NACRE AND PEARLS. 223 
from Tavernier, which that traveller had purchased at Califa. In 
1759, one of the earliest transactions of this nature is recorded. 
A pearl from Panama, worth £4,000, was brought to Philip ple; 
king of Spain. The prince of Muscat possessed one fished up 
from his waters, which was not large, but so transparent that 
he refused for it the same sum. In the Zozema Museum at 
Moscow, there is a pearl called the “ Pilgrim,” which is quite 
semi-lucent; it is globular in form, and weighs nearly an ounce. 
The Shahs of Persia possess a string of pearls, each of which is as 
PINNA NOBILIS, 
large as a hazel-nut ; the price of the string is inestimable! At the 
Paris Exhibition in 1855, Her Majesty the Queen of England 
exhibited some magnificent pearls; and the Emperor also con- 
tributed 408 of the finest water; their value was more than 
£20,000. 
Pearls have always been held in the highest estimation by the 
Eastern nations ; indeed, they invested large pearls with magic 
powers, and believed that their possession exercised a mystic 
influence, guiding their fortunes, and preserving them from evil. 
The pintadines are not the only bivalves which produce pearls. 
Almost all the mollusks are subject to a disease which causes them 
