There is a species of pearl mussel in which
the Chinese produce artificial pearls by
introducing small shot and sand between the
mantle of the animal and its shell. Mr.
Gaskoin has a specimen consisting of two
strings of pearls, and another in the British
Museum has inside the shell a number of
little josses made of bell-metal, now completely
covered and coated with pearl.

Another variety of the pearl-bearers is the
Mya, which is found on the shores of the
European, Asian, and African seas, where, in
several places, it is used as food, and also
devoured by aquatic birds. There was a
great fishery for pearls in the river Tay,
which extended from Perth to Loch Tay;
and it is said that the pearls sent from thence
—between the years seventeen hundred and
sixty-one aud seventeen hundred and sixty-four
—were worth ten thousand pounds. In
the present day it is uncommon to find pearls
in these shells worth from one to two
pounds.

Pearls are also produced in great quantities
by different varieties of oysters. The best
are found in the Wing-shelled pearl-bearer
(Avicula margaritifera), which, although
during ancient times sufficiently plentiful in
the seas of our area, is now exceedingly rare,
being for the most part tropical. It is remarkable
both for its beauty and eccentricity
of shape, as well as for the pearls which it
contains. It is fished in many parts of the
world, particularly on the west coast of Ceylon;
at Tuticoreen, in the province of Tinnevelly,
on the coast of Coromandel; at the
Bahrein Islands, in the Gulf of Persia; at
the Soloo Islands; off the coast of Algiers;
off St. Margarita, or Pearl Islands, in the
West Indies, and other places on the coast of
Colombia; and in the Bay of Panama, in the
South Sea. These wing-shells afford the
mother-of-pearl used for ornamental
purposes, and the Oriental pearls of commerce.
Mr. Hope's pearl, said to be the largest
known, measures two inches long, four round,
and weighs eighteen hundred grains. One of
the most remarkable pearls of which we have
any account, was bought by Tavernier at
Catifa in Arabia (a fishery famous in the days
of Pliny), for the enormous sum, it is asserted,
of one hundred and ten thousand pounds.
(See Forbes and Hanley's British Mollusca.)
It was pear-shaped, regular, and without
blemish, measuring nearly three inches in
length.

The most extensive pearl-fisheries are those
on the several banks not far distant from the
island of Bahrein, on the west side of the
Persian Gulf; but pearl oysters are found
along the whole of the Arabian coast. The
fishing season is divided into two portions;
the one called the short and cold, the other
the long and hot. In the cooler weather of
the month of June diving is practised along
the coast in shallow water; but it is not until
the intensely hot months of July, August,
and September that the Bahrein banks are
much frequented. The water on them is
about seven fathoms deep; and when it is
cold the divers are much inconvenienced,—
indeed, they can do little when it is not as
warm as the air, and it frequently becomes
even more so in the hottest months of the
summer. When they dive, they compress the
nostrils tightly with a small piece of horn,
which keeps the water out, and stuff their
ears with bees' wax for the same purpose.
They attach a net to their waists to hold the
oysters, and aid their own descent by means
of a stone, which they hold by a rope attached
to a boat, and shake it when they wish to be
drawn up. A diver generally dives from
twelve to fifteen times a day in favourable
weather; but when otherwise, three or four
times only. They continue under water from
a minute to a minute and a half, or at most
two minutes. The exertion is extremely
violent, and the divers are unhealthy and
short-lived.

Pearls are liable to a disease which makes
them sicken and perish. Noble families, who
pride themselves upon the possession of
ancestral pearls, are every now and then
panic-stricken by finding some of their
precious gems turning of a sickly blue colour
and crumbling into dust. The crown jeweller
of France applied, not long since, to the
Academy of Sciences for a remedy for this
disease, caused, most probably, by the membranes
which form part of the pearls corrupting
and decaying, as all animal matter does,
by contact with the air, and leaving the
powdered carbonate of lime as the only remains
of the once lustrous pearls. There seems to
be no remedy that we can think of for pearl-sickening,
except preserving the pearls as
much as possible from the influences of the
light and air.

IN A MILITARY PRISON.

[WE have received the following curious
paper, from the hands of the Private Soldier
who wrote it in his Barrack-Room. We do
not adopt his opinions, but we give him the
opportunity of expressing them. And we
should add, that we have authority for
believing that the Dietary and Labour maintained
in Military Prisons are too severe,
sometimes tending seriously to impair the
efficiency of the Prisoner when he returns to
his duty.

The manuscript is printed exactly as it is
written. It is a genuine production, and has
undergone no editorial revision.]

Having committed a breach of one of the
many Articles of War, it pleased the
Commanding Officer to refer my case to a
Regimental Ct. Martial—which, in Military Life,
is equivalent to giving the person tried 42
days' Imprisonment, as it is the Colonel who
orders the President and Members to