120 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



works of the tabernacle, as well as for the habits of the high 

 priest; and among the presents which the Israelites made 

 to Gideon, the Scriptures notice purple habits as some 

 of the spoils of the Kings of Midian. 



The Tyrians, b}^ the confession of all antiquity, succeeded 

 best in their purple dye. Their method sKghtly differed 

 from the one narrated by Pliny, for they merely used such 

 purple shells as abounded on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and made a bath of the liquor extracted from the 

 fish. In this they steeped the wool for a certain time, then 

 took it out, and threw it into another boiler, which contained 

 an extract from the Buccinumj or Trumpet-fish, only. And 

 hence the wool, which had been submitted to this double 

 process, was so highly estimated, that in the reign of 

 Augustus each pound sold for one thousand Eoman denarii, 

 about thirty-six pounds sterling. We need not, indeed, 

 wonder at this enormous price, when the tedious nature of 

 the process is considered, and the small quantity of dye 

 produced by each shell-fish. For fifty pounds of wool, the 

 ancients used no less than two hundred pounds of the 

 liquor of the Buccinum, and one hundred pounds of that of 

 the Turpura, being six pounds of liquor to one pound of 

 wool : consequently, the real Tyrian purple vied in value 



