Distribution of Pearts and Peart-shell. yi 
Go 
they visited. Not only were the highly-prized marine 
pearls sought for, but also those from the freshwater pearl 
mussels of the family Unionidae. 
The Red Sea is probably the most ancient of the 
known sources of pearls. Gems from this neighbourhood 
were known many centuries before the Christian era, and 
the fishery was in a flourishing condition in the time of 
the Ptolemies. These pearls are referred to by Strabo, 
Aflianus, and other classical writers.” The most inter- 
esting feature in connection with these fisheries is the fact 
that the ancient inhabitants of the shores of the Red Sea 
were acquainted with an artificial method of producing 
pearls. According to the philosopher Apollonius,’ the 
inhabitants rendered the sea smooth by flooding it with 
oil; they then dived into the sea and halting alongside 
the pearl-oyster they induced it to open by holding out a 
case of myrrh before it as a bait. The oyster was then 
pierced with a long pin and the liquid which exuded from 
the wound was received into an iron block which was 
hollowed out in regular holes, where it petrified in regular 
shapes, just like the natural pearl, Though the details as 
to the method of procedure are scarcely credible, it is 
not improbable that the story has some sound founda- 
tion, and that attempts were really made at that early 
time to stimulate the growth of pearls. This interesting 
fact is of some importance in connection with the artificial 
production of pearls in India and China, to which atten- 
tion is called on later pages. 
From the proximity of the Red Sea to Egypt it is not 
surprising that the pearl-shell was known to the Egyptians 
3 Kunz and Stevenson, ‘‘ The Book of the Pearl,” Mew York, 1908, 
PP: 139 seg. 
* Philostratus, ‘‘ The Life of Apollonius of Tyana,” bk. iil, ch. Ivil. 
(Edit. Conybeare, vol. i., 1912, p. 343). 
