ABOUT CONCH-PEARLS.

be much handsomer, as they are of a most delicate shade of pink, and as a rule
are quite large, not infrequently being found the size of a pea.

A perfect one of this dimension may be purchased in the West Indies for
forty or fifty dollars, according to the financial condition of the finder; but in
the markets of Boston or New York it would bring a much larger sum.

Some few years since, on Key Francis, a small coral island some twelve
miles off the northern coast of Cuba, I met a party of conch-hunters who had
come from the mainland.

All they had to do was to roll up their trousers, wade out upon the reefs
where the water was shallow and gather the clumsy fellows as they crawled
slowly along the bottom.

The oyster-divers spread their catch in the sun to allow the fleshy substance
to decompose, then the shells are washed and the pearl sought for. But the
conch-hunters pursue a different course, and one which seems very cruel.

They take a common fish-hook, to which is attached a piece of string perhaps
two feet in length, insert the sharp point into the orifice of the heavy shell
and bury the barb in the head of the helpless creature. The conchs are then hung
in rows upon poles, whose ends rest on crotched sticks driven into the ground.

Slowly the mollusk is drawn from its abode by the weight of its own habi-
tation, but so tenacious are they of life that two hours or more will elapse ere
they will let go their hold and give up the ghost.

The shell is not as yet wholly clean, but a thorough rinsing round in a tub
of water will dislodge any pearl which may be lurking within.

One would think that the shells could be broken, but many blows with a
heavy hammer would be needed before any impression could be made on the
flint-like substance, and this is too arduous a task for the languid Cuban.

The conch-pearl hunters never get very rich ; scarcely more than one out of
a thousand conch shells contains a prize, and half a dozen men would not be
able to gather and cleanse half that number in a day.

The shells find a ready market at one dollar and a half or two dollars per
hundred, according to their beauty, and thus the native is enabled to earn a

living even if not fortunate enough to obtain a pearl.
Marlton Downing.