At fisheries where mother-of-pearl is the chief factor of the industry, it is difficult to get statistics of the number or value of the pearls found, but in a general way India governs the market. Prices in other sections adjust themselves to Madras and Bombay with such modifications as quality and place would naturally make. Mother-of-pearl shell varies in price from $250.00 to $500.00 per ton for Mexican to $700.00 to $800.00 per ton for the white shell of Australia and the South Sea. IMITATION AND DOCTORED PEARLS In common with all other precious things, pearls have been long imitated. The early method of making imitation or "mock-pearls" as they were called, was to cut them out of the mother-of-pearl and polish them. Another crude way was to make solid beads of glass containing various ingredients which gave them a slight similarity to the nacreous luster of the pearl. Beads of gypsum or alabaster were soaked in oil and coated with wax. The scales of the bleak fish dissolved in liquid ammonia or vinegar, was also used for covering beads, the solution imparting a somewhat pearly appearance. To coat one thousand ounces of glass beads, a French manufacturer used three ounces of fish-scales, one ounce white wax, one ounce pulverized alabaster and half an ounce fine parchment glue. Another made beads of opal glass which he covered with several layers of isinglass; over this was laid another coating of a mixture of spirits of turpentine and copal, and a fat oil to exclude moisture from the isinglass, following it with a thin layer of tinted enamel to give resemblance to the orient of the pearl. Some claimed that the best artificial pearls were made from pulverized pearls. Seed pearls or valueless baroques were ground to a fine powder, soaked in lemon-juice or vinegar and mixed with gum tragacanth. The paste after being shaped and partially dried, was then enclosed in a loaf and baked in an oven. The luster was obtained by a final coating of fish-scale solution. A lighter and better imitation was made by blowing hollow glass beads. The inside surface was covered with a preparation from the fish-scales, after which the bead was filled with wax. This method continues in use to-day. The fish-scale solution used is a guanine, the mucus which lubricates the scales of the bleak fish (alburnus lucidus). The white scales of the fish are carefully scraped into a horse-hair sieve over a shallow tub of fresh water. The first water is thrown away. The scales are then washed and pressed. The mucus sinks to the bottom and is gathered as an oily mass, very brilliant and bluish-white. This is packed with ammonia in tin boxes and sealed for shipment. It takes about 20,000 fish to make one pound of the mucus.