lumps which were attached to them cracked off and left them smooth, but at the same time denuded of the splendid natural lustre they would have retained had they been placed under cover immediately the living fish were removed from them. The Manilla fishers were always aware of this fact, and profited by their knowledge; in consequence of which their shell has for years past commanded a very high price, and is, as I write, quoted at £100 a ton. The bulk of the Manilla shell is moreover obtained from the Pacific, that is to say, from Hogoleu, Lugunor, and other great islands of the Caroline Group, and is the same oyster which is found over the whole Pacific on all islands possessing the conditions necessary for its existence. What pearl deposits are worth in other parts of the world may be gathered from the fact that according to returns published by the Indian Government, the value of a pearl bank in the Straits of Manaar (to the North of Ceylon), of two miles in circumference, with a depth of seven fathoms or thereabouts, is estimated at from £35,000 to £40,000, subject to the royalty demanded by the authorities. The shell lies thick there, more so than is usual in the Pacific; but when we consider that in the latter case many lagoons are to be found, from twelve to twenty miles in diameter, wherein so far as the shoal water extends, it is not possible to look over the side of the boat without seeing shell on the bottom ready for collection, and with neither dues, royalties, nor purchase money to pay, it is very obvious that the profits to be made in the Pacific would equal or excel those made in the Indian Sea. VOL. II. 6 In the atolls of the Low Archipelago there are numerous pearl-fisheries, the lagoons of which are in themselves beautiful beyond description. They are generally shallow, though in some places they exhibit vast hollows, with an apparent depth of fifty or more fathoms. Their appearance is most extraordinary and beautiful, the water, from the absence of the débris of streams or any kind of alluvium (from the fact of the land being entirely composed of coral rock and gravel), exhibits so surpassing a transparency that an object the size of a man's hand may in calm weather be distinctly seen at a depth of ten fathoms. The aspect of the bottom is that of a wilderness of marine vegetation of the most wonderful forms and gorgeous olours, seeming in some places to be spread over the surface of sloping hills, in others to be growing out from the sides of tall pillars or towers pierced with vast caves, in which the refracted beams of the sunshine cause the water to glow with the colours of the opal, and the innumerable species of zoophytes clinging to the rocks to glisten like gems; while between the huge caverned masses are wide spaces floored with sand, perfectly level, and white as snow, upon which the great green mounds covered with coral trees throw fantastic shadows, so that in leaning over the side of a canoe and contemplating these so remarkable appearances one cannot escape being reminded of the fabled grove of Aladdin, or of that garden which Don Quixote imagined himself to have seen in the grotto of Montesinos, El mas bello ameno y deleytoso que puede criar la naturaleza' (‘The most beautiful and delightful that nature can create'). Amongst all this are to be seen great multitudes of fishes of the most extraordinary shapes and hues— gold, and purple, and violet, and scarlet, jet black, mottled, and every shade of green. In some of the enclosed lagoons of the Tuamotus, all the fish without exception are poisonous. There are many sharks, but, as a rule, they are harmless to man, their natural food being abundant; at any rate, the pearl-fishers take no heed of them. Their most disagreeable enemy is the veki or great squid. This creature, who possesses the wonderful faculty of being able, within five minutes, to change himself into fifty different forms, each more hideous than the last, is fortunately of a very retiring disposition and decidedly timid, otherwise he would constitute a most dangerous antagonist. He stretches out his long arms, and seizes whatever comes within his grasp. But his most objectionable practice is that of vomiting a quantity of inky fluid when disturbed, which renders the surrounding water intensely dark, so that the diver who chances to encounter him under some overhanging shelf or coral cave, may become bewildered in the gloom, and lose his way to the surface, or strike against the rocks. Fortunately, in the lagoons these offensive creatures are very small and incapable of much mischief; but in the deep sea outside the coral-reefs they grow to enormous size, and in exposed fisheries like that of Panama, they are a source of great dread to the Americans and Europeans, who invariably dive in armour. From what I have seen, heard, and read, I have come to the conclusion that the pearl-fishing of the South Pacific is more free from accident than any other occupation connected with the sea. Of course it can only be successfully practised by persons of experience; the divers must be amphibious-born to it; the directors and overseers men acquainted with their language, habits, and wants. The question must have occurred to many readers : How are the pearl-oysters propagated in the coral lagoons? I have no theory of my own on the subject. The late Mr. Sterndale had great experience in the pearl-fishing of the Pacific, and the following details are mainly based on the information furnished by him. Two islands of apparently precisely the same character, as far as natural formation, outflow and influx of the tide, depth of water, etc., are concerned, may be found within a few miles of one another (as is frequently the case), yet the lagoon of the one swarms with pearl-oysters, while in that of the other not one bas ever been found. It will be said, 'Why not transplant them as breeders do oysters?' This has been tried, not only in our time, but generations ago, without any success, by the aborigines, to whom pearl-· shell has always been most valuable, not only for ornament, but because, for very many most necessary purposes, it supplies to them the use of metals-as for the making of dishes, spoons, fish-hooks, knives, and a variety of implements; consequently in islands where it was not indigenous, they were most anxious to obtain it, and with that view made repeated attempts to introduce it into their own lakes, by carefully transporting the young shells attached to pieces of rock from one island to another, keeping them all the time in pure sea-water; but they never succeeded. Moreover, there is no tradition of the pearl-oyster having once existed in a place, and having become extinct; consequently there is some condition necessary to its growth with which we are unacquainted. There is no variety in the species, but very much difference in the size and thickness to which it attains in divers localities, as also in the production of pearls of value. For some of these peculiarities there is a way of accounting. The pearl-oyster of the Pacific dislikes sand, and will not live upon it, or grow to its full size in its immediate vicinity-that is to say, in a tide-wave, or where the sand pollutes the water. In still lagoons, where the sand lies at a depth and is never moved, the pearl-shell grows well on the rocks which rise out of it. But this fish most delights in ' great caves and hollows of the clean-growing coral, where the waters are limpid, and altogether free from such extraneous atoms as might irritate and annoy it. In such situations it grows to a great size (sometimes as much as eighteen inches in diameter). These huge bivalves frequently attach themselves to the roofs of caverns, sometimes a dozen being linked together by the strong fibrous threads whereby they make themselves fast: a rich prize for the diver, who is obliged to separate them with his knife, and from their exceeding weight to make more than one plunge before securing the whole of the congeries. As a general rule, in well fed and clean-grown fish such as |