102 Pearl Fishing. 



plaints were raised regarding tlie smell from the decaying fish. 

 The effect upon the fishing was, however, most disastrous, and 

 after such raids, it is years before the fishing attains to its usual 

 state. 



Regarding the formation of pearls, and especially the 

 nucleus or beginning of the pearl, I have taken some interest, 

 and examined a gTeat many. I show you specimens of pearls cut 

 to show the nucleus. Many writers at the present day speak of 

 grains of sand as being the cause, but I must say in the hundreds 

 I have examined I have never found such, or even a hard sub- 

 stance. No doubt pearls may be formed artifically by inserting 

 substances, but in a state of natui'e I have never found such a 

 thing. Examined through a glass, the beginning is seen to be a 

 small round body of the size of a small pin-head, evidently an egg 

 which has remained after the others have been expelled — perhaps 

 unfertile. Looked at with a power of 120 this centre ap- 

 peared as a circular spot apart from the rest of the pearl, and 

 with a variety of cells. The structure was different from the rest 

 of the pearl, and certainly there was no grain of sand. I show 

 you a section, and on holding- it to the light you will see the 

 circular part, which here is perfectly defined. A writer in one of 

 Chambers' articles upon Scotch and other pearls states that the 

 colour of pearls is determined by the colour of the nucleus, but 

 you will notice that the reverse obtains in those I shew you. The 

 light coloured centre turns out a dark coloured pearl, and the dark 

 coloured centre a light coloured one. A curious experiment was 

 tried some years since upon the artificial production of a pearl 

 with complete success. A lady had a pearl mussel in an aquarium. 

 She one day inserted a small piece of beeswax inside the shell, 

 and the fish coated it over with pink nacre, forming in course of 

 time a beautiful pink pearl. There is a curious account of how 

 pearls are formed by an old writer that I would like to quote. 

 The pity is that his poetical conception should not be true. 

 Speaking of the Scotch pearl mussel he says — " These mussels, 

 early in the morning when the sky is clear and temperate, open 

 their mouths a little above the water, and most greedily swallow 

 the dew of heaven, and after the measure and quantity of dew 

 which they swallow, they conceive and breed the pearl. These 

 mussels are so exceedingly quick of touch and hearing that, how- 

 ever faint the noise or small the stone that may be thrown into 



