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A key to Whitehead s process and reality 7th ed. Edition
Sherburne Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Sherburne, Donald W.; Whitehead, Alfred North
ISBN(s): 9780226752938, 0226752933
Edition: 7th ed.
File Details: PDF, 7.14 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
Edited by
Donald W. Sherburne
 A Key to W hitehead's
Process and Reality
 A Key to
W h ite h e a d 's
Process
and

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago and London
This edition published by arrangement with The Free Press,
a Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

Copyright © 1966 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Copyright Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1929

Copyright renewed 1957 by Evelyn Whitehead
All rights reserved. Published 1966
University of Chicago Press edition 1981
Printed in the United States of America

88 87 86 85 84 83 82 81 12345

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Sherburne, Donald W.
A key to Whitehead’s Process and reality.
Includes index.
1. Whitehead, Alfred North, 1861-1947.
Process and reality. 2. Cosmology. 3. Science—
Philosophy. 4. Process philosophy. 5. Organism
(Philosophy) I. Whitehead, Alfred North, 1861-1947.
Process and reality. II. Title.
B1674. W353P7638 1981 113 81-11661
ISBN: 0-226-75293-3 (pbk.) AACR2
 This book is dedicated to H enry D. M iner
of Leicester, Vermont. Farmer, Woodsman, Fisherman, Friend
—He exemplifies to a high degree the qualities of ingenuity and
sound common sense which, intuition tells me, would have led
Whitehead (who vacationed and wrote in Vermont, among
Vermonters) to approve of this dedication.
 A cknowledgments
I thank both Vere C. Chappell and George L. Kline for numer­
ous suggestions that improved the manuscript considerably, and
I acknowledge, gratefully, a series of summer grants from Van­
derbilt University which provided the freedom that allowed me
to prepare this book.
Contents

P U R P O S E A N D D E S IG N O F T H I S B O O K 1
one / T H E A C T U A L E N T IT Y 6
I. T h e Actual Entity 7
II. Prehensions 9
/. Datum 9
2. Subjective Form 12
III. Satisfaction, Superject, and Objective Immortality !3
IV . T h e Ontological Principle »7

tw o / T H E F O R M A T IV E E L E M E N T S 20
I. Eternal Objects 20
II. God 25
7. G od and Subjective Aim 28
2, Coherence of the Concept “ G o d ” 29
3. Sum m ary and Transition to Creativity 31
III. Creativity 32
three / T H E PH ASES OF C O N C R E SC EN C E 36
I. Introductory Statement 36
II. Phase I —Conformal Feelings 40
7. T h ree Categoreal Obligations 4»
2. T h ree Categoreal O bligations Illustrated 43
III. Phase I I —Conceptual Feelings 46
7. C onceptual Reversion 47
2. R eversio n , G od, and Subjective Aim 49
3. Valuations and Furth er Categoreal Obligations 5°
IV. Phase I I I —Simple Comparative Feelings 54
7. Physical Purposes 55
2. Propositions and Propositional Feelings 59
3. Physical Purposes versus Propositional Feelings 65
V . Phase I V —Com plex Comparative Feelings (i7
V I. Satisfaction 69
fo ur / N E X U S A N D T H E M A C R O C O S M IC 72
I. Transm utation 72
viii Contents

II. Nexus and Order 77

III. Psychological Physiology 89

five / P E R C E P T IO N 98
I. Causal Efficacy 101
II. Presentational Immediacy 103
III. Symbolic Reference 11 3
IV. Perception, Causation, and Whitehead’s Rebuttal of Hume 121

six / W H I T E H E A D A N D O T H E R P H IL O S O P H E R S 126
I. Descartes (and Hume) 127
II. Locke (and Hume) 143
III. Kant 150
IV. Newton 154
V. Newton and Plato 159
VI. Modern Science 164
7. Substance 164
2. Philosophy and Science 168

seven / GO D A N D T H E W O R L D 171
I. Th e Ideal Opposites 172
II. God and the World 177
7. Traditional Concepts of God 177
2. T he Prim ordial N ature of God 179
3. T he Consequent Nature of G od 180
</. Resolution of the CosmologicalProblem 183

appendix / IN D E F E N S E O F S P E C U L A T I V E P H IL O S O P H Y 191
Glossary 205
Process and R eality—Passages quoted in this book 249
Index 253

LIST OF FIGURES

1. A Sim ple Physical F eelin g 10

2. The Phases of Concrescence 40
3. Transmutation 74
4. Contemporaneousness 11 1
5. Symbolic R eferen ce 114
 Introduction

PURPOSE AND DESIGN

OF T H I S B O O K

The interest in, and the influence of, the process philosophy of
Alfred North Whitehead has mushroomed in the comparatively few
years since his death in 1947,1 and there is every indication that
Whitehead's audience will continue to grow in succeeding years. But
it is a disturbing fact that Whitehead is not to any great extent
being taught to undergraduates in our colleges or being read by
people in fields other than philosophy. The reason is not far to find:
there has been a dearth of suitable material to introduce Whitehead
to undergraduates and to the interested nonphilosopher. The pres­
ent book aims to remedy this situation.
To understand the character of Whitehead's writings is both to
understand the scarcity of introductory material and to grasp the
particular sort of challenge that preparing this book has involved.
The magnum opus, central to an understanding of Whitehead's
mature metaphysical position, is Process and Reality (commonly re­
ferred to as PR). PR is an extremely difficult book. One source of
1 The earlier commentaries by Dorothy Emmet and Ras-vihary Das have
been superseded by a host of studies of Whitehead—e.g., those by Nathaniel
Lawrence in 1956, Ivor Ledere in 1958, William Christian in 1959, Wolfe Mays
in 1959, Robert Palter in 1960, Donald Sherburne in 1961, and Victor Lowe in
1962. At the same time journals have carried numerous discussions of White-
head and even more numerous analyses that presuppose the Whiteheadian meta­
physics. Several vigorous symposiums and two volumes of commemorative
essays marked the centennial of Whitehead's birth in 1961.
2 A K ey to W hitehead's Process and Reality

the difficulty is certainly the subtle character of the cosmology there

developed. But further difficulty, the straw-that-breaks-the-reader*s-
back sort of difficulty, is occasioned by Whitehead's mode of exposi­
tion. As he states in his preface, “. . . the unity of treatment is to be
looked for in the gradual development of the scheme, in meaning
and in relevance, and not in the successive treatment of particular
topics.” This statement is a warning to the reader that he will not
find a linear development in PR, a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Rather, he will encounter a weblike development that presupposes
the whole system at the very beginning and recurs again and again
to individual topics with the aim that “in each recurrence, these
topics throw some new light on the scheme, or receive some new
elucidation.” The result is a book that in richness and suggestive­
ness is unsurpassed, but in opacity is monumental.
But it is to PR that one must go to encounter the essential White-
head. It has been customary to send beginning students to White­
head's Science and the Modern World (SMW) or his Religion in the
Making (RM). SMW is organized in such a way that the first half
of most chapters is a fascinating commentary on a given century of
thought and the second half is a tight exposition of some aspect of
Whitehead's own thought. Students all remember Whitehead's epi­
grammatic comparison of the Middle Ages with the eighteenth
century: “The earlier period was the age of faith, based upon reason.
In the later period, they let sleeping dogs lie: it was the age of
reason, based upon faith. . . .In comparing these epochs it is well to
remember that reason can err, and that faith may be misplaced.”
But it is my experience that in reading SMW students learn very
little about Whitehead's metaphysical system; his discussion of his
own position is dense and cryptic and is fully intelligible only to
one who has already mastered the scheme presented in PR. The
same is true of RM; there the incredibly difficult third chapter, upon
which all the rest depends, is absolutely incomprehensible to the
student who has not previously acquainted himself with PR. There­
fore, SMW and’RM do not constitute an adequate introduction to
Whitehead, but rather, depend upon a prior knowledge of PR.
The problem this book faces is the problem of making the organic
philosophy of PR more accessible to students and nonphilosophers
than it is in the original. The manner in which this has been done
 P urpose and D esign of T his B ook 3

can now be explained. Where Whitehead's development is weblike,

the present book is linear; it does consist of “successive treatment of
particular topics.” The topics chosen seem to the editor to be those
at the heart of Whitehead's system, and the ordering of these topics
is designed to lead the student logically and coherently into the
system.
This book, however, is not a series of comments about Whitehead.
In it Whitehead himself speaks. In PR, Whitehead's comments on
any given topic are scattered throughout dozens of passages. Here,
Whitehead's scattered observations of PR are drawn together topic
by topic to achieve maximum ease of comprehension while retain-
ing the flavor and vigor of Whitehead's frequently brilliant prose.
This book does not give an exhaustive account of all aspects of
Whitehead's philosophy, and it does not attempt critical evaluation
of what it does present. But on the positive side, it does take the un­
initiated into the heart of Whitehead's philosophy more quickly
and easily than any other vehicle now in existence. This revisitation
of Process and Reality will not of itself take the student into the
storm of critical charge and countercharge currently raging about
Whitehead's contribution to philosophy, but it will prepare the
student both to understand such polemics and, more important, to
plunge directly into the profound and rewarding experience of
reading PR, SMW, and RM with insight and understanding.

Notes on the Text

Certain portions of this text present extended passages from

Process and Reality, but much of the text consists of short passages
from many different sections of PR woven into a sustained account
of the successive aspects of Whitehead's system. To attempt to
identify the source of each passage as it occurs in the text would
break up the pages in a disconcerting manner. Consequently a sec­
tion titled “Location in PR of Passages Quoted in this Book” ap­
pears in the back of the book; the reader can turn to this section at
any time and quickly locate the source in PR of a?iy passage in the
text.
In practically all cases the sentence has been taken as an atomic
4 A Key to W hitehead’s Process and Reality

unit not to be tampered with. Occasionally this rule has been vio­
lated. For example, the following appears in PR: “Perception is
frequently poorly analyzed. It is sometimes regarded as . . In the
present text this appears as follows: “Perception is sometimes re­
garded as . . .” In this case either brackets or an ellipsis would be
an unnecessary hindrance to smooth reading, and neither has been
used. Another instance of tampering within the sentence is this:
where Whitehead writes “For example, in one of the quotations
cited he writes: . . ." the present text substitutes “For example, he
writes: . . for the good reason that the cited quotation has not
appeared in this text. Where changes not of this simple, straight­
forward type have been made, brackets have been used.
Brackets in the text indicate insertions by the editor. Whitehead
uses few footnotes, and in most cases these have been inserted into
the text within parentheses. With only a few exceptions all foot­
notes are by the editor: exceptions are specifically attributed to
Whitehead.
A good many explanatory paragraphs by the editor appear in this
book. These paragraphs are italicized and clearly stand out from
Whitehead*s text. Several diagrams not to be found in PR are in­
cluded in these explanatory passages. Figures 2 and 3 are taken from
the editor's A Whiteheadian Aesthetic and are used with the per­
mission of the Yale University Press.
The Appendix, “In Defense of Speculative Philosophy," requires
a word of explanation. There are good reasons for making this unit
the first chapter of the book and good reasons for making it the last.
Its present status as an appendix is a compromise. The “Defense” is
useful if read at the beginning because it indicates the nature and
scope of the enterprise undertaken in PR. But it is more significant
if read at the end: the reader then has some feel for the concrete
character assumed by speculative philosophy at the hands of White-
head, and he is therefore in a much better position to understand
and evaluate Whitehead's “Defense." The Appendix will probably
be of great help if read quickly at the beginning, but it should also
be read with care at the end, for it is only at the end that its self-
referential adequacy can be evaluated.
Whitehead's writing is liberally sprinkled with neologisms. It
takes time for the reader just becoming acquainted with these tech­
 P urpose and D esign of T his B oor 5

nical terms to fix their meanings firmly in mind. To aid in this

process a Glossary is appended to this book and the reader is urged
to make use of it— it contains seventy items, cross-references, and
examples and materials which frequently provide a substantial
supplement to the main text.
The text of Process and Reality is in very poor condition. White-
head, as I understand it, refused to have anything to do with the
publishing process once he had completed a manuscript. He would
have argued, Tm sure, that he didn't have time, that he had too
many other books to write— and this would have been an irrefu­
table argument. But the result is that PR in particular is shot
through and through with irritating typographical errors, apparent
enough to the expert but bewildering to the neophyte, who finds
it difficult to distinguish typos from neologisms. The editor, in col­
laboration with a group of Whitehead scholars, prepared a “Cor­
rigenda for Process and Reality" which appeared as an Appendix to
Alfred North Whitehead: Essays on His Philosophy (edited by
George L . Kline and published by Prentice-Hall in 1963 as a
Spectrum Book). This Corrigenda contained over two hundred
items and more have since been identified. The present book has
incorporated these corrections into its text. Whitehead's British
spellings (“colour,” “behaviour,” “endeavour,” “role,” “analyse,”
and the like) and punctuation have been retained, although the
editor uses Americanizations of these forms in his own discussions.
Chapter One

THE ACTU AL E N T I TY

The concept of an actual entity is the central concept in White-

head's system. This system is atomistic—i.e., like Democritus, White-
head conceives of the world as composed of a vast number of
microcosmic entities. But whereas Democritus is a materialist and
views his atoms as inert bits of stuff, Whitehead presents an organic
philosophy— each one of his atoms, termed “actual entities" or
“actual occasions," is an organism that grows, matures, and perishes.
The whole of Process and Reality (TR) is concerned with describing
the characteristics of, and interrelationships between, actual entities.
The first three chapters will analyze actual entities in minute de­
tail. When this analysis is completed the reader will know a great
deal about how Whitehead describes the building blocks of the
universe, but he will not yet have brought the system out of the
realm of the microcosmic to confront his macrocosmic experience.
Chapters Four through Seven do just that—i.e., they take the
categories systematically presented in the first three chapters and
put them into juxtaposition with ordinary experience, traditional
philosophical problems, modern science, and religious intuitions.
Chapters One through Three focus primarily upon the nature of
the individual actual entity, which is a microcosmic entity; Chapters
Four through Seven shift to the level of the macrocosmic, to an
analysis of the aggregates of actual entities (termed “nexüs" and
“societies") that are the objects of ordinary experience.
6
 T he A ctual E ntity 7

I
The Actual Entity

The positive doctrine of these lectures is concerned with the be­

coming, the being, and the relatedness of ‘actual entities.' ‘Actual
entities'—also termed ‘actual occasions'—are the final real things
of which the world is made up. There is no going behind actual
entities to find anything more real. They differ among themselves:
God is an actual entity, and so is the most trivial puff of existence
in far-off empty space.
The presumption that there is only one genus of actual entities
constitutes an ideal of cosmological theory to which the philosophy
of organism endeavours to conform. The description of the generic
character of an actual entity should include God, as well as the low­
liest actual occasion, though there is a specific difference between the
nature of God and that of any occasion. But, though there are
gradations of importance, and diversities of function, yet in the
principles which actuality exemplifies all are on the same level. The
final facts are, all alike, actual entities; and these actual entities are
drops of experience, complex and interdependent.
[In his first Meditation], Descartes uses the phrase res vera in
the same sense as that in which I have used the term ‘actual.’ It
means ‘existence’ in the fullest sense of that term, beyond which
there is no other. Descartes, indeed, would ascribe to God ‘existence’
in a generically different sense. In the philosophy of organism, as
here developed, God’s existence is not generically different from that
of other actual entities, except that he is ‘primordial’ in a sense to
be gradually explained.
‘Concrescence’ is the name for the process in which the universe
of many things acquires an individual unity in a determinate relega­
tion of each item of the ‘many’ to its subordination in the constitu­
tion of the novel ‘one.’ An actual occasion is nothing but the unity
to be ascribed to a particular instance of concrescence. This con­
crescence is thus nothing else than the ‘real internal constitution' of
the actual occasion in question. The process itself is the constitution
of the actual entity; in Locke’s phrase, it is the ‘real internal consti­
tution' of the actual entity.
8 A Key to W hitehead’s Process and Reality

This is a theory of monads; but it differs from Leibnizs in that

his monads change. In the organic theory, they merely become.
Each monadic creature is a mode of the process of 'feeling' the
world, of housing the world in one unit of complex feeling, in every
way determinate. Such a unit is an 'actual occasion'; it is the ulti­
mate creature derivative from the creative process.
Each actual entity is conceived as an act of experience arising out
of data. The objectifications of other actual occasions form the given
data from which an actual occasion originates. Each actual entity is
a throb of experience including the actual world within its scope. It
is a process of 'feeling' the many data, so as to absorb them into the
unity of one individual 'satisfaction.* Here 'feeling' is the term used
for the basic generic operation of passing from the objectivity of the
data to the subjectivity of the actual entity in question. Feelings are
variously specialized operations, effecting a transition into subjec­
tivity. They replace the ‘neutral stuff' of certain realistic philoso­
phers. An actual entity is a process, and is not describable in terms
of the morphology of a 'stuff.'
This word 'feeling' is a mere technical term; but it has been
chosen to suggest that functioning through which the concrescent
actuality appropriates the datum so as to make it its own. A feeling
appropriates elements of the universe, which in themselves are other
than the subject, and absorbs these elements into the real internal
constitution of its subject by synthesizing them in the unity of an
emotional pattern expressive of its own subjectivity. Feelings are
‘vectors'; for they feel what is there and transform it into what is
here. We thus say that an actual occasion is a concrescence effected
by a process of feelings.
The philosophy of organism is a cell-theory of actuality. The cell
is exhibited as appropriating, for the foundation of its own exist­
ence, the various elements of the universe out of which it arises.
Each process of appropriation of a particular element is termed a
prehension. I have adopted the term ‘prehension' to express the
activity whereby an actual entity effects its own concretion of other
things. In Cartesian language, the essence of an actual entity con­
sists solely in the fact that it is a prehending thing (i.e., a substance
whose whole essence or nature is to prehend).
There are two species of prehensions, the ‘positive species' and
 T he A ctual E ntity 9

the ‘negative species.’ A ‘feeling’ belongs to the positive species of

‘prehensions.’ An actual entity has a perfectly definite bond with
each item in the universe. This determinate bond is its prehension
of that item. A negative prehension is the definite exclusion of that
item from positive contribution to the subject’s own real internal
constitution. A positive prehension is the definite inclusion of that
item into positive contribution to the subject’s own real internal
constitution. This positive inclusion is called its ‘feeling’ of that
item. All actual entities in the actual world, relatively to a given
actual entity as ‘subject,’ are necessarily ‘felt’ by that subject, though
in general vaguely.
A feeling cannot be abstracted from the actual entity entertaining
it. This actual entity is termed the ‘subject* of the feeling. It is in
virtue of its subject that the feeling is one thing. If we abstract the
subject from the feeling we are left with many things. Thus a feeling
is one aspect of its own subject.

II
Prehensions
Because an actual entity is constituted by its prehensions, these
must now be considered in more detail. The analysis will center
around two concepts, “datum” and “subjective form.”

The first analysis of an actual entity, into its most concrete ele­
ments, discloses it to be a concrescence of prehensions, which have
originated in its process of becoming. All further analysis is an anal­
ysis of prehensions. Every prehension consists of three factors: (a)
the ‘subject’ which is prehending, namely, the actual entity in
which that prehension is a concrete element; (b) the ‘datum’ which
is prehended; (c) the ‘subjective form’ which is how that subject
prehends that datum.
I. Datum
A ‘simple physical feeling’ entertained in one subject is a feeling
for which the initial datum is another single actual entity, and the
objective datum is another feeling entertained by the latter actual
entity.
 IO A Key to W hitehead’s Process and Reality

Here a diagram will help the reader visualize the relationships

described. An actual entity has been seen to be constituted by its
feelings, or prehensions. Hence each actual entity will be portrayed
as a pie cut into pieces— the pie is the sum of its pieces as the actual
entity is the sum of its prehensions. In Figure 1, B is the concrescing,
subject actual entity, the entity in the process of becoming. A is an
actual entity in the immediate past of B, which is being prehended
by B. X is one of B’s prehensions, the prehension that “reaches out"
to include A in B, the “vector" (from the Latin, vectus, past parti­
ciple of veho, to carry— used in mathematics to denote a line having
a fixed direction in space) that bears the A-ness of A into B. M, N,
and O are prehensions constitutive of A. N is the particular prehen­
sion in A selected by B to represent A, to objectify A, in B\y con­
crescence. All the other prehensions in A are negatively prehended
by B; Y and Z represent negative prehensions that eliminate certain
aspects of A’s constitution from relevance to B'j feeling. Letters in­
serted in the following text correlate Whitehead's descriptive phrases
with the labels of Figure 1.

Thus in a simple physical feeling [X] there are two actual entities
concerned. One of them [B] is the subject of that feeling, and the
other [A] is the initial datum of the feeling. A second feeling [N] is
also concerned, namely, the objective datum of the simple physical
feeling. This second feeling [N] is the ‘objectification' of its subject
[A] for the subject [B] of the simple physical feeling [X]. The initial
datum [A] is objectified as being the subject of the feeling [N] which
 T he A ctual E ntity 11

is the objective datum: the objectification is the ‘perspective’ of the

initial datum. The prehension [N] in one subject [A] becomes the
objective datum for the prehension [X] in a later subject [B], thus
objectifying the earlier subject [A] for the later subject [B], Objecti­
fication relegates into irrelevance, or into a subordinate relevance,
the full constitution of the objectified entity. Some real component
in the objectified entity assumes the role of being how that particu­
lar entity is a datum in the experience of the subject.
A feeling [X] is the appropriation of some elements in the uni­
verse to be components in the real internal constitution of its sub­
ject [B], The elements are the initial data; they are what the feeling
feels. But they are felt under an abstraction. The process of the feel­
ing involves negative prehensions [Y, Z] which effect elimination.
There is a transition from the initial data to the objective datum
effected by the elimination. The objective datum is the perspective
of the initial data. Thus the initial data [A] are felt under a ‘per­
spective’ which is the objective datum [N] of the feeling [X].
In virtue of this elimination [Y, Z] the components of the objec­
tive datum [N] have become ‘objects’ intervening in the constitution
of the subject [B] of the feeling [X]. In the phraseology of mathe­
matical physics a feeling has a ‘vector’ character. A feeling [X] is the
agency by which other things [A] are built into the constitution of
its [X’s] one subject in process of concrescence [B].
A simple physical feeling is an act of causation. The actual entity
which is the initial datum [A] is the ‘cause,’ the simple physical feel­
ing [X] is the ‘effect,’ and the subject entertaining the simple physi­
cal feeling [B] is the actual entity ‘conditioned’ by the effect. This
‘conditioned’ actual entity [B] will also be called the ‘effect.’ All
complex causal action can be reduced to a complex of such primary
components. Therefore simple physical feelings will also be called
‘causal’ feelings [or feelings of causal efficacy]. The ‘power’ of one
actual entity on the other is simply how the former is objectified in
the constitution of the other.
A simple physical feeling has the dual character of being the
cause’s feeling re-enacted for the effect as subject. By reason of this
duplicity in a simple feeling there is a vector character which trans­
fers the.cause into the effect. It is a feeling from the cause which
acquires the subjectivity of the new effect without loss of its original
12 A Key to W hitehead’s Process and Reality

subjectivity in the cause. Simple physical feelings embody the repro­

ductive character of nature, and also the objective immortality of
the past. In virtue of these feelings time is the conformation of the
immediate present to the past. Such feelings are conformal feelings.

2. Subjective Form
A feeling—i.e., a positive prehension—is essentially a transition
effecting a concrescence. Its complex constitution is analysable into
five factors which express what that transition consists of, and
effects. The factors are: (i) the ‘subject’ which feels, (ii) the ‘initial
data' which are to be felt, (iii) the ‘elimination’ in virtue of negative
prehensions, (iv) the ‘objective datum’ which is felt, (v) the ‘subjec­
tive form’ which is how that subject feels that objective datum. An
actual entity, on its subjective side, is nothing else than what the
universe is for it, including its own reactions. The reactions are the
subjective forms of the feelings. There are many species of subjec­
tive forms, such as emotions, valuations, purposes, adversions, aver­
sions, consciousness, etc.
The essential novelty of a feeling attaches to its subjective form.
The initial data, and even the objective datum, may have served
other feelings with other subjects. But the subjective form is the
immediate novelty; it is how that subject is feeling that objective
datum. There is no tearing this subjective form from the novelty of
this concrescence. It is enveloped in the immediacy of its immediate
present. The subjective form is the ingression of novel form peculiar
to the new particular fact, and with its peculiar mode of fusion with
the objective datum. In the becoming, it meets the ‘data’ which are
selected from the actual world.
A feeling can be genetically described in terms of its process of
origination, with its negative prehensions whereby its many initial
data become its complex objective datum. In this process the sub­
jective form originates, and carries into the feeling the way in which
the feeling feels. The way in which the feeling feels expresses how
the feeling came into being. It expresses the purpose which urged
it forward, and the obstacles which it encountered, and the indeter­
minations which were dissolved by the originative decisions of the
subject.
Other documents randomly have
different content
 The divers are the most important men in the fleet, for on their
ability and efficiency depends the success of the enterprise. A very
considerable portion of them are natives of the Philippine Islands,
although many Japanese have been employed recently, and the
number is increasing. The compensation is at the rate of £2 to £4
per month, and £20 for each ton of mother-of-pearl secured. The
attendants are likewise mostly Manilamen, but many Malayans and
Burmans are employed; the wages range from Rs.50 to Rs.80 per
month, including provisions. The peculiar duties of the attendant are
to help the diver into his dress, place the shoulder leads into
position, screw on the helmet, and especially to receive and respond
to signals and to direct the movements of the vessel in accordance
therewith.
The scaphander, or diving dress, is composed of solid sheet
rubber, covered on both sides with canvas. The head-piece is made
of tinned copper, and is fitted with three glasses, one at the front
and one on each side, so as to afford the diver as wide a view as is
consistent with strength of construction. It has a valve by which he
can regulate the pressure of the atmosphere. The dress has a
double collar, the inner portion coming up around the neck, and the
other hermetically fastened to the breastplate. The breastplate is
likewise made of copper. The suit is connected with the air-pump by
means of a stout rubber tube which enters the helmet, and through
which air is supplied to the diver incased therein. This air-tube
consists of three or four lengths—each of fifty feet—of light hose,
commonly called “pipe.” This is buoyant so that it may be easily
pulled along, and may not readily foul among the rocks. However,
when working on very rough bottom with sharp-edged stones, the
lower length is of stouter material in order to resist the chafing on
the bottom. Before descending, the air-line is loosely coiled around
the diver’s arm to prevent a sudden strain on it when it is tightened,
and a signal-line is attached to his waist to enable him to
communicate with the men above.
In fishing, if the current is slight, the boat is permitted to drift
therewith, and if there is little or no current, it is propelled by oars
as may be required. The diver—fully dressed in the rubber suit with
helmet, etc.,—goes overboard easily by means of a Jacob’s ladder of
five or six rungs on the port side of the boat, and is lowered by an
attendant, who gives close attention to the lines, the crew having
manned the pump in the meantime. On reaching bottom, the diver
walks along, following the course of the moving boat and swinging
his shoulders from side to side to take in a wide vision in his search
for oysters. In clear water he can discover them at a distance of
twenty-five or thirty feet, even when fifteen fathoms below the
surface; but sometimes the water is so clouded that it may be
necessary for him to go almost on hands and knees to see them,
and when the seaweeds are thick and high, he may locate them
almost as much by feeling as by sight. Owing to this difficulty in
seeing the oysters, the work is suspended in rough weather and for
many days following. The catch is placed in a sack or basket of
quarter inch rope, which is raised when filled, emptied, and returned
to the bottom by means of a rope.
Finding the shell is by no means an easy matter, and much natural
hunter-craft is necessary. Of a neutral color, it is not at all
conspicuous as it lies on a gray coral bed, itself covered with coral or
sponge or hidden in dense masses of gorgeous seaweeds. Still less
visible is the shell on a muddy bottom, for there it embeds itself and
exposes only half an inch or so of the “lip.” As the boat is impelled
by the tide, the diver may have to walk rapidly in a swinging gait;
and if he should stumble or fall while stooping to pick up the shell,
recovery of balance may be difficult. He must be constantly on the
alert and has many dangers to avoid. Sharks are numerous in these
clear tropical waters; but although disaster sometimes results, they
are timid, a stream of air bubbles from the sleeve of the dress
sending them away in fright. More fruitful sources of danger are
fouled air-pipes, broken pumps, falling into holes, and especially
paralysis from recklessly deep diving.
When the diver wishes to come up, he closes the escape valve in
his helmet; his dress fills and distends with air, causing a speedy
return to the surface, and the tender hauls him alongside by means
of the life-line. After “blowing” for a few minutes with the helmet
removed, and usually enjoying the indispensable cigarette, he
returns to the bottom.
When the Mergui reefs were first exploited by diving apparatus,
the bulk of the shells were secured from depths of ten to twelve
fathoms. These shallow reefs have been exhausted, temporarily, at
least, and the divers now work in deeper water, fifteen, twenty, and
even twenty-five fathoms, if the bottom is very uneven and rocky.
Many shells are found in the depressions between the large
boulders, which may be twenty or thirty feet deeper than the
surrounding areas.
The oysters are opened by means of the long-bladed working-
knife of the country, known as dah-she. The flesh is thrown into a
large basket or washtub, where it is searched by the proprietor of
the boat, who takes each piece between the hands and squeezes
and feels through every part of it. After the flesh has been carefully
examined, the sediment at the bottom of the tub is washed and
panned to obtain those pearls which have fallen through the flesh
tissues. The Mergui pearls are commonly of good color and luster,
and compare favorably with those from the Sulu Archipelago or the
Dutch East Indies.
The sea-green shell of the snail (Turbo marmoratus) is gathered in
large quantities by the nude diving Selangs, who barter it to Chinese
traders at the equivalent of Rs.8 or 10 per 100 in number. The flesh
is also dried and disposed of to these traders under the name of
thadecon, at about Rs.3 per viss of 3.33 pounds. This mollusk yields
a few greenish yellow pearls.
In 1895, three pearl reefs were discovered off the Bassein coast in
the district of Irawadi.[165] These proved fairly remunerative for one
season and a portion of another, when they were abandoned.
THE PEARL FISHERIES OF THE RED SEA, GULF
OF ADEN, ETC.
Under the Ptolemies, and even long after—under the Califs—these were
islands whose merchants were princes; but their bustle and glory have since
departed from them, and they are now thinly inhabited by a race of miserable
fishermen.
James Bruce (1790).

The Red Sea was one of the most ancient sources of pearls,
furnishing these gems for centuries before the Christian era, and
particularly during the reign of the Ptolemies. These pearls were
alluded to by Strabo, Ælianus, and other classical writers. Although
the prominence of the fisheries has suffered by comparison with
those of Persia and Ceylon, the yield has been more or less
extensive from the days of Solomon up to the present time.
Of the several pearl-yielding mollusks in the Red Sea and on the
southeast coast of Arabia, the largest and best known is that called
“sadof” by the Arabs, and which has been identified by Jameson as
Margaritifera m. erythræensis. This is closely related to the large
species in the Persian Gulf. It is commonly four or five inches in
diameter, and in exceptional instances attains a diameter of eight
inches and a weight of three pounds or more. In addition to its size,
it is distinguished by a dark green coloring about the edges, and a
more or less greenish tint over the nacreous interior surface; this
color is darker in the vicinity of Jiddah and Suakin than at the
southern end of the sea, or in the Gulf of Aden. This species occurs
singly rather than congregated in beds or reefs. Although it is found
in depths of fifteen fathoms or more, most of the fishing is in less
than five fathoms of water.
 Persian Gulf and the Red
Sea, the pearling center
of the world

The “sadof” yields pearls only rarely, and is sought principally for
the shells, which afford good qualities of mother-of-pearl, the pearls
furnishing an additional but always looked-for profit to the regular
source of income. As in other regions, there is no constant relation
between the value of the pearls and the quantity of mollusks taken.
The oysters of some reefs are comparatively rich in certain years;
while in other seasons or on other reefs the mollusks may be
numerous but yield very few pearls.
The second species of importance in the Red Sea is similar to the
Lingah oyster and is known to the Arabs as “bulbul.” This is much
smaller than the “sadof,” averaging less than three inches in
diameter. It is collected for the pearls exclusively, the shells being
too small for industrial use; but only 3 or 4 per cent. of the
individuals yield pearls.
It is claimed by writers of authority that it is the red Pinna pearl
from this sea that is referred to in the Scriptures under the name
peninim as the most precious product, and which has been
translated as rubies.[166] The shell is extremely fragile, and the
nacreous interior is white tinged with a beautiful red. It is of little
importance in the commercial fisheries of the Red Sea at the present
time.
The “sadof” is more scattered and less numerous than the
“bulbul”; and in order to save much useless diving, it is customary to
inspect the bottom before descending. Therefore, operations are
largely restricted to calm weather, when the water is sufficiently
clear to enable the divers to sight the individual oysters on the
bottom. In recent years, water-telescopes have been used to assist
in locating them. The most popular form consists of a tin can with a
sheet of glass inserted in the bottom. The glazed end of the tin is
submerged several inches below the surface, affording a far-
reaching and much clearer vision. In this fishery the divers work
from small canoes (uri), each manned by two men, one of whom
rows while the other leans over the bow and searches for the
oysters. When one is sighted, he dives into the water for it, and then
returns to the boat to resume the search.
The pearling season begins commonly in March or April, and
continues until about the end of May; it is renewed in the autumn,
continuing through September and October.[167] The vessels
employed are of two varieties: dhows carrying from twenty to eighty
men each, and the much smaller sambuks or sail-boats without
decks, each with from six to twenty-five men, most of whom are
Negro slaves. Many of the large vessels are from the Persian Gulf.
The sambuks are owned principally by Zobeid Bedouins inhabiting
the coast between Jiddah and Yambo, and also the islands near the
southern end of the sea, which are very hot-beds of pearls, shells,
religious frenzy and half famished Arabs and Negro slaves.
The “bulbul” oysters are taken in nearly the same manner as in
the Persian Gulf. When the vessel is located over the reef, each diver
descends, commonly with a short stick of iron or hard wood, with
which he releases the oysters within reach; placing them in a sack,
he is pulled up by an attendant when his breath is nearly exhausted.
The fisheries are prosecuted along both sides of the Red Sea and
in the channels among the islands, from the Gulf of Akabah to Bab-
el-Mandeb. They are especially extensive among the Dahlak Islands
on the coast of the Italian colony Eritrea, where the population is
largely supported by them. This was the center of the industry
during the time of the Ptolemies and in the early Christian era. The
fisheries are also important in the vicinity of Jiddah, the port of
entrance for Mecca and Medina, holiest places of Islam. They
likewise exist near Kosseir at the northern end of the sea, and at
Suakin, Massawa, the Farsan Islands, and Loheia, near the lower
end. They are carried on by Arabs, who succeed in evading efforts at
control on the part of the local governments. Even on the African
side, the Arab fishermen predominate, for the native Egyptian has
never evinced much fondness for venturing on the sea.
On the southeast coast of Arabia, pearl fishermen are to be found
at the various harbors from Aden to Muscat. Their fantastic dhows
are met with in the harbor of Makalla, and also in that of Shehr. On
the Oman coast, the ports of Sur and of sun-scorched Muscat do a
considerable pearling business, not only locally but to the Sokotra
Islands, and even on the coast of East Africa and Zanzibar, the
trading baggalas adding pearling and illicit slave-trading to their
many sources of income. A number of these traders, each with an
instinct for pearls equal to that of a trained hound for game, visit the
fishing centers at intervals, and exchange needful commodities for
pearls and shells.
The Arab pearl-divers of the Red Sea have been noted for the
depths to which they can descend. Lieutenant J. R. Wellsted, of the
Indian Navy, who had unusual facilities for acquaintance with their
exploits, reported that in the Persian Gulf the fishermen rarely
descended beyond eleven or twelve fathoms, and even then they
exhibited signs of exhaustion; but that in the Red Sea they go down
twice that depth. Among the most noted of these divers of the last
century was old Serúr, who attracted the notice of many travelers.
Lieutenant Wellsted states that he saw him descend repeatedly to
twenty-five fathoms without the slightest evidence of distress; that
he frequently dived in thirty fathoms, and is reported to have
brought up mud from the bottom at a depth of thirty-five fathoms,
which is about the record, the pressure of the water being nearly 90
pounds to the square inch. His sons were also remarkably expert;
one of them when scarcely thirteen years of age would descend to a
depth of twenty-five fathoms.[168]
 CARVED “JERUSALEM
SHELL” FROM THE RED
SEA

In the collection of Dr.

Bashford Dean

An interesting story of an Arab’s diving ability is told by Lieutenant

Wellsted: “In 1827, we were cruising in the sloop Ternate on the
pearl banks. Whilst becalmed and drifting slowly along with the
current, several of the officers and men were looking over the side
at our Arab pilot, who had been amusing himself in diving for
oysters. After several attempts, his search proved unsuccessful.
‘Since I cannot get oysters I will now,’ said he, ‘dive for and catch
fish.’ All ridiculed the idea. He went down again, and great was our
astonishment to see him, after a short time, rise to the surface with
a small rock-fish in each hand. His own explanation of the feat was,
that as he seated himself at the bottom, the fish came around and
nibbled at his skin. Watching his opportunity, he seized and secured
his prey by thrusting his thumb and forefinger into their expanded
gills.”[169]
Owing to the character of the fishery and the lack of government
supervision, it is extremely difficult to determine accurately the
extent of this industry in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. All over
this coast extends the influence of the Hindu traders, who finance
the fisheries and purchase most of the catch. The pearls are sent
mostly to Bombay, and are not reported in the official returns of the
Red Sea ports. The fishermen are suspicious of outside inquiries,
and are far from anxious to impart reliable information. Probably the
best estimates of the catch are to be obtained from Bombay
merchants, from whom A. Perazzoli learned in 1898 that pearls to
the value of 2,000,000 lire ($400,000) were carried from the Red
Sea to Bombay each year.[170] In the last four or five years the output
has been smaller than usual, owing to disturbed political conditions.
The annual product of “Egyptian” and “Bombay” shells in these
fisheries is usually upward of 1000 tons, worth from $100 to $600
per ton, according to quality. Most of these go to Austria and France,
only about 200 tons reaching London each year. Owing to the dark
color and the lack of thickness in the nacreous layer, they are
scarcely suitable for anything else than button manufacture. Many of
them are sent to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where they are cut into
various shapes for crosses, crucifixes, wafer-boxes, beads, and
nearly every conceivable article in which mother-of-pearl is
manufactured. Many of the choicest shells are incised with scriptural
or allegorical designs for sale to tourists as well as for export. The
best of the engraved shells sell for $10 to $50, and the cheaper ones
for less than $1 each. This industry is of great importance in
Bethlehem, giving employment to a considerable percentage of the
eight thousand inhabitants of the village.
Doubtless in no pearl fishery in the world are greater hardships
endured than in the Red Sea and along the coast of the Arabian
Gulf. In practically every other region, the industry is carried on
under government supervision, and there is little opportunity for ill-
treatment of the humbler fishermen. But the fanatics who control
the fishery on the Arabian coast—untrammeled by authorities and
responsible to none—show little consideration for the poor divers,
and particularly for the unfortunate black slaves brought from the
coast of Africa.
These pearl fishermen lead a very eventful life, the divers
especially. They see some wonderful sights down below the surface-
plant life and creeping things and enemies innumerable. Dropping
from the sun-scorched surface down into the deep cool waters,
everything shows “a sea change, into something rich and strange,”
just as the eyes of the drowned man in Ariel’s song are turned into
pearls and his bones into coral.
And there are enemies innumerable. The terrible sharks, prowling
about near the bottom, prove a source of perpetual uneasiness, and
in the aggregate many fishermen are eaten by these bloodthirsty
tigers of the sea. There are horrible conflicts with devil-fish equaling
that in Hugo’s “Toilers of the Sea.” The saw-fish is also a source of
danger, particularly in the Arabian Gulf, and instances are reported in
which divers have been cut in two by these animals, which
sometimes attain a length of twelve or fifteen feet, and possess a
saw five feet long and three inches broad, armed on each edge with
teeth two inches in length. Another menacing peril is the giant clam
(Tridacna gigas), a monster bivalve, whose shell measures two or
three feet in diameter, and is firmly anchored to the bottom. This
mollusk occurs on many of the Asiatic pearling grounds. Lying with
the scalloped edges a foot or more apart, a foot or a hand of the
diver may be accidentally inserted. When such a fate befalls a
fisherman, the only escape is for him to amputate the member
immediately. Once in a while on the pearling shores a native may be
found who has been maimed in this manner, but usually the
unfortunate man does not escape with his life.
 CAP OF STATE, FROM
LOOTING OF SUMMER
PALACE, PEKIN, IN 1860

Now in South
Kensington Museum
 THE PEARL FISHERIES OF CHINA, JAPAN,
SIBERIA, ETC.
Do churls
Know the worth of Orient pearls?
Give the gem which dims the moon
To the noblest or to none.

Emerson, Friendship.

It appears from ancient Chinese literature, noted in the first

chapter of this book, that pearl fisheries have existed in the rivers of
China for several thousand years. The Chinese also derived pearls
from the sea, and especially from the coast of the province of Che-
kiang. Little is known of the early fisheries, but the fragmentary
literature contains so many allusions to pearls as to lead us to
believe that they were of considerable extent and importance.
It is related that about 200 B.C., a pearl dealer at Shao-hing, an
ancient city between Hang-chau and Ning-po, on the shore of Hang-
chau Bay, furnished to the empress a pearl one inch in diameter, for
which he received five hundred pieces of silver; and to an envious
princess the same dealer sold a “four-inch pearl.” A hundred years
later, the reigning emperor sent an agent to the coast to purchase
“moon pearls,” the largest of which were two thirds of an inch in
diameter.
In the tenth century A.D., Mingti, one of the most extravagant of
the early monarchs, used so many pearls—not only in his personal
decoration but on his equipage and retinue,—that after a formal
procession the way would be rich in the jewels which dropped from
the gorgeous cortège. About 1000 A.D., an embassy to the emperor
brought as tribute an ornament composed of strings of pearls, and
also 105 liang (8¾ lbs.) of the same gems unmounted.
An interesting story is told of “pearl-scattering” by an embassy to
the Chinese court from a Malayan state about 1060. Following the
customs of their country, the ambassadors knelt at the threshold of
the audience chamber, and then advanced toward the throne,
bearing a golden goblet filled with choice pearls and water-lilies
wrought of gold. These they scattered upon the floor at the feet of
the emperor; and the courtiers, hastening to pick them up, secured
ten hang (15 oz.) of pearls.[171]
The Keh Chi King Yuen, a Chinese encyclopedia, describes a pearl
fishery in the southern part of Kwang-tung province, in the
department of Lien-chau and near the city of Hóhpú. Fishing began
in the spring, and was preceded by conciliating the gods through
certain sacrifices, in order that the weather might be propitious and
that no disaster might be suffered through sharks and other
agencies. The five sacrificial animals,—horses, cattle, sheep, swine,
and fowls,—were presented; but ordinarily paper images of these
were economically substituted, as equally acceptable to the Chinese
rulers of destiny. In the details of the diving, the fishery resembled
somewhat that prosecuted about the same period in the Gulf of
Manaar. The diver was let down by a rope, and after collecting the
mollusks and placing them in a basket, he was drawn up at a given
signal. Much complaint was made that the divers would open the
mollusks, extract the pearls and conceal them in the mouth before
returning to the surface.
The business became so perilous and the loss so great, that about
the beginning of the sixteenth century, according to the same
encyclopedia, dredges were adopted. These at first were simple
rakes; later large dredges were trailed along between two boats, by
means of which great quantities of shells were gathered. So
important was the industry that an officer was designated by the
viceroy of Canton to collect a revenue therefrom. It does not appear
that pearls have been collected in considerable numbers on this part
of the Chinese coast for very many years, probably not since the
advent of Europeans.
Pearls are yet found in the river mussels in all parts of eastern
Asia, from Siberia to the Indian Ocean, and from the Himalayas to
the Pacific. It is represented that they are not from the Unio
margaritifera, the common river-mussel of Europe, but from other
species, such as Unio mongolicus, U. dahuricus, Dipsas plicatus, etc.
It is quite impossible to obtain a reliable estimate of the total
number of persons employed, or the output of pearls in China, but
these items are certainly very much larger than the average
Occidental believes.
In the vicinity of Canton the Dipsas plicatus has been used for
centuries by the Chinese in the production of artificial pearls, this
industry giving employment to thousands of persons.[172]
The pearl-mussel fishery is of importance in Manchuria, where it
has been carried on for hundreds of years, not only by the citizens,
but by the military department on account of the government, and
especially in the streams which flow into the Songari, a tributary of
the Amur. Jacinth relates that in case of a deficit, the officers and
subalterns were punished by a deduction from their pay, and also by
corporal chastisement.[173] Witsen speaks of the pearls from the
River Gan, a tributary of the Amur, and also from the islands of the
Amur, the boundary river of Manchuria. Pearl fisheries were
established at these places by the Russians nearly two centuries
ago.[174]
Pearls become finer and more plentiful the further we penetrate
into Manchuria; and they are numerous in the lake of Heikow or
Hing-chou-men, “Black Lake” or “Gate of Precious Gems,” where
they have long been exploited for the account of the emperor of
China.
The occurrence of pearls in many parts of Asiatic Russia was
noted by Von Hessling. In northern Siberia, according to Witsen,
writing in 1705,[175] pearls were found in the waters about the town
of Mangasea on the Turuchan; and Von Middendorf notes that they
were found in the Tunguska River, which flows into the Yenisei.
Whether, however, they come from the Unio margaritifera is
considered doubtful by Von Middendorf. Witsen referred to their
occurrence in the rivers and streams of Irkutsk and Onon, and this is
confirmed by several writers of more recent times. Pallas says that
the mussels found there are quite large, and speaks of the Ilim,
which flows into the Angara, as another river where they occur.
Ancient books relating to Japan repeatedly allude to the
occurrence of pearls on the coasts of that country. They are
mentioned in the Nihonki, of the eighth century, the oldest Japanese
history.
Tavernier wrote about 1670: “It is possible that of those who have
written before me concerning pearls, none have recorded that some
years back a fishery was discovered in a certain part of the coasts of
Japan, and I have seen some of the pearls which the Dutch brought
from thence. They were of very beautiful water, and some of them
of large size, but all baroques. The Japanese do not esteem pearls.
If they cared about them it is possible that by their means some
banks might be discovered where finer ones would be obtained.”[176]
In 1727, Kaempfer wrote that pearls, called by the Japanese
kainotamma or shell jewels, were found in oysters and other
mollusks almost everywhere about Saikokf. Every person was at
liberty to fish for them. Formerly the natives had little or no value for
them, till they learned of their estimation by the Chinese, who were
ready to pay good prices for them, their women being very proud of
wearing necklaces and other ornaments of pearls. “The largest and
finest pearls are found in the small sort of oysters, called akoja,
which is not unlike the Persian pearl-oyster. These are found only in
the seas about Satzuma and in the Gulf of Omura (Kiusiu). Some of
the pearls weigh from four to five candareens[177] and these are sold
for a hundred kobans each.[178] The inhabitants of the Loochoo
Islands buy most of those about Satzuma, since they trade to that
province. Those found on the Gulf of Omura are sold chiefly to the
Chinese and Tunquinese, and it is computed that they buy for about
3000 taels[179] a year. This great profit occasioned the strict orders,
which were made not long ago by the princes both of Satzuma and
Omura, that for the future there should be no more of these oysters
sold in the market with other oysters, as had been done
formerly.”[180]
 Kaempfer also noted that the Japanese obtained pearls from the
yellow snail shell and from the taira gai (Placuna) in the Gulf of
Arima, and especially from the awabi or abalone (Haliotis). This
mollusk was much sought after for food, being taken in large
quantities by the fishermen’s wives, “they being the best divers of
the country.”[181]
Of the several species of pearl-oysters which occur in the coastal
waters of Japan, the only one of importance at present is the
Margaritifera martensi. While this occurs in very many localities, it is
most numerous among the southern islands, where some fine pearls
have been secured. The fishery for this species was quite extensive
thirty or forty years ago, and the reefs were largely depleted. For
nearly a score of years it has been used in growing culture pearls, an
account of which is given on pages 292, 293.
A few pearls are obtained from several other bivalve mollusks in
Japan. Among the collections of the present writers are pearls from
Margaritifera martensi, collected at Bay Agu; from M. panasisæ,
about the Liu-kiu Islands; from Pecten yezocusis, in Sokhaido; from
Mytilus crasitesta, in the Inland Sea, and from North Japan, and
from a species of Dipsas found in Lake Biwa.
While the pearl fisheries of Japan are not of great importance in
any single locality, the distribution of the reefs is so extensive that
the aggregate yield is considerable.
The awabi or ear-shell (Haliotis gigantea), found on the coast of
Japan, Korea, etc., yields many pearly forms. This species is much
smaller than the California abalones. It has a fairly smooth, nacreous
surface, but its value is depreciated by the great size of the marginal
perforations, which render useless for commercial purposes all of the
shell external to the line of perforations. While its opalescent tints
make it desirable for manufacturing into certain styles of buttons and
buckles, its principal use is for inlaying work or marquetry, for which
it is especially adapted, owing to its fineness of texture and beauty
of coloring even when reduced to thin sheets.
 FISHING FOR THE AWABI (ABALONE) SHELLS AT
WADA-NO-HARA, JAPAN

Probably the most interesting of the abalone fisheries is that on

the shores of Quelpaerd Island, about sixty miles south of the
Korean coast, which is prosecuted largely by the women. Dressed
only in a scanty garment, these women swim out to the fishing
grounds, distant several hundred yards in some cases, carrying with
them a stout knife and a small sack suspended from a gourd. On
reaching the reefs, they dive to the bottom—sometimes to a depth
of six or eight fathoms—and by means of the knife, remove the
abalones from the bottom and place them in the sack. They may
remain out an hour, diving repeatedly until the sack is filled, when
they swim back to the shore. Pearls are found only rarely; in one lot
of one hundred shells, only five were found bearing pearls; two with
three pearls each, two with two pearls each, and one with a single
pearl. The flesh of this mollusk after it has been cleaned and dried,
is quite popular as an article of diet. Although white when fresh, the
color changes to a dark red. The pieces of dried flesh, in the form of
flat reddish disks four or five inches in diameter, are fastened on
slender sticks—about ten to each stick—and displayed in the grocery
shops in Seul and other cities.
In the Gulf of Siam on the Asiatic coast, pearls are obtained from
a small oyster with a thin shell, presumably a variety of the Lingah
oyster. The beds have not yet been thoroughly exploited, as the
Siamese do not especially value pearls, attributing some
superstitious sentiments of ill luck to them. However, from time to
time Chinese traders have bought them from the Malay divers and
sold them at great profit in the Singapore market. The known beds
occur chiefly in the northern part of the gulf, on the west coast, and
extend in a narrow belt for a distance of about one hundred miles.
The fishing is prosecuted by nude divers in shallow water. A recent
letter from Dr. K. Van Dort, a mining engineer of Bangkok, Siam,
states that in 1906 in six weeks, with the aid of half a dozen divers
he was able to collect 720 grains’ weight of pearls, mostly small
ones, but including one of 20 grains, one of 14 grains, two of 12
grains each, and seven over 9 grains in weight. He reports that the
total value of the large ones in Bangkok was $1500, but the small
ones could not be sold to any advantage, as they are little prized by
the Siamese. The shells are of no commercial value, as they are too
thin for industrial use other than for inlaid work. Some fine old
specimens of marquetry in which these shells were used exist in the
Buddhist temples at Bangkok. This art of inlaying is almost lost
among the Siamese, and there is said to be only one man in the
king’s palace who can lay any claims to proficiency in working
mother-of-pearl shell.
 VII

PEARLS FROM THE AFRICAN COASTS

 VII
EAST AFRICAN PEARL FISHERIES

The Islanders with fleecy curls,

Whose homes are compass’d by the Arabian waves;
By whom those shells which breed the orient pearls
Are dived and fish’d for in their green sea caves.

Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.

T
he principal pearl fisheries of the coasts of Africa are those
prosecuted in the Red Sea, between this continent and Asia.
These have already been described in the preceding
chapter, among the Asiatic fisheries; for, although situated
between the two continents, they are prosecuted largely by Arabs
rather than by natives of the western shores of the sea.
Other than those in the Red Sea, the only pearl resources in Africa
which have received attention are on the eastern coast, south of the
Gulf of Aden. Little information exists as to the origin of these
fisheries. In a paper published by the Lisbon Geographical Society,
January, 1903, Señor Ivens Ferranz states that, according to
tradition, in remote times the Ibo Archipelago, on the northeast
coast of Portuguese East Africa, was inhabited by a Semitic colony,
which located there to fish for pearls, and these were carried
through the Red Sea to King Solomon. He adds that there is little
doubt that, after the great emigration which started from the Persian
Gulf in 982 and founded Zanzibar, Kilwa, and Sofala on this coast,
some Arabs engaged in fishing for pearls about the islands near
Sofala.
 In 1609 Joao dos Santos wrote that on the sandy sea bottom
about the Bazaruto Islands, which are about 150 miles south of
Sofala, there were many large oysters which bore pearls, and the
natives fished for them by diving in practically the same manner as
in the Persian Gulf.[182]
In a personal memorandum, Sir Robert Edgcumbe states that in
the very early times of Portuguese exploitation on the eastern coast
of Africa, pearl fishing was carried on in these waters. For a long
period the tenure of power exerted by the Portuguese was of a
feeble character; they practically occupied no position of importance
on the mainland, but seized upon stations on the islands which
offered decent harbors. Thus their chief settlements, such as
Mozambique and Ibo, were on islands lying off the coast, and until
recent years they made no serious attempt to occupy the mainland.
Arabs and Banyans carried on the commercial traffic of the
country, as they still do, and they were more truly the masters of
this coast than were the Portuguese, who were little more than
nominal rulers. Trading to and from India in their small dhows, the
Arabs and Banyans had full knowledge of the value of pearls, and
undoubtedly secured all that were obtainable. But they observed no
restrictions, and without doubt—for a time, at any rate—greatly
impaired the productive power of the fisheries.
The principal pearl reefs of East Africa, so far as known at present,
extend along the coast of the German East African territory from the
Province of Uzaramo to the Rovuma River, the southern limit of that
territory, and also into Portuguese East Africa as far south as Pemba
Bay, a total distance of about 300 miles. Along much of this coast,
there are islands lying from one to two miles off shore, and between
these islands are barriers of reefs, which create a series of lagoons.
In these lagoons, protected by the islands and the reefs from the
influence of the surf formed by the Indian monsoons, there are large
patches of coral rock and groups of living coral, which form excellent
attachments for the pearl-oysters.
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.
Said Mr. Simpson in his report: “The women here play great havoc
on the reefs by going out daily and collecting the pearl-oysters at
low tide. All along the coast from Muliga Point to Arimba the shores
are covered with shells. At one place we came across a heap of
freshly-opened oysters which consisted of thirty or forty thousand at
the lowest estimate; while an older heap contained between forty to
sixty millions. Four women who were fishing on the reefs while we
were there had over two thousand oysters in their baskets. Thus it is
evident that immense quantities are annually destroyed. And the
worst feature is that out of those destroyed, not one per cent. were
over two years old.”
It is the intention of the East African Pearl Company, as soon as
the investigation of the resources is completed, to police the fishing
grounds so as to put an end to the removal of immature oysters,
which yield only seed-pearls, and to permit them to attain maturity.
In addition to this, it is their purpose to utilize the extensive beds of
oysters lying in comparatively deep water, which are now
inaccessible to the natives owing to their lack of diving skill.
Sir Robert Edgcumbe writes that it is impossible to say more at
present than that these fisheries at one time bore a high repute, and
that the oysters have continued to exist in multitudes though fished
by the natives in the immature state; and there is every indication
that if properly policed and worked in a scientific way these fisheries
should once again become of much importance. The fact that the
pearl-bearing oysters are found there in large quantities,
notwithstanding that they have been poached without restriction by
the natives, indicates that only proper management and policing are
necessary to make them valuable and productive.
On the lower coast of Portuguese East Africa, pearl fishing has
been of some local importance. The reefs are most extensive about
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