Rio Colorado at the head 
of the Gulf of California, and the coast of Mexico from Acapulco to the confines of 
Guatemala. 
The franchise by which the company has exclusive privileges over this territory 
includes all out lying islands, with exception of the islands of Ceralbo, Esperitn, 
Santo and San Josef in the Gulf of California, which are controlled by another (the 
Gonzales) company concerning whose business I am unfortunately not posted. 
From four hundred to five hundred men are annually employed by the Pearl- 
Shell Company. This number, however, includes the crews of vessels as well as 
divers. 
The season for pearl-fishing commences about the first part of May in the vicinity 
of Cape St. Lncas, whence operations are gradually carried into the Gulf of California, 
which is usually entered by May 15. During the summer the entire eastern coast of 
the peninsula is worked, and in October the base of operations is removed from La 
Paz, the headquarters of the company, to Acapulco, where the fishery is continued for 
two or three mouths longer. * 
Whatever of romance has hitherto enshrouded the naked diver for pearls in the 
sea, he is now practieally a submarine laborer who uses all the modern diving para- 
phernalia available. 
Ro longer plunging for sixty seconds into the sunlit green water that covers a 
coral bank, he puts on a rubber suit with glass-fronted helmet, and suitably weighted 
with lead, descends for hours to gather pearl-oysters, which are hoisted in a wire 
basket by his companions in the boat above, who also supply him through a rubber 
tube with the air he breathes. 
In conducting the xiearl fishery the divers are located in camps at favorable places 
* The west coast of the peuiusula as far north as Margarita Island is also included in the lease of 
this company. 
