'Report on the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the year 1877-78.' [‎258r] (61/165)

AND MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. FOR THE YEAR 1877-78.
39
Sucli a find is however of rare occurrence, but every year many
smaller ones are found whose value ranges from Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. 2 to 4-,000.
Besides those tabulated, there are two other denominations constantlv
used. These are the Toulief, ranking between the Maghz and Kambayiti,
and the Bookeh, a white but soft pearl, of no great value, which finds its
way to the Baghdad and Syrian markets.
A considerable trade is done in these smaller and less individually
valuable pearls. A merchant gave out yesterday (as an instance) that
be had been commissioned to buy small pearls to the amount of ten
thousand krans by a Persian Noble, who wanted them to sew on to his
horse trappings.
39. The merchants in the Gulf know at once to what “ family”
the sample pearls put before them belong, and this indeed so accurately
that a good merchant will assert his ability to tell you, not only from
what depth of water any particular specimen has come, but also the very
name of the bank in the Gulf which has been its birth-place. The
possession by any one of so very nice a discriminating power must be
pioblematical, but it is an undoubted fact that the pearls drawn from
shallow water are, as a rule, of lower specific gravity, of less purity, and
more uncertain form than those gathered in the deeps.
This was very well known to be the case in old times. Pliny notices
the effect of the sun in his account of pearl formation, and the Arabs
hold precisely the same opinions as those put forward by him to this
day.
They say that all the purest, largest, and best pearls come from the
deeps, whilst the shallows, though far more pregnant, yield a lio*hter
pearl, and invariably with a stain of colour which depreciates its value.
Where the sun can reach, colour is invariably found in a greater or less
degree.
There is further a strongly-rooted idea that pearls found between
the mainland and adjacent island are distorted, whilst in the quiet deep
seas the pearls become round and heavy.
40. The different classes of pearls have been mentioned above, and
the marginal tables will give some idea of the ordinary market price at
present obtaining for the best picked pearls.
The price of pearls is said to have doubled in the last 25 years.
Most of the purchases are made by weighment, having regard to the
shape and brilliancy of the particular specimen, the price of a really
large perfect pearl may be almost anything, but these are very rare and
are dealt with separately.
41. For the more ordinary trade, the merchants have 24 sieves
These I have most carefully measured carefully bored to a certain size and
three or four times over, and have drawn the average value of ffood samples
to actual scale by 100 parts of an inch. ^ . ampies
See table A attached to paragraph 40. I 1 ft through each Sieve IS fairly
ascertainable.