the New Continent, have furnished the greatest abundance of pearls to the Spaniards, are the following: the arm of the sea between the islands of Cubagua and Coche, and the coast of Cumana; the mouth of the Rio de la Hacha; the gulf of Panama near the Islas de las Perlas; and the eastern coast of California. In 1587, 316 kilogrammes* of pearls were imported into Seville, among which there were 5 kilogrammest of the greatest beauty destined for king Philip II.

The pearl fishery of Cubagua and Rio de la Hacha have been very productive but of short duration. After the commencement of the 17th century, and especially after the navigations of Yturbi and Piñadero, the pearls of California began to rival in trade those of the gulf of Panama. At that period the most able divers were sent to the shores of the sea of Cortez. The fishery, however, was immediately neglected again; and though at the time of the expedition of Galvez endea yours were used to restore it, these endeavours were rendered fruitless from the causes already detailed by us in the description of California. In 1803 only, a Spanish ecclesiastic residing at Mexico again turned the attention of govern

YOL. III.

697 lb. avoird. Trans. † Acosta, lib. iv. c. 15.

See vol. ii. chap. viii. p. 329.

G

ment to the pearls of the coast of Ceralvo in California. As the divers (buzos) lose much of their time in rising to breathe on the surface of the water, and fatigue themselves to no purpose in descending several times to the bottom of the sea, this ecclesiastic proposed to employ in the pearl fishery a diving bell which should serve as a reservoir of atmospheric air, and in which the diver might take refuge whenever he felt the necessity of respiration. Furnished with a mask and a flexible tube he would be enabled to explore the bottom of the ocean breathing the oxygen supplied by this bell at which the tube terminates. During my residence in New Spain I saw a series of very curious experiments made in a small pond near the castle of Chopoltepec in the execution of this project. It was certainly the first time that a diver's bell was ever constructed at a height of 2300 metres equal to that of the pass of the Simplon. I know not whether the experiments made in the valley of Mexico were ever repeated in the gulf of California, and whether the pearl fishery has been renewed there after an interruption of more than thirty years; for hitherto almost all the pearls supplied by the colonies come from the gulf of Panama.

* 7545 feet. Trans.

Among the marine shells of New Spain, I ought also to mention here the murer of the coast of 'Tehuantepec in the province of Oaxaca, of which the cloak exudes a purple colouring liquor, and the famous shell of Monterey which resembles the most beautiful haliotis of New Zealand. This shell is to be found on the coast of New California, and particularly between the ports of Monterey and San Francisco. It is employed, as we have already observed, in the fur trade with the inhabitants of Noutka. As to the gasteropode of Tehuantepec, the Indian women collect the purple liquor, following the course of the shore, and rubbing the cloak of the murex with cotton stript of its seed.

The western coast of Mexico, especially that part of the great ocean situated between the gulph of Bayonna, the three Mary islands, and cape Saint Lucas, abound in spermaceti-whales or cachalots, of which the fishery is one of the most important objects of mercantile speculation on account of the extremely high prices given for spermateci (adipocire) by the English and the inhabitants of the United States. The Spanish Mexicans see the cachalot fishers arrive on their coast after a navigation of more than 5000 marine leagues, to whom they incorrectly enough give the appellation of balleñeros (whalers); but they never endeavour to share in the pursuit of these great mammiferous whales. M. Schneider

who is as good a naturalist as he is a learned hellenist, and M. M. de Lacepede and Fleurieu* have given very accurate information as to the whale and cachalot fishery in the two hemispheres. I shall here communicate the most recent knowledge which I could collect during my residence on the shores of the South Sea.

Were it not for the cachalot fishery and the trade in furs of Sea Otters at Noutka, the great ocean would almost never be frequented by the Anglo-Americans and Europeans. Notwithstanding the extreme economy practised in these fishing expeditions, those beyond Cape Horn are too expensive to admit of the black whale being the object of them. The cost of these distant navigations can only be compensated by the high price which necessity or luxury fixes on their returns. Now of all the oily liquids which enter into trade, there are few so dear as the spermaceti, or the particular substance contained in the enormous caverns of the snout of the cachalot. A single individual of these cetaceous giants yields as much as 125 English barrels (of 32 gallons each) of

* Voyage de Marchand, T. ii. p. 600, 641.

+ A barrel contains 1.48 hectolitres or nearly 1783 pints of Paris (Recherches sur la Richesse des Nations par Adam Smith, traduction de M. Garnier, T. v. p. 451.)

This is supposed to be 314. Trans.

spermaceti. A tun containing eight of these barrels or 1024 pints of Paris, used to sell in London before the peace of Amiens at £70 or £80 and during the war at £95 and £100 sterling.

It was not the third expedition of Cook to the north-west coast of the New Continent, but the voyage of James Collnet to the Gallapagos islands, which made known to the Europeans and Anglo Americans the abundance of cachalots in the great ocean to the north of the equator. Till 1788 the whale fishers only frequented the coasts of Chili and Peru. Only 12 or fifteen vessels then doubled Cape Horn annually for the cachalot fishery, while at the period when I was in the South Sea, there were more than 60 under the English flag alone.

The physeter macrocephalus not only frequents the arctic seas between the coast of Greenland and Davis Straits, it is not only found in the Atlantic Ocean between the banks of Newfoundland and the Azore Islands, where the Anglo Americans sometimes carry on a fishery, but it is also to be found to the south of the equator on the coasts of Brazil and Guinea. It would appear that in its periodical voyages, it approaches more to the continent of Africa than to that of America; for in the environs of Rio Janeiro and la Bahia whales only are caught. However the cachalot fishery has been much