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Show ill i $1,000,000 Wortli of Pearls l of Good Size and Quality fi' i Would Make Such a vm Handful as This. Bj : 'J 1 0R 'throe thousand years and M nobody knows how much jfflBji longer the world's supply of jjnlK . pearls .has been gleaned from the jflajf ocean's bed by the- same primitive ffli method. A naked Oriental able to $8g "hold Ms breath" for a minute and jgjl ; a half dives to the" bottom, thirty or 1 1 ' forty feet down fifty feet at most :!! ! fills a small net bag with as many j'fijl 1 pearl-bearing oysters as he can grab iffefc in half a minute and returns to the M surface with his catch, (faff In thirty centuries there (has been m no real improvement in this ancient SeB and original method of gaining tho JffiS most coveted of all jewels. Although Iff representatives of the richest jewel bm ; markets of the world are always on pi 3 the ground in the pearl fishery sea-Ku! sea-Ku! son, and In spite of the fact that all H! I the important pearl oyster banks are lgf U under government protection and jF f form a government monopoly, inven-jftgi! inven-jftgi! I live genius has failed to 'supersede jtSft 'the naked native diver. 9j g At the Australian pearl fisheries H I Tnoli equipped with the modern div-Cr'k div-Cr'k j suits and helmets, into which air fjja:5 5 is pumped from the surface, are IP ''fi i employed, but only whore depths are tf-i too great to be negotiated by the 3 T naked Oriental, and even then with 1 indifferent results. Efforts to make Hi " 1he diving bell useful in pearl fish-as fish-as ;S H lag have not been profitable. E fi .All of' which adds to the interest a I of the announcement that American jw f enterprise has devised a means of S P introducing machinery into 1ihe pearl 1 J fishing industry. 8 j Tile statement is cabled from Si Paris probably chief of the world's oh pearl markets that Harry G. Jffl;I Thomas, of Portland, Mo., has per-jrojl per-jrojl . fected an engine-driven dredging ap-3m ap-3m paratus which is capable of raising fffijjl " large quantities of pearl oysters Mjjffl from depths which human divers are jlsfi unable to reach. With this apparatus jSgjjjf loaded on a sea-going steam vessel, njril Mr, Thomas so the dispatch says (mil is about to sail from Marseilles, Ittjil Prance, to dredge for pearls in th mm Persian Gulf. ijjjjjS Mr. Thomas Is a son of the late IjjjHI Major-General Henry G. Thomas. He jg! , is a celebrated traveller and collec- tor of curiosities in all parts of the P world. In the last thirteen years f he is said to have dissipated a for- Kjil tune in this way with some assist- n it c ance of the gambling games of 1 Monte Carlo, where he has a villa. B d From the accounts cabled from M n Paris it appears that Mr. Thomas's I dredging apparatus is somewhat on j I the lines of the machine built in Hj fi England for the purpose of recov- J I - ering government treasure lost off IB U one of the entrances to the Zuyder jfji 1 Zee when the British frigate Lutine 1 "Was wrecked there in October, 1709. H 1 t Besides dredges and grappling hooks Hj ' the main feature of this apparatur If is a long tub,e, which is lowered over IjPPi How an Energetic American, Aboard a f Ship Equipped with a Suction Pump fiilii A Large Pear. Photographed AppOTatUSf ExpeCtS tO ReVO" llltbSliU in the Shell of the Oyster, rB - s w-j. 1 aggpgll Where It Grew . qq Peff FlSMng PPPMHHl Methods Which Have Not W'' ' " ' "r3 ' ChanSed in 3 000 Years tlio side of the operating vessel to the bottom thirty feet down and through which sand and everything burled in It is drawn aboard by powerful suction pumps. It is understood that Mr. Thomas's mechanism is capable of being operated op-erated while being guided about over a considerable area of the ocean's bed, even while the vessel from which it Is operated is In motion. Its chief value, however If it comes up to expectations is Its ability to reaoli greater depths than divers can attain. It Is an axiom of (fl& pearl fishing &Jfi that the great- er the depth of -! the oyster's MMA habitat the MMmM larger and mMwMm finer the pearls. mmmWMM As already P m e n t i o n ed, W$M&Wmi pearls hidden in their mother oyster at a j ip depth greater I MmW4 than thirty or MW fM forty feet are k$M Wm seldom brought pwf 111 to the surface. ( Nobody knows W how much of rr this sort of Jp Mf wealth, unat- Jsml tain able by means! "s with- Harry G. Thomas, In reach of Who Is Sailing for Mr. Thomas's the Persian Gulf dredging ma- wifch Nevr pearl. chine. So long r a r as he keeps Dredging-Outfit. away from Uig government-protected fisheries, th whole ocean bed within the read, of his apparatus is his personal pearl fishing ground. He claims, It Is said, to be able to explore depths up to forty-five and fifty feet. According to the authorities dealing deal-ing with this subject, Mr. Thomas's apparatus is not likely to bo adopted at the established pearl fisheries. Its operations probably are too drastic dras-tic likely to sdr up and destroy whole colonies of oysters of all ages in valuable native beds, where they have 'been fostered and protected for centuries. By the present methods of pearl fishing there is no danger of the profitable banks being destroyed. It is impossible not to leave sufficient oysters for breeding purposes. The native divers who receive for their SISPi1 la-bor ono-thlrd of tlielr catch take iiWffWrll only the full-' full-' grown oysterB, as only they are likely like-ly to contain pearls of value. Thus all tho young oysters, amounting to quite a quarter of tho stock, are left undisturbed. These old-established and protected pro-tected banks for example, those of Ceylon, which have been fished for three thousand years are especially rich In the best quality of pearls for a reason discovered by biologists. True pearls, contrary to the general idea, are not caused by the irritation Bet up by a grain of sand or any other foreign substance which finds its way into a tender part of tho oyster's organism from which it cannot be ejected. They arc tire result re-sult of a .disease, and the disease being contagious the less outside disturbance of the thickly populated populat-ed beds the larger the number of the oysters that will be affected and produce pearls. This is particularly true of the very ancient Ceylon beds, which are the world's chief producers of pure pearls. The disease mentioned ia caused by a tiny parasito, a little worm, which attaches Itself to the substance of the oyster, and becomes be-comes the nucleus of a pearl. The irritation It sets up causes the oyster to secrete an extra large amount of the same pearly fluid substance which coats the inside of its shell with the beautiful and valuable iridescent lining called "Mother of pearl." And thus a pearl is born with the tiny parasite in its centre, and continues to grow larger and more valuable throughout the life of Its oyster home, which is about seven years. The oysters within which the little lit-tle parasite referred to starts tho growth of a true pearl are realty not oysters at all, but a sort of mussel mus-sel not much unlike the pearl-producing fresh water muBsels found in man American rivers. In fact, these fresh water mussels yield pearls that are hardly inferior to those taken from the Oriental fisheries. fish-eries. One such, sold in New York: City not long ago for $15,000. Under strict government supervision supervi-sion the oysters as they are brought to the surface, aftor the divers have received their ono-thlrd share, are plaoed in guarded Inclosures whore merchants who have purchased them unopened from the Government in lots of 1,000 allow them lo rot. This takes about a week. The decaying mass is then thoroughly slulcod with fresh water, the shell, stones and other debris are picked out and the residuum is spread on lengths o black calico to dry. During this process pro-cess it is sifted for tho smal pearls. The mass is finally sifted, the last time through meshes which will retain re-tain a pearl the size of a pin head. Nevertheless, for months after the 'fishing is over jungle men and women wo-men may be seen scouring the sand A Typical Scene at the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, Showing Natives Under Guard Searching for Pearls in 'Rotted Masses of Oysters. Pearl Oyster Fishing in Deep Water by MeninDijH mets Native Naked Divers Are Preferred, MH Cannot Reach Depths Greater Than Forty FjH for little "seed pearls," multitudes of which escape the notice of the original searchers. ' It is probable that Mr. Thomas, operating his dredge and suction apparatus ap-paratus from tho rir.,.;c 0f his ship, will search his ojitenH they 'are caught, ibusH stench of rotting t!lH makes life in Pearl-fl!H most unendurable wK fastidious natives. |
