88 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
bore ample testimony to the validity of the prophetic 
declaration, ‘‘ That the Lord had given a command- 
ment against it,” to “destroy the strong holds 
thereof ;”* whilst it afforded a melancholy earnest 
that the period was rapidly approaching, when the 
site of imperial Tyrus was destined to become as the 
top of a ‘‘ barren rock, even a place for the fishermen 
to spread their nets upon.”} Alexandria was erected 
by the enterprising genius of the monarch whose 
name it perpetuates, and at length monopolized the 
advantage of supplying Europe with the productions 
of the East. 
Upon the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, pearls, 
in common with other Oriental productions, continued 
to be brought into Europe by the same channel; and, 
amid all the various articles of luxurious decoration 
in which the Romans so much delighted, it is re- 
corded that a decided preference was given to pearls. 
They were eagerly purchased by persons of every 
rank, and worn in every part of the dress; the most 
expensive were considered as necessary appendages 
to rank and fortune; while smaller ones, of inferior 
quality, displayed the taste, and gratified the vanity 
of persons in an humbler sphere. Indeed, so ardent 
was the general admiration, and so enormous the 
* Tsaiah xxiii. 8—11. + Ezekiel xxvii. 14. 
