94 
BULLETIN or THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
peai’ls have been found of rare value aud astonishing brilliancy. It was in this bay 
that Jeremiah Evans, an Englishman, towards the close of the last century, obtained 
those magnificent pearls of which the collar was made for the Queen of Spain, and 
which evoked so much admiration at St. Cloud and Windsor Castle. In the time of 
the Jesuit missionaries the pearl fishery was actively carried on, and produced great 
wealth to the people of Lower California.” * 
The following mention of “lucky finds” of pearl fishers is made in a letter to the 
Philadelphia Eecord from a correspondent in Lower California : 
“ They tell us that the best year of modern times at the fisheries was that of 1881, 
though why the gems should be more plentiful at one time than another none can tell. 
During that year many were obtained of extraordinary size and great value. Among 
them was a black one weighing 28 carats, which sold in Paris for $10,000. In 1882 
an extremely lucky div^er named Hapoleano Savin found two treasures, weighing 
respectively 31 and 45 carats, which together brought $11,000. During 1883 several 
notable specimens were found. Among them was a light-brown iiearl, flecked with 
darker shades, which weighed 65 carats and sold for $8,000. Another found by Savin 
was pear-shaped, white, shot with dark specks, which weighed 54 carats and sold for 
$7,500. Tliese were all sent to Europe and marketed there by Messrs. Gonzalez & 
Euffb. In the same year one Publo Hedalgo, a small merchant of La Paz, bought of 
an unknown Indian, for $10, an oval-shaped iiearl, for which he received in Paris the 
sum of $5,500. It was a light sandy color, of surprising luster, aud weighed 32 carats. 
White peai'ls, the kind we are most accustomed to survey, are not considered of as 
much value here or in France as the brown, gray, or speckled ones. Black pearls are 
still more valuable, aud iiink ones the most valuable of all.” 
^Simmonds; Commercial Products of the Sea, p.420. 
V 
