FAVOURITE GEM.

Western Star, 24 February 1939, Page 3

FAVOURITE GEM.

VOGUE FOR PEARLS,

Pearls are popular, and the vogue is bringing "jack prosperity to the pearl fishers of the Persian Gulf. News has reached London that hundreds of these men are leaving the oilfields, where they were forced to seek work in the years of*slump t and are returning to their old romantic jobs (states the 'Daily Telegraph'). Smart women in Europe and America are buying more jewellery, and pearls have become fashion's most sought-after gem. The pearl divers of Bahrein and Davai Islands are trained from early childhood to go down as many as 20 times in one afternoon. Despite the clangers of their calling, they prefer it to the work in the oilfields.

The most valuable pea.rls generally Ire just inside the mouth of the shell, so the expert learns to open the shell without damaging its precious contents.

After the shells have been washed out the raw pearls are bundled up in little squares of celoth, ready to be sent to the Motj ("Pearl") Market in Bombay. There they are cleaned and sorted into grades before being marketed, drilled, and forwarded to the world's jewellers.

AN AGE-OLD CRAFT.

Drilling pearls is an ---age-old craft. Though machines are used for pearl drilling in Europe and America, "they never achieve the same perfection as the native craftsman. Much depends upon the skill of the driller; the larger the hole the greater the loss in weight and value.

The pearls are graduated according to colour. • A "bunch" consists of a, number of short strings of pearls, each string carrying gems of equal size. The whole bunch is tied together with a strong silk cord. The bunches are graded, according to the colours of the pearls, white, cream, I'ose, or tinted. Button pearls, which aa'e used for rings,. tie-pins, ear-rings, and in mounted jewellery, are pierced at one side only and are made up into packets. Some of the world's most valuable pea.rls are not peai'ly in colour at all. They aire greeny-black.

"THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL."

REVIEW OF THE FEBRUARY

ISSUE,

An author who. takes e'ghteen years to write a book can scarcely be accused of hasty work. In 1920 Arch Whitebouse, an observer and aerial gunner in the Royal Air Force during the War, started to write his war-time memories, and it took him until the end of last year to finish the job. His exciting reminiscences are a current feature of The Australian Journal, and Avill be of particular interest to diggers of the last generation, and 1 the air-minded youth of the' new. Another star item is Spanish Serenade, a thrilling yarn of spies in the Civil War. But the Journal is by no means devoted to thrills; quieter tastes are adequately catered for with a great variety of short stories, making the February issue one of the best this popular magazine has yet turned out. The only people wh 0 won't find it. entertaining are those readers who like something t 0 sob ever. There isn't a dreary yarn in the- issue. And the price is still sixpence.