1855, . . £10,922 1 0 1859, . . £48,215 18 10 1857, . . 20,363 6 6 1880, . . 20,015 0 0 1858, . . 24,120 0 2 1881, . . 59,953 0 0 Pearl banks dot the coast from the sandy island of Rameswaram southwards to the mouth of the Tambraparni river.
In 1881, about 27 millions of oysters ,were fished, which were sold for an average of Rs. 33 per 1000, about 3000 men being employed at the Work.
About the year 1794, the Madras Government undertook the management of the pearl fisheries on the S.E. coast of the Peninsula, and in the 83 years realized about 12 lakhs of rupees, their annual expenditure being about Rs. 6000.
In the Amu Islands on the coast of New Guinea, the great sources of wealth are the pearl and trepang banks, which lie on the eastern side of the group, and are often several miles in width, being intersected by deep channels, some of which will admit vessels of burden.
The pearl fisheries in Western Australia are yearly becoming more valuable to the colony. In 1875 the value of pearls and pearl shells exported was £65,000 ; in 1876, £74,143. Some £30,000 worth of pearl shells also were fished up from Champion and Nicholl bays last year, and shipped to Europe for manufacture into buttons, knife handles, etc. Some valuable pearls are also being discovered in the oysters. One was recently sold at Perth for £215 ; and another, worn in a scarf ring, worth nearly as much, being as big as a small nut. Three years before, a pearl valued at £1500 was fished up.' Sharks' Bay, in the 25th degree of south latitude; is the locality where the best pearls are found ; it is here where the Avicula margaritifera has made a home. A good many Malays, imported from the Dutch islands in the Eastern Archipelago, are engaged in pearl-fishing, but the best divers are the natives of Australia.
Eleven firms are engaged in the trade in Torres Straits, of whom ten have their headquarters at Sydney, employing nearly 100 boats in the work. The imports of pearl shell into N. S. Wales from Queensland and Torres Straits ranged from £2500 in 1871 to £62,468 in 1878. The amount of pearl shell exported in 1878 was 449i tons, valued at from £60,000 to £70,000. The price of the shell ranges between £120 and £280 per ton. The divers principally consist of Kanaka, Maori, and Malay, only some 20 white men being,engaged in the operations, with a few Australian blacks ; the divers' earnings seldom being less than £200 a year, while in very good years, such as 1878, they have been known to make £340 each. Although
there are a good number of sharks in these seas, the loss of life on the part of the pearl fishers is very small, averaging about two per annum ; and it is a curious fact that the sharks almost always dis appear as soon as the fishing operations commence.
Captain Moresby says that pearl shell fishing near the islands of Torres Straits is carried on by Europeans, who engage divers from the Loyalty, Solomon, and New Hebrides groups. Large open boats are employed, each with eight or ten divers. The pearl shell sells at Sydney at £150 to £180 per ton. The divers go down in 4 and 6 fathoms water. The mollusc cannot be the Meleagrina, for he says it weighs from 3 to 10 lbs. ; the divers bring up one under each arm. The pearls, he says, are few, small, and of poor quality, and become the property of the divers. The mollusc is eaten.
Two thousand years ago, the Romans found pearls in Britain ; and in modern times the rivers of Scotland have afforded considerable quantities, though not of the best quality. Several rivers of Saxony, Silesia, Bavaria, and Bohemia afford pearls, and they are also found in two or three Russian provinces. The coast of Columbia and the Bay of Panama considerable quantities, but they are not considered equal to the pearls of the east in shape or colour. Pearls to the amount of £500,000 are annually brought to Canton ; coral is also a part of cargoes from the Archipelago to China.
The larger pearls are considered the more valuable. Cleopatra is said to have dissolved in vinegar a pearl of the value of 150,000 aureos or crowns, in the presence of Anthony, and to have drunk it off ; but it would have required a larger quantity and stronger acid than any one could have taken with impunity to have done so. Caesar is said to have paid a sum equal to £50,000 sterling for a single pearl. The fellow drop to the pendant destroyed by Cleopatra is said to have been sawn in two by command of the Emperor Augustus, and used to adorn the statue of Venus.