PEARLS. 97 
Mya of the Conway, those of the rapid Teith, and 
Ythan, rivers of Scotland, with a specimen from the 
tranquil Elster, that waters the plains of Saxony. 
Each of these rivers produces Pearl Muscles in abun- 
dance; and their gems, though certainly inferior to 
those of oriental growth, are used in necklaces, the 
price of which is sometimes estimated at a thousand 
crowns. As late as the beginning of the last cen- 
tury, Ireland also boasted her pearl fisheries, and 
several beautiful specimens were brought from the 
rivers of Tyrone and Donegal; one of which came 
into the possession of Lady Glenlearly, who wore it 
in a necklace, and refused eighty pounds which was 
offered for it by the Duchess of Ormond. 
Modern history furnishes several instances of the 
value attached to this kind of gem. One in the pos- 
session of Philip II. of Spain, was estimated at four- 
teen thousand eight hundred ducats: another belong- 
ing to the Emperor Rudolph, was called Peregrina, or 
the Incomparable. It was pear shaped, and weighed 
thirty carats: a third, mentioned by Tavernier, in 
the hands of the Emperor of Persia, was bought in 
the year 1633, of an Arab, for thirty-two thousand 
tomans; which, at three pounds nine shillings the 
toman, amounted to one hundred and ten thousand, 
four hundred pounds sterling. 
H 
