Pearl Fishixc;. 103 



the water, they sink at once to the bottom, knowing well iu what 

 estimation the fruit of their body is to all people." In the East, a 

 drop of rain caug-ht by the oyster is supposed to be the origin of 

 the pearl ; and on Dee the fishers for pearls speak of the finest as 

 dew drop:5. Whether the Chinese, a fresh water mussel, could 

 be kept here I have not heard, but it readily lends itself to such 

 production, and the wonder is that it has not been tried. 

 Whether it would be possible to form pearls artifically has only 

 once been tried iu this district to my knowledge. Ths late Frank 

 Buckland, whilst staying at the Hensol, a mansion on the banks of 

 the Dee, near New-Galloway station, employed Mr Bridger, 

 the butler, to get him some pearl mussels. He then proceeded to 

 bore holes in them, and inserted pegs, but unfortunately for the 

 experiment, the fish were swept away by a flood. 



The shells that contain pearls are nearly always deformed. 

 Indeed it is a rare thing to find a pearl in a well-formed healthy 

 fish, and fishers can tell at a glance if the shell contains a pearl, 

 and the more deformed the more likely to contain one of some 

 size. These fish are often unhealthy, and the pearl I conclude 

 to be the outcome of violence in some shape or other, or else of 

 disease. An old farmer on the Hensol estate gave it as his 

 belief that pearls were far more abundant when Irish cattle were 

 pastured at the side of the river in great numbers, their trampling 

 causing this condition of the shell. He had known the river 

 for sixty years, and I afterwards discovered that below fords 

 there are always more pearl-bearing shells than above them. 

 Possibly, also, the floods may cause them damage by knocking 

 them about amongst the stones, or the faulty shape may in many 

 cases be a malformation. 



The manner of fishing on both Dee and Doon is rather primi- 

 tive. It is pursued during the warm weather, and the lassies on 

 the Banks of Dee and Doon enjoy the sport as much as the males, 

 and are equally successful. Experts bring to their aid a few 

 articles of no great mechanical intricacy, one of them beino- a 

 pewter pot with the bottom knocked out and replaced with a piece 

 of glass. This, or an equally simple an-angement, is passed over 

 the rough water, and shews the bottom veiy clearly on looking 

 through it, great difficulty being found in recognising the fish 

 owing to the shell being the colour of the stones. The putting 

 forth of the light coloured foot is what is most quickly recognised ; 



