Peacock's works were collected, though not completely, and published in three volumes in 1875, at the expense of his friend and former protégé, Sir Henry Cole, with an excellent memoir by his granddaughter Mrs Clarke, and a critical essay by Lord Houghton. His prose works were collected by Richard Garnett in ten volumes (1891). Separate novels are included in "Macmillan's Illustrated Standard Novels," with introductions by Mr Saintsbury. For an interesting personal notice, see A Poet's Sketch Book, by R. W. Buchanan (1884). (R. G.) PEACOCK (Lat. Pavo, O. Eng. Pawe, Du. pauuw, Ger. Pfau, Fr. Paon), the bird so well known from the splendid plumage of the male, and as the proverbial personification of pride. It is a native of the Indian peninsula and Ceylon, in some parts of which it is very abundant. Setting aside its importation to Palestine by Solomon (1 Kings x. 22; 2 Chron. ix. 21), its assignment in classical mythology as the favourite bird of Hera testifies to the early acquaintance the Greeks must have had with it; but, though it is mentioned by Aristophanes and other older writers, their knowledge of it was probably very slight until after the conquests of Alexander. Throughout all succeeding time, however, it has never very freely rendered itself to domestication, and, though in earlier days highly esteemed for the table,1 it is no longer considered the delicacy it was once thought; the young of the wild birds are, however, still esteemed in the East.

Japan or "black-shouldered " Peafowls.

As in most cases of domestic animals, pied or white varieties of the ordinary peacock, Pavo cristatus, are not infrequently to be seen, and they are valued as curiosities. Greater interest, however, attends what is known as the Japanese or Japan peacock, a form which has received the name of P. nigripennis, as though it were a distinct species. In this form the cock, besides other less conspicuous differences, has all the upper wing-coverts of a deep lustrous blue instead of being mottled with brown and white, while the hen is of a more or less grizzledwhite. It "breeds true "; but occasionally a presumably pure stock of birds of the usual coloration throws out one or more having the Japan plumage. It is to be observed that the male has in the coloration of the parts mentioned no little resemblance to that of the second indubitably good species, the P. muticus (or P. spicifer of some writers) of Burma and Java, though the character of the latter's crest-the feathers of which are barbed along their whole length instead of at the tip only-and its 1 Classical authors contain many allusions to its high appreciation at the most sumptuous banquets; and medieval bills of fare on state occasions nearly always include it. In the days of chivalry one of the most solemn oaths was taken "on the peacock," which seems to have been served up garnished with its gaudy plumage.

golden-green neck and breast furnish a ready means of distinction. Sir R. Heron was confident that the Japan breed had arisen in England within his memory,' and C. Darwin (Animals and Plants under Domestication, i. 290-292) was inclined to believe it only a variety; but its abrupt appearance, which rests on indisputable evidence, is most suggestive in the light that it may one day throw on the question of evolution as exhibited in the origin of "species." It should be stated that the Japan bird is not known to exist anywhere as a wild race, though apparently kept in Japan. The accompanying illustration is copied from a plate drawn by J. Wolf, given in D. G. Elliot's Monograph of the

Phasianidae.

bers of which they do not materially differ in structure; and, though The peafowls belong to the group Gallinae, from the normal memby some systematists they are raised to the rank of a family, Pavonidae, most are content to regard them as a sub-family of Phasianidae (PHEASANT, q.v.). Akin to the genus Pavo is Polyplectrum, of which the males are armed with two or more spurs on containing the argus-pheasants, remarkable for their wonderfully each leg, and near them is generally placed the genus Argusianus, ocellated plumage, and the extraordinary length of the secondary quills of their wings, as well as of the tail-feathers. It must always be remembered that the so-called "tail" of the peacock is formed not by the rectrices or true tail-feathers, but by the singular development of the tail-coverts. (A. N.)

PEAK, THE, a high table-land in the north of Derbyshire, England, included in the Pennine range of hills. The name, however, is extended, without definite limits, to cover the whole of the hilly district north of Buxton. The table-land reaches an elevation of 2088 ft. in Kinder Scout. The geological formation is millstone-grit, and the underlying beds are not domed, but cup-shaped, dipping inward from the flanks of the mass. The summit is a peaty moorland, through which masses of rock project at intervals. The name of this high plateau has from the 17th century been identified with "peak," the pointed or conical top of a mountain, but the very early references to the district and certain places in it show clearly, as the New English Dictionary points out, that this connexion is unwarranted. The name appears in the Old English Chronicle (924) as Péaclond, of the district governed from the castle of Peveril of the Peak (see DERBYSHIRE), and also in the name of the cavern under the hill at Castleton, Péac's Arse. Péac, it has been suggested, is the name of a local deity or demon, and possibly may be indentified with Puck. For the etymology of "peak," point, &c., and its variants or related words, "pick and "pike,' see PIKE. PEALE, CHARLES WILLSON (1741-1826), American portrait painter, celebrated especially for his portraits of Washington, was born in Queen Anne county, Maryland, on the 16th of April 1741. During his infancy the family removed to Chestertown, Kent county, Maryland, and after the death of his father (a country schoolmaster) in 1750 they removed to Annapolis. Here, at the age of 13, he was apprenticed to a saddler. About 1764 he began seriously to study art. He got some assistance from Gustavus Hesselius, a Swedish portrait painter then living near Annapolis, and from John Singleton Copley in Boston; and in 1767-1770 he studied under Benjamin West in London. In 1770 he opened a studio in Philadelphia, and met with immediate success. In 1772, at Mount Vernon, Peale painted a three-quarters-length study of Washington (the earliest known portrait of him), in the uniform of a colonel of Virginia militia. This canvas is now in the Lee Memorial Chapel of Washington and Lee University. He painted various other portraits of Washington; probably the best known in a full-length, which was made in 1778, and of which Peale made many copies. This portrait had been ordered by the Continental Congress, which, however, made no appropriation for it, and eventually it was bought for a private collection in Philadelphia. Peale painted two miniatures of Mrs Washington (1772 and 1777), and portraits of many of the famous men of the time, a number of which are in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. His portraits of Washington do not appeal so strongly to Americans as do those of Gilbert Stuart, but his admitted skill as a draughtsman gives to all of his work considerable historical value. Peale removed to A. Newton himself regarded this as probably incorrect.

Philadelphia in 1777, and served as a member of the committee of public safety; he aided in raising a militia company, became a lieutenant and afterwards a captain, and took part in the battles of Trenton, Princeton and Germantown. In 1779-1780 he was a member of the Pennsylvania assembly, where he voted for the abolition of slavery-he freed his own slaves whom he had brought from Maryland. In 1801 he undertook, largely at his own expense, the excavation of the skeletons of two mastodons in Ulster and Orange counties, New York, and in 1802 he established at Philadelphia Peale's Museum. He was one of the founders, in 1805, of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at Philadelphia. At the age of eighty-one Peale painted a large canvas, "Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda," and at eightythree a full-length portrait of himself, now in the Academy of the Fine Arts. He died at his country home, near Germantown, Pennsylvania, on the 22nd of February 1826.

His brother, James Peale (1749–1831), also an artist, painted two portraits of Washington (one now the property of the New York Historical Society, and the other in Independence Hall, Philadelphia), besides landscapes and historical compositions. PEALE, REMBRANDT (1778–1860), American artist, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 22nd of February 1778, the son of Charles Willson Peale (q.v.). He studied under his father, under Benjamin West in London (1802-1803), and in Paris in 1807 and 1809. As early as 1795 he had begun from life a portrait of Washington. Of this he made many replicas, the latest in 1823, purchased by the United States government in 1832, and now in the Capitol of Washington. Peale was one of the first of American lithographers. He was an excellent draughtsman, but in colour his work cannot rank with his father's. In 1843 he devised for the Philadelphia public schools a system of teaching drawing and penmanship. His portraits include those of President Jefferson, Mrs Madison, Commodores Perry, Decatur, and Bainbridge, Houdon, the sculptor, General Armstrong, and an equestrian portrait of General Washington, now in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. His "Court of Death " (1820) is in the Detroit Art Gallery. In 1825 Peale succeeded John Trumbull as president of the American Academy of Fine Arts (founded in 1802 as the New York Academy of Fine Arts), and he was one of the original members of the National Academy of Design. He wrote several books, among them Notes on Italy (1831), Reminiscences of Art and Artists (1845). He died in Philadelphia on the 3rd of October 1860.

A brother, RAPHAELLE PEALE (1774-1825), was one of the earliest of American still-life painters; and another brother, TITIAN RAMSEY PEALE (1800-1885), made numerous drawings, some of them in water-colour, in illustration of animal life.

See Rembrandt Peale," partly autobiographical, in C. E. Lester's The Artists of America (New York, 1846).

PEAR (Pyrus communis), a member of the natural order Rosaceae, belonging to the same genus as the apple (P. malus), which it resembles in floral structure. In both cases the socalled fruit is composed of the receptacle or upper end of the flower-stalk (the so-called calyx tube) greatly dilated, and enclosing within its cellular flesh the five cartilaginous carpels which constitute the " core" and are really the true fruit. From the upper rim of the receptacle are given off the five sepals, the five petals, and the very numerous stamens. The form of the pear and of the apple respectively, although usually characteristic enough, is not by itself sufficient to distinguish them, for there are pears which cannot by form alone be distinguished from apples, and apples which cannot by superficial appearance be recognized from pears. The main distinction is the occurrence in the tissue of the fruit, or beneath the rind, of clusters of cells filled with hard woody deposit in the case of the pear, constituting the "grit," while in the apple no such formation of woody cells takes place. The appearance of the tree-the bark, the foliage, the flowers-is, however, usually quite characteristic in the two species. Cultivated pears, whose number is enormous, are without doubt derived from one or two wild species widely distributed throughout Europe and western Asia, and sometimes forming part of the natural vegetation of the forests. In England,

where the pear is sometimes considered wild, there is always the doubt that it may not really be so, but the produce of some seed of a cultivated tree deposited by birds or otherwise, which has degenerated into the wild spine-bearing tree known as Pyrus communis.

The cultivation of the pear extends to the remotest antiquity. Traces of it have been found in the Swiss lake-dwellings; it is mentioned in the oldest Greek writings, and was cultivated by the Romans. The word "pear" or its equivalent occurs in all the Celtic languages, while in Slavonic and other dialects different appellations, but still referring to the same thing, are found-a diversity and multiplicity of nomenclature which led Alphonse de Candolle to infer a very ancient cultivation of the tree from the shores of the Caspian to those of the Atlantic. A certain race of pears, with white down on the under surface of their leaves, is supposed to have originated from P. nivalis, and their fruit is chiefly used in France in the manufacture of Perry (see CIDER). Other small-fruited pears, distinguished by their precocity and apple-like fruit, may be referred to P. cordata, a species found wild in western France, and in Devonshire and Cornwall.

Karl Koch considered that cultivated pears were the descendants descended), P. elaeagrifolia and P. sinensis. J. Decaisne, who made of three species-P. persica (from which the bergamots have the subject one of critical study for a number of years, and not only investigated the wild forms, but carefully studied the peculiarities of the numerous varieties cultivated in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, refers all cultivated pears to one species, the individuals of which have in course of time diverged in various directions, so as to form now six races: (1) the Celtic, including P. cordata; (2) the Germanic, including P. communis, P. achras, and P. piraster; (3) the Hellenic, including P. parviflora, P. sinaica and others; (4) P. Paschae; and (6) the Mongolic, represented by P. sinensis. With the Pontic, including P. elaeagrifolia; (5) the Indian, comprising reference to the Celtic race, P. cordata, it is interesting to note its connexion with Arthurian legend and the Isle of Avalon or Isle of Apples. An island in Loch Awe has a Celtic legend containing the principal features of Arthurian story; but in this case the word is berries instead of apples." Dr Phené visited Armorica (Brittany) with a view of investigating these matters, and brought thence fruits of a small berry-like pear, which were identified with the Pyrus cordata of western France.

Cultivation. The pear may be readily raised by sowing the pips of ordinary cultivated or of wilding kinds, these forming what are known as free or pear stocks, on which the choicer varieties are grafted for increase. For new varieties the flowers should be fertilized with a view to combine, in the seedlings which result from the union, the desirable qualities of the parents. The dwarf and pyramid trees, more usually planted in gardens, are obtained by grafting on the quince stock, the Portugal quince being the best; but this stock, from its surface-rooting habit, is most suitable for soils of a cold damp nature. The pear-stock, having an inclination to send its roots down deeper into the soil, is the best for light dry soils, as the plants are not then so likely to suffer in dry seasons. Some of the finer pears do not unite readily with the quince, and in this case double working is resorted to; that is to say, a vigorous-growing pear is first grafted on the quince, and then the choicer pear is grafted on the pear introduced as its foster parent.

In selecting young pear trees for walls or espaliers, some persons prefer plants one year old from the graft, but trees two or three years trained are equally good. The trees should be planted immediately before or after the fall of the leaf. The wall trees require to be planted from 25 to 30 ft. apart when on free stocks, and from 15 to 20 ft. when dwarfed. Where the trees are trained as pyramids or columns they may stand 8 or 10 ft. apart, but standards in orchards should be allowed at least 30 ft., and dwarf bush trees half that distance.

In the formation of the trees the same plan may be adopted as in the case of the apple. For the pear orchard a warm situation is very desirable, with a soil deep, substantial, and thoroughly drained. Any good free loam is suitable, but a calcareous loam is the best. Pear trees worked on the quince should have the stock covered up to its junction with the graft. This is effected by raising up a small mound of rich compost around it, a contrivance which induces the graft to emit roots into the surface soil,

and also keeps the stock from becoming hard or bark-bound. The fruit of the pear is produced on spurs, which appear on shoots more than one year old. The mode most commonly adopted of training wall pear-trees is the horizontal. For the slender twiggy sorts the fan form is to be preferred, while for strong growers the half-fan or the horizontal is more suitable. In the latter form old trees, the summer pruning of which has been neglected, are apt to acquire an undue projection from the wall and become scraggy, to avoid which a portion of the old spurs should be cut out annually.

The summer pruning of established wall or espalier-rail trees consists chiefly in the timely displacing, shortening back, or rubbing off of the superfluous shoots, so that the winter pruning, in horizontal training, is little more than adjusting the leading shoots and thinning out the spurs, which should be kept close to the wall and allowed to retain but two or at most three buds. In fan-training the subordinate branches must be regulated, the spurs thinned out, and the young laterals finally established in their places. When horizontal trees have fallen into disorder, the branches may be cut back to within 9 in. of the vertical stem and branch, and trained in afresh, or they may be grafted with other sorts, if a variety of kinds is wanted.

Summer and autumn pears should be gathered before they are fully ripe, otherwise they will not in general keep more than a few days. The Jargonelle should be allowed to remain on the tree and be pulled daily as wanted, the fruit from standard trees thus succeeding the produce of the wall trees. In the case of the Crassane the crop should be gathered at three different times, the first a fortnight or more before it is ripe, the second a week or ten days after that, and the third when fully ripe. The first gathering will come into eating latest, and thus the season of the fruit may be considerably prolonged. It is evident that the same method may be followed with other sorts which continue only a short time in a mature state.

Diseases. The pear is subject to several diseases caused by fungi. Gymnosporangium sabinae, one of the rusts (Uredineae) passes one stage of its life-history on living pear leaves, forming large raised spots or patches which are at first yellow but soon become red and are visible on both faces; on the lower face of each patch is a group of cluster-cups or aecidia containing spores which escape when ripe. This stage in the life-history was formerly regarded as a distinct fungus with the name Roestelia cancellata; it is now known, however, that the spores germinate on young juniper leaves, in which they give rise to this other stage in the plant's history known as Gymnos por angium. The gelatinous, generally reddish-brown masses of sporesthe teleutospores-formed on the juniper in the spring germinate and form minute spores-sporidia-which give rise to the aecidium stage on the pear. Diseased pear leaves should be picked off and destroyed before the spores are scattered and the various species of juniper on which the alternate stage is developed should not be allowed near the pear trees.

2

Pear scab is caused by a parasitic fungus, Fusicladium pyrinum, very closely allied and perhaps merely a form of the apple scab fungus, F. dendriticum. As in the case of the apple disease it forms large irregular blackish blotches on the fruit and leaves, the injury being often very severe especially in a cool, damp season. The fungus mycelium grows between the cuticle and the epidermis, the former being ultimately ruptured by numerous short branches bearing spores (conidia) by means of which the disease is spread. As a preventive repeated spraying with dilute Bordeaux mixture is recommended, during the flowering season and early development of the Similar spraying is recommended for pear-leaf blister caused by Taphrina bullata, which forms swollen areas on the leaves. Pear trees may

a boigobson hely
(From a specimen in the British Museum.)

Pear Scab (Fusicladium pyrinum). 1, Leaf showing diseased areas.

2, Section of leaf surface showing the also be attacked by a great spores or conidia, c, borne. on long variety of insect pests. Thus stalks (conidiophores). the younger branches are often injured by the pearl oyster scale (Aspidiotus ostreaeformis), which

may be removed by washing in winter with soft soap and hot the remedy is to capture the mature insects when possible. The water. A number of larvae of Lepidoptera feed on the leaveswinter moth (Cheimatobia brumata) must be kept in check by putting greasy bands round the trunks from October till December or January, to catch the wingless females that crawl up and deposit their eggs in the cracks and crevices in the bark. The caterpillars ligniperda) sometimes bore their way into the trunks and destroy of the leopard moth (Zeuzera pyrina) and of the goat moth (Cossus the sap channels. If badly bored, the trees are useless; but in

Pear-leaf Cluster-cups (Gymnosporangium sabinae). 1. Leaf showing groups of cups or aecidia. 2, Early stage of disease. 3, Cups.

the early stages if the entrance of the caterpillars has been detected, of pear trees is the pear midge, known as Diplosis pyrivora or a wire should be pushed into the hole. One of the worst pests Cecidomyia nigra, the females of which lay their eggs in the flowerbuds before they open. The yellow maggots devour the seeds and thus ruin the crop. When deformed fruits are noticed they should be picked off and burned immediately, Species of aphides may be removed by tobacco infusion, soapsuds or other solutions. A gall mite (Phytoptus pyri) sometimes severely injures the leaves, on which it forms blisters-the best remedy is to cut off and burn the diseased leaves.

The Alligator or Avocado Pear is Persea gratissima, a member of the natural order Lauraceae, and a native of the West Indies and other parts of tropical America. It is a tree of 25 to 30 ft. high and bears large pear-shaped fruits, green or deep purple in colour, with a firm yellowish-green marrow-like pulp surrounding a large seed. The pulp is much esteemed in the West Indies and is eaten as a salad, usually with the addition of pepper, salt and vinegar. The pulp contains much oil, which is used for lighting and soap-making, and the seeds yield a deep indelible black stain which is used for marking linen.

Prickly pear is the popular name for species of Opuntia (see CACTUS).

The name wooden pear is applied to the fruits of Xylomelum (nat. ord. Proteaceae), an Australian genus of trees with very thick, woody, inversely pear-shaped fruits which split into two parts when ripe.

PEARCE, CHARLES SPRAGUE (1851- ), American artist, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on the 13th of October 1851. In 1873 he became a pupil of Léon Bonnat in Paris, and after 1885 he lived in Paris and at Auvers-sur-Oise. He painted Egyptian and Algerian scenes, French peasants, and portraits, and also decorative work, notably for the Congressional Library at Washington. He received medals at the Paris Salon and elsewhere, and was decorated with the Legion of Honour, the order of Leopold, Belgium, the order of the Red Eagle, Prussia, and the order of Dannebrog, Denmark. Among his best known paintings are "The Decapitation of St John the Baptist " (1881), in the Art Institute of Chicago; "Prayer" (1884), owned by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association; "The Return of the Flock," in the Bohemian Club, San Francisco; and "Meditation," in the New York Metropolitan Museum.

PEARL. Pearls are calcareous concretions of peculiar lustre,

produced by certain molluscs, and valued as objects of personal

ornament. The experience of pearl-fishers shows that those shells which are irregular in shape and stunted in growth, or

The substance of a pearl is essentially the same as that which lines the interior of many shells and is known as "mother-ofpearl." Sir D. Brewster first showed that the iridescence of this substance was an optical phenomenon due to the interference of rays of light reflected from microscopic corrugations of the surface -an effect which may be imitated by artificial striations on a suitable medium. When the inner laminated portion of a nacreous shell is digested in acid the calcareous layers are dissolved away, leaving a very delicate membranous pellicle, which, as shown by Dr Carpenter, may retain the iridescence as long as it is undisturbed, but which loses it when pressed or stretched.

It is obvious that if a pearl presents a perfectly spherical form it must have remained loose in the substance of the muscles or other soft tissues of the mollusc. Frequently, however, the pearl becomes cemented to the interior of the shell, the point of attachment thus interfering with its symmetry. In this position it may receive successive nacreous deposits, which ultimately form a pearl of hemispherical shape, so that when cut from the shell it may be flat on one side and convex on the other, forming what jewelers know as a "perle bouton." In the course of growth the pearl may become involved in the general deposit of motherof-pearl, and be ultimately buried in the substance of the shell. It has thus happened that fine pearls have occasionally been unexpectedly brought to light in cutting up mother-of-pearl in the workshop.

When a pearl oyster is attacked by a boring parasite the mollusc protects itself by depositing nacreous matter at the point of invasion, thus forming a hollow body of irregular shape known as a "blister pearl." Hollow warty pearl is sometimes termed in trade" coq de perle." Solid pearls of irregular form are often produced by deposition on rough objects, such as small fragments of wood, and these, and in fact all irregular-shaped pearls, are termed "perles baroques," or "barrok pearls." It appears that the Romans in the period of the Decline restricted the name unio to the globular pearl, and termed the baroque margaritum. It was fashionable in the 16th and 17th centuries to mount curiously shaped baroques in gold and enamel so as to form ornamental objects of grotesque character. A valuable collection of such mounted pearls by Dinglinger is preserved in the Green vaults at Dresden.

reach the oyster-banks at sunrise. Each boat generally carries ten divers. On reaching the bank a signal-gun is fired, and diving commences. A stone weighing about 40 lb is attached to the cord by which the diver is let down. The divers work in pairs, one man diving while the other watches the signal-cord, drawing up the sink-stone first, then hauling up the baskets of oysters, and finally raising the diver himself. On an average the divers remain under water from fifty to eighty seconds, though exceptional instances are cited of men remaining below for as long as six minutes. After resting for a minute or two at the surface, the diver descends again; and so on, until exhausted, when he comes on board and watches the rope, while his comrade relieves him as diver. The native descends naked, carrying only a girdle for the support of the basket in which he places the pearl oysters. In his submarine work the diver makes skilful use of his toes. To arm himself against the attacks of the sharks and other fishes which infest the Indian waters he carries spikes of ironwood; and the genuine Indian diver never descends without the incantations of shark-charmers, one of whom accompanies the boat while others remain on shore. As a rule the diver is a shortlived man.

The diving continues from sunrise to about noon, when a gun is fired. On the arrival of the fleet at shore the divers carry their oysters to a shed, where they are made up into four heaps, one of which is taken by the diver. The oysters are then sold by auction in lots of 1000 each. The pearls, after removal from the dead oysters, are " classed " by passing through a number of small brass colanders, known as “baskets," the holes in the successive vessels being smaller and smaller. Having been sized in this way, they are sorted as to colour, weighed and valued.

Since the days of the Macedonians pearl-fishing has been carried on in the Persian Gulf. It is said that the oyster-beds extend along the entire Arabian coast of the gulf, but the most important are on sandbanks off the islands of Bahrein. The chief centre of the trade is the port of Lingah. Most of the products of this fishery are known as " Bombay pearls," from the fact that many of the best are sold there. The shells usually present a dark colour about the edges, like that of "smoked pearl." The yellow-tinted pearls are sent chiefly to Bombay, while the whitest go to Bagdad. Very small pearls, much below a pea in size, are generally known as "seed-pearls," and these are valued in India and China as constituents of certain electuaries, while occasionally they are calcined for chunam, or lime, used with betel as a masticatory. There is a small pearl-fishery near Karachi on the coast of Bombay.

neighbourhood of Jiddah and Koseir. This fishery is now insignificant, but the Arabs still obtain from this district a quantity of mother-of-pearl shells, which are shipped from Alexandria, and come into the market as " Egyptians."

Pearl Fisheries.-The ancients obtained their pearls chiefly from India and the Persian Gulf, but at the present time they are also procured from the Sulu seas, the coast of Australia, the shores of Central America and some of the South Pacific Islands. The ancient fisheries of Ceylon (Taprobane) are situated in the Gulf of Manaar, the fishing-banks lying from 6 to 8 m. off the western shore, a little to the south of the isle of Manaar. The Tinnevelly fishery is on the Madras side of the strait, near Tuticorin. These Indian fishing-grounds are under the control of government inspectors, who regulate the fisheries. The oysters yield the best pearls at about four years of age. Fishing generally commences in the second week in March, and lasts for from four to six weeks, according to the season. The boats are grouped in fleets

Very fine pearls are obtained from the Sulu Archipelago, on the north-east of Borneo. The mother-of-pearl shells from the Sulu seas are characterized by a yellow colour on the border and back, which unfits them for many ornamental purposes. Pearl oysters are also abundant in the seas around the Aru Islands to the south-west of New Guinea. From Labuan a good many pearl-shells are occasionally sent to Singapore. They are also obtained from the neighbourhood of Timor, and from New Caledonia. The pearl oyster occurs throughout the Pacific, mostly in the clear water of the lagoons within the atolls, though fine shells are also found in deep water outside the coral reefs. The Polynesian divers do not employ sink-stones, and the women are said to be more skilful than the men. They anoint their bodies with oil before diving. Fine pearl-shells are obtained from Navigators' Islands, the Society Islands, the Low Archipelago or Paumota Isles and the Gambier Islands. Many of the Gambier pearls present a bronzy tint.

Pearl-fishing is actively prosecuted along the western coast of Central America, especially in the Gulf of California, and to a less extent around the Pearl Islands in the Bay of Panama. The