It is only recently that serious attention has been paid to these pearl resources, although year by year a considerable number of pearls have been collected by the natives and sold to Arabs and Banyans, who have sent them chiefly to India by way of Zanzibar. The natives of these parts are not very expert in diving, and they collect the oysters principally by wading out as far as they can at low tide. They do not wait for the mollusks to attain a proper age, and as a result they find few pearls of large size. Many parcels of pearls fished in this very elementary way pass through the custom-house, where they are subject to a small duty for export, and others are smuggled out of the country. Quantities of seed-pearls are sent to India, where they are used principally as a medicine and in cosmetics; and occasionally there are rumors that some choice pearls have been discovered. In the German territory a concession of the fisheries was granted a few years ago to Dr. Aurel Schulz; and, although we are not in position to say what success he has met with, it is reported that he has secured a considerable number of pearls under four grains in weight, of fair shape and quality and of good marketable value. A concession of the pearl fishery on the Portuguese coast north of Ibo has been granted to the East African Pearl Company. For this company an examination of the resources is now being made by Mr. James J. Simpson, acting under direction of Prof. W. A. Herdman, of the Liverpool University, the technical advisor of the Ceylon Company of Pearl Fishers. At least four species of pearl-bearing mollusks exist here; these are _Margaritifera vulgaris_, _M. margaritifera_, _Pinna nobilis_, and a species of Perna, named in the order of their importance. A preliminary report of Mr. Simpson (supplied through the courtesy of Sir Robert Edgcumbe), states that among the Ibo Islands about one half of the bottom is sandy and the other half is covered with detached pieces of coral rock, groups of living corals, masses of nullipore, and expanses of fixed seaweed. On all of these in the shoal waters, there is such an abundance of pearl-oysters (_M. vulgaris_) that a single diver, by simply descending and bringing up a few in his hands each time, can secure about 200 in fifteen minutes. Oysters also occur singly on the sandy bottom, but not so abundantly. Within the three-year-old oysters there are many seed-pearls. It is evident that there has been an extensive removal of large oysters in recent years and that large pearls were then found; but the depredations of the natives now prevent the mollusks from attaining an age and size which render them useful as pearl-bearers.