PEARLS. 95 
Job also refers to them in the following memorable 
passage; ‘“‘ No mention shall be made of coral or of 
pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies.”— 
xxil. 18. 
The peninim is said to have been the most valued 
or the best known in India; and though Pliny 
acknowledges that the excellency of pearls consists 
in their whiteness, yet this opinion was, to a cer- 
tain degree, a local one, for those of a yellow cast 
are as much esteemed in India as the peninim, 
‘or reddish pearl, was in Judea, during the reign of 
Solomon. 
Considerable pearl fisheries formerly subsisted on 
several of our rivers, particularly the Conway and 
Esk. Sir Richard Wynn, of Gwydir, chamberlain to 
Catherine, Queen of Charles II., presented- her 
majesty with a valuable gem taken from the former 
of these rivers; which was placed, and still continues, 
in the royal diadem, as a beautiful specimen of the 
English pearl. 
The habit of wearing Oriental and other foreign 
pearls has superseded those of Welch and English 
growth; but the Mya margaritifera, or Pearl-Gaper, 
is still common to many of our native rivers. The 
Shell Collector remembers to have met with a remark- 
ably fine specimen on the banks of the Conway, 
within sight of its ancient castle; a most majestic 
