936 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



The pearls appear to vary in colour and size, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the ground on which the oysters rest, 

 and in the kind of food supplied to them. The pearls are 

 sometimes of so inferior a quality that the cost of fishing is 

 hardly or not at all repaid. 



When the pearls are found adhering to the valve or 

 shell, they are carefully detached with pincers ; more com- 

 monly they are found imbedded amid the putrefying tissues 

 of the oysters, the soft parts being carefully examined, 

 boiled, and strained, so as to detect and secure the more 

 minute pearls, which would otherwise be overlooked. The 

 pearls found attached to the nacre of the shell are of 

 inferior quality, and are disposed of by weight. The finest 

 pearls are those found within the soft parts of the oysters. 

 These latter are generally large, and occur singly. They 

 are termed virgin pearls, or paragons, and are sold at so 

 much per pearl. They are generally of spherical or pear 

 shape, and are subjected to a preliminary process of being 

 polished by being rubbed in a bag with powdered nacre. 

 Thereafter the mass of virgin pearls is passed through a 

 series of copper sieves, the meshes of which are of various 



oysters have just been imported into Liverpool in a most unusual 

 manner. It seems that the steamer Dodo, just arrived from the West 

 Coast of Africa, was placed into the Queen's Graving Dock, and when 

 the dock became dry it was found that the bottom of the ship was 

 plated with thousands of oysters. Many of the bivalves were of large 

 size and in capital condition. The circumstance was soon known, and 

 in a short time crowds of people invaded the Graving Dock with 

 buckets, baskets, and other receptacles, and quickly set to work strip- 

 ping the steamer of her strange passengers. The oysters are said to 

 have been of excellent quality. After all these oysters were, probably, 

 nothing else but Ostrea multistriata, sometimes found on ships' bot- 

 toms from Africa. 



