ring, with the divided surface outwards, and
examined with a magnifying glass, this central
cell becomes very conspicuous, and the
different layers of which the pearl is composed
are also beautifully displayed. It is
this brilliancy which distinguishes the real
from the factitious pearl,—a lustre which no
art can altogether give, though often attempted
with considerable success.

Pearls are produced by many bivalves,
especially the British river mussel (Unio
margaritifera) and the Oriental pearl oyster
(Avicula rnargaritifera). All the pearl shells
are called margaritifera from Margarita, a
pearl, and fero, to bear.

The pearl mussel is found in the mountain
streams of Europe and America, the
East and West Indies. They more
especially abound in the rivers and lakes of
North America; but several are natives of
this country, and produce the once famous
British pearls. The animal is of very little
value as food from the insipidity of its taste,
and at present it is used for bait in the
Aberdeen cod-fisheries. The inside of the
valves is sometimes pink, sometimes white,—
often highly iridescent, aud they occasionally
contain numerous large pearls; as many as
sixteen having been taken from one shell.
Pennant says that this species is noted for
producing quantities of pearls: and formerly
there were regular fisheries in many ot our
rivers to obtain them.

The Esk was famous for pearls; and
Camden and his translator Gibson have left
us an account of the pearls found in the
River Conway, in North Wales, in their time.
The pearls of this river, says the latter, are as
large and well-coloured as any we find either
in Britain or Ireland, and have probably
been fished for here ever since the Roman
Conquest, if not sooner. A Mr. Wynn had a
valuable collection of pearls procured from
the Conway, among which, Gibson says that
he noted a stool-pearl, of the form and bigness
of a lesser button-mould, weighing seventeen
grains.

Sir Richard Wynn of Gwidir, chamberlain
to Catherine, Queen of Charles the
Second, is said to have presented her
Majesty with a Conway pearl, which is, to
this day, honoured with a place in the regal
crown. The shells were called by the Welsh,
crigen dilume or deluge shells, from the
belief that they were left there by the deluge.
The river Jet, in Cumberland, also produces
pearl mussels, and Sir John Hawkins, the
circumnavigator had a patent for fishing that
river.

The Scottish pearl fishery continued until
the end of the last century, especially in the
river Tay, where the mussels were collected
by the peasantry before harvest time. The
pearls were generally found in old and deformed
specimens; and round pearls about
the size of a pea, perfect in every
respect, were worth three or four pounds.
In the Irish pearl fisheries the mussels
were found set up in the sand of the river-beds
with their open side turned from the
torrent; about one in a hundred contains a
pearl, and about one pearl in a hundred may
be tolerably clear.

A curious account, published about thirty
years ago, says, that the pearl mussel is found
in abundance in the River Conway, and is
collected by means of the natives of North
Wales, who obtain their livelihood entirely
by their industry in procuring the pearls.
When the tide is out they go in several boats
to the bar at the mouth of the river, with
their sacks, and gather as many shells as they
can before the return of the tide. The
mussels are then put into a large kettle over
a fire to be opened, and the fish taken out
singly from the shells with the fingers, and
put into a tub, into which one of the fishers
goes, bare-footed, and stamps upon them
until they are reduced to a sort of pulp.
They next pour in water to separate the
fishy substance which they call soloch, from
the more heavy parts, consisting of sand,
small pebbles, and the pearls which settle
at the bottom. After numerous washings,
until the fishy part is entirely removed, the
sediment, if it may be so called, is put out
to dry, and each pearl separated on a large
wooden platter, one at a time, with a
feather; and when a sufficient quantity is
obtained, they are taken to the overseer who
pays the fisher so much an ounce for them.
The price varies from one and six to four shillings
an ounce; there are a number of persons
who live by this alone, and when there is
a small family to gather the shells and pick
out the fish, it is preferable to any other
daily labour. The pearls are generally of a
dirty white, sometimes blue, but never green
or reddish colour. There are generally several
scores of ounces taken to the overseer
each week. But what makes this fishery
singular is the mystery which hangs over it.
It is a perfect monopoly, and there is but the
person who buys them up who knows what
becomes of the pearls afterwards. And this
fact has, of course, given rise to some curious
and fanciful surmises respecting them. Some
suppose that the pearls are sent abroad to
be manufactured into seed pearls; others
more gravely say that they are exported to
India to be dissolved in the sherbet of the
nabobs!

The huts which have been erected for the
convenience of boiling the fish, are on the
extremity of the marsh about a mile north of
the town of Conway. About twelve miles
up the river pearls have been found occasionally
as large as a moderately sized pea,
and have been sold for a guinea the couple,
but they are very rarely met with. The large
and small pearls are all sold together; but
some years they are as high as four shillings,
and other years as low as two shillings an
ounce.