The beautiful pearls of the conch (_Strombus gigas_) are sought for in the West Indies and on the neighboring continental coasts. They are found most abundantly about the Bahamas, a group of more than four hundred islands off the Florida coast, where many of the fishermen devote a considerable portion of their time to collecting them. It is from this industry that the beach-combers of this group of islands, as well as those of the Florida reefs, have received the designation “Conchs.” Near the shores, where they formerly abounded, a few conchs are yet picked up by wading fishermen. In waters of medium depth they are secured either by diving or by means of a long pole with a hook at the end. In great depths, the mollusks are located by means of a waterglass similar to the type employed in the Red Sea or among the South Sea Islands. The animal is readily removed from the shell after crushing the tip end of the spire where the large muscle is attached. The flesh forms an important article of food to the fishermen and to the residents of the outlying islands. It is said that a “Conch” can make a visit to Nassau of a week or ten days, and subsist almost entirely on this dried meat, with which he fills his pockets on starting. A large demand exists for the beautiful shells for ornamenting flower-beds, garden-walks, etc. Many of them are burned into lime for building purposes. Formerly several hundred thousand shells were exported annually to England for use in porcelain manufacture. The pearls are generally found embedded in the flesh of the mollusk; quite often they are in a sac or cyst with an external opening, from which they are sometimes dislodged by the muscular movement of the animal. The yield is small, a thousand shells in many cases yielding only a very small number of seed-pearls or perhaps none at all. Most of them are oval, commonly somewhat elongated. The usual size is about one grain in weight, but some of them weigh over twenty, and a very few exceed fifty grains each. These pearls are generally of a deep pink color, shading toward whitish pink at each end. While this is the usual color, yellow, white, red, and even brown conch pearls are occasionally obtained; these are not so highly prized as the pink ones. Conch pearls present a peculiar wavy appearance and a sheen somewhat like watered silk, a result of the reflections produced by the fibrous stellated structure. While many are beautifully lustrous, they are commonly deficient in orient, and the color is somewhat evanescent. Most of the Bahama conch fishermen sell their catch of pearls at Nassau. According to the late Mr. Frederick E. Stearns, there are in Nassau four dealers who have an arrangement with Paris and London houses, to whom they can ship pearls in any number and draw against them with a bill of lading. In addition to these, there are a dozen dealers in Nassau who buy what pearls they can secure and offer them for sale.