OCR Text |
Show PEARL FISHING. How It I Mtnngred by the Proprietors Proprie-tors of the Concession. The agent of the English proprietors of the concession granted by the Mexican Mexi-can republic for a monopoly of . pearl flshing.in the Gulf of California recently recent-ly arrived in San Francisco and gave some interesting details of the present pres-ent methods employed intheir industry, ' whiclt. has. continued ever since the occupation, oc-cupation, of the country in the time of Cortez. The whole cooat of the Gulf of Callr fornia abounds in pearls; and the concessions con-cessions control the entire territory. Until within the last few years native divers were employed, and the depth j to which they could descend did not exceed ex-ceed 35 feet.. ' With the introduction of diving apparatus ap-paratus the limit of depth was increased to 30 fathoms. The best divers could formerly remain under water not to exceed two minute?.. A modern diver thinks nothing of a two-hour stop in water 100 feet in depth, though at greater great-er depths the stay is necessarily shortened short-ened on account of the-enormous pressure pres-sure of the superincumbent water. A diver when upon. the floor of the ocean looks about for the oyster, which he tears from the object-to which it is attached, at-tached, and places it in a small bag hanging to a rope, whieh is hauled Into the boat on a given signal. Sometime the number of oysters secured is large,-. at other times only a few are caught. The diver does not confine himself to the pearl oyster alone, but if he sees a rare specimen of coral or a new species spe-cies of shell he places it in his bag and sends it to the surface, where it becomes the property of the concession and the sources of its large income. Last year the value of the pearls harvested har-vested in Ixmer- California" was alone $350,000.Ih addition, 5,000 tons of shells were exported,' which1, were, valued at $1,250,000 more. Fcarl fishing is the entire occupation of the natives, and La Faz, the headquarters, a city of the peninsula, with r.Jbou:t2,C00 inhabitant, is solely dependent' upon the industry. The business Is one of chance, and tho pursuit is a fascinating one to the native, na-tive, w he are born gamblers. Kvery oyster does not' contain ita pearl,'. an6V only afcnhtervnld, and rare ones at'thnt; is a really; valuable pearl discovered. . The largest one ever found ' was about three-qtiarters of an inch in diameter, and was sold in Puris to the emperor off Austria for $10,000. Many black pearls ore found in Lower California, and ore valued higher than the pure white. The large majority are oed pearls, r.nd are only of moderate, value. San Francisco Call., |