PEARL FISHERY OF GULF OF CALIFORNIA. 
93 
Writing in 1 857, Mr. Carpenter stated that “The Gulf of California used to be cele- 
brated for its pearl fishery, but it appears to have been exhausted, and very few shells 
have been brought of late years.” * It is not unlikely that the adoption of the sub- 
marine engineer’s suit by the pearl fishers of La Paz must have been the step which 
led to the continuance of the pearl-fishing industry, for the search for shells can now 
be pursued into deeper waters than in the days of the naked divers, the best of whom 
could not descend a dozen fathoms. Half that is rather more than a practical working 
depth. 
It must have been difficult to teach these people the use of the diving suit, for dur- 
ing the first year or so after its introduction, a man was lost from the La Paz force 
almost every month. This Senor Hidalgo ascribed to the giving-way, in nearly all 
cases, of the rubber air tubing, and said that no accidents had occurred since the in- 
troduction of a better grade of tubing. English tubing has been discarded in favor of 
that manufactured in New York. 
An accessory to the diving suit as used at La Paz is a small sheet-iron reservoir of 
compressed air, which can instantly be made to supply the diver with five minutes’ 
breathing material in case of accident to the air machine or the connecting rubber tube. 
It goes down with the diver, and its air connection with the diver’s helmet he effects 
by the simple turning of a cock. 
In company with Messrs. Gilbert and Alexander, of the U. S. Fish Commission, I 
went out with a party of divers and made a descent in about three fathoms of water. 
The sensations accompanying this experience were by no means comfortable, at least 
not in the excitement, and perhaps nervousness of a first trial, but I can readily under- 
stand how a diver accustomed to breathing under such conditions could very thor- 
oughly search the bottom for shells. The light is gray and dim, notwithstanding the 
intense sunlight above the surface, but within a radius of a few yards everything is 
distinctly seen. Owing to the pressure of water and the weights necessary to over- 
come it, a novice has the same difficulty in maintaining the perpendicular as a child 
that stands alone for the first time. 
The pearl fisheries of Lower California, from Magdalena Bay north wnrd, recently 
in the hands of S. Z. Salario, a citizen of Ensenada, who obtained a six years’ conces- 
sion of the fish, seal, whale, shell-fish, turtle, and pearl fisheries, are now being developed 
by the On Yick Company of San Francisco, a Chinese company, which has purchased 
a large interest in them. It is understood that Chinese capital and men will be em- 
ployed principally, except in the branch of pearl fishing, for w'hich Mexican divers have 
been secured, and that the necessary diving apparatus, boats, etc., have been sent to 
Magdalena Bay. 
A large schooner, the John Hancock, is engaged as a tender to this fishery. The 
Hancock, an old vessel, was originally a steamer, and was used as a tender to Commo- 
dore Perry’s flag-ship when he made the treaty with Japan. For several years past she 
has been employed in the fishing trade by Lynde Ss Hough, of San Francisco. 
During the cruise of the Albatross in the Gulf of California shells of the pearl oys- 
ter were frequently brought up by the dredge, from rocky and shelly bottom, in dei)ths 
varying from 10 to 30 fathoms. In slightly greater depths the number of hauls made 
were, perhaps, not sufficient to test their existence, but none were obtained. 
“ In the lower part of the Bay of Mulege, in the Gulf of California, near Los Coyotes, 
* Brit. Mus. Catalogue, Mazatlau shells, p. 149. 
