On the Atlantic side of America pearl oysters are abundant in the Gulf of Campeche and on the shoals about the islands and shores of Venezuela. The shells of Central America are similar to the Panamas only more yellow, while those of Venezuela are small and valueless. Between the east coast of America and the Red Sea are no fisheries save at Haiti, for no discoveries of any importance have been made on the western coast of Africa. Consideration of these homes of the pearl oyster shows it to be a tropical fish and that it attains greater dimensions in the Pacific Ocean and near the equator than elsewhere. Beyond 30 degrees north it is found only at two points, the western shore of America and on the Japanese coast. These shores are washed by equatorial currents. The small varieties of the Indian seas and Venezuela, mature rapidly in four to six years, and if not taken they die out after the seventh year. The meleagrina of the Pacific however, though it attains its full size in six to eight years, continues to lay on shell-nacre up to twelve and even twenty years. A shell which is of good size but comparatively thin is called by the dealers in mother-of-pearl a "young shell." The Australian pictured at page 129 is such an one. The Tuamotu at page 127 is not full grown but well along in years, probably fourteen to sixteen years old. Of the sea mollusks yielding formations which, though not true pearls, are so called, (Strombus gigas), is a native of the West Indies. Another, a gasteropod, the ear-shell (Haliotis) known in the United States as the abalone, is found on the coasts of California, Japan, the English Channel Islands and elsewhere. The Californians are divided into three classes, the blue backs, about six inches long, and green and red-ears, which are half as large again. Pinnas yielding black seed-pearls are found south of the Island of Mafia on the east coast of Africa. On the banks and shoals between Mafia and Zanzibar is a red mussel from which white pearls are taken. The fresh-water pearl-bearing mussel, the unio, unlike the sea oyster is most abundant north of 30 degrees N. In China and the Hawaiian Island Oahu it is found a little to the south of 30 degrees N., and it has been discovered lately in Southern Rhodesia a little north of 30 degrees S., but the countries and streams in which the unio is plentiful and where it yields the most pearls lie within latitudes 30 degrees N. and 60 degrees N. They have been taken from the streams of Great Britain since the times when the Romans had a colony here. They exist in Bohemia, Saxony, Bavaria, Lapland, Canada, Labrador and in great quantities in the United States. PEARL FISHERIES