MUSSELS. 261 
who buys them up, that knows what becomes of 
them afterwards. It has been carried on in this 
manner for many years, and as such a thing, if 
made public, might prove more beneficial to the 
neighbouring poor, by causing a higher price to 
be given for the pearls, it would be more so if any 
of your numerous correspondents could throw some 
light on this interesting subject. There have been 
some curious and fanciful surmises, which may not 
be thought worth mentioning. Some suppose that 
the pearls are sent abroad to be manufactured into 
seed pearls; others, more gravely, that they are 
exported to India to be dissolved in the sherbet 
of the nabobs! However, at present it is a mys- 
tery; and, notwithstanding the pains taken and 
the expense incurred by some liberal gentlemen in 
endeavouring to find out the secret, it is as great a 
mystery as ever. 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. ‘The pearls are seldom 
found here much larger than the enclosed speci- 
mens, though about twelve miles up the river 
they have been found occasionally as large as a 
moderate-sized pea, and have been sold for a 
guinea the couple, but they are very rarely met 
with. When I say that the. price varies from 
eighteenpence to four shillings, I do not mean to 
say that they are valued according to their size, 
for the large and small pearls are all sold together: 
but some years ago they were as high as four 
shillings, now they are only two shillings per 
ounce. 
The ill effects produced by eating the mussel, at 
least at certain times, and on certain constitutions, 
