PEARLS AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL. 397 



At the breaking up of the French crown treasury in 1791, a 

 superb spherical pearl of large size sold for forty thousand dol- 

 lars, and two pear-shaped pearls, weighing two hundred and 

 fourteen grains, were valued at thirty thousand dollars each. 

 The Shah of Persia possesses one of the finest pearls in the world, 

 worth three hundred thousand dollars. The Imam of Muscat has 

 refused one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for one of his 

 famous gems. Perhaps the most extraordinary pearl now known 

 is in Mr. Beresford Hope's collection in South Kensington ; it is 

 two inches long, four in circumference, and weighs eighteen hun- 

 dred grains. 



When Rome ruled the world, a wonderful pearl worth four 

 hundred thousand dollars was cut in halves for earrings for the 

 Venus in the Pantheon. The pearl of the Cleopatra legend is 

 said to have been of equal value — though if swallowed it must 

 have been as a pill without sugar coating, since gem experts 

 assert that no acid the human stomach could endure will dissolve 

 a pearl ; indeed, the most powerful acids known only discolor and 

 destroy the outer layers of nacre after long immersion. Authori- 

 ties do not agree upon this point, however. 



While the white pearl is really the ideal pearl of all ages, 

 fashion, local in place and time, has favored other colors for the 

 hour. Rose-colored pearls have been the fad in Paris for several 

 seasons, to the enriching of the Scottish fishers. The Chinese 

 prize yellow pearls ; and just now black pearls, if of perfect 

 quality, command the highest price. The largest and finest black 

 pearls come from the La Paz pearling grounds off Lower Califor- 

 nia, which also yield pink pearls. 



The color of pearls, as well as the quality and especially the 

 lustre, depends on the peculiar environment of the oyster, the 

 chemical composition of the water. The inky fluid ejected by 

 the great squid is believed to affect the color of pearls. Temper- 

 ature and the health of the mollusk may modify the nacreous 

 deposits. Be all this as it may, when the oyster ranches already 

 alluded to shall be established on our California coast, we may 

 well expect that, with the co-operation of chemical and biological 

 science, marvelous results will be obtained in both the quality 

 and color of pearls — any color being produced at pleasure. Women 

 of fashion and wealth will then order their pearls a season ahead, 

 to be grown of desired form, lustre, and color, to harmonize with 

 their gowns, as to-day they order in advance the gowns them- 

 selves. 



Artificial pearls, which only the expert is likely to detect, are 

 made by coating the inside of thin glass spheres with a solu- 

 tion of liquid ammonia and the lustrous coating of the lower 

 scales of the bleak and dace, filling the bulb with melted wax. 



