70 THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1896. 
and the earth pills are laid under the 
oyster’s beard. The treated mollusks 
are then placed in canals and pools, and 
left undisturbed until November, when 
they are dredged up, opened and the 
nacre-covered pellets removed with 
sharp knives. The pellets are usually 
found fastened tightly to the inner sur- 
face of the shells. 
The Chinese pearl farmer then turns 
jeweler. He drills a little hole into 
the pearl at the place where it was fast- 
ened to the shell and removes the dirt. 
The cavity is filled with yellow rosin, 
and the opening sealed neatly with a 
tiny bit of mother-of-pearl. 
But a Frenchman has improved on 
this method. He found that the Chi- 
nese killed many oysters by forcing the 
shell open to deposit the earth pellets. 
The ingenious Frenchman bored holes 
in the shells of the oysters with a small 
drill and then introduced through the 
opening little globules of glass. He 
plugged the holes with corks and then 
left the oysters alone to manufacture 
pearls. In six months the glass nucleus 
was covered with a pearly deposit, and 
the Frenchman reaped a bountiful har- 
vest of pearls. He did not have to 
bore holes in the pearls to remove the 
centre, and the pearls brought higher 
prices than the pearls made by the 
Chinese. 
These artificial pearls have much of 
the lustre and beauty of the real gems, 
but are sold at a much lower rate by 
honest jewelers. Experts can color 
pearls black, pink, gray and other col- 
ors by the use of chemicals. For in- 
stance, a pearl put in nitrate of silver 
turns black. But pearl raisers know a 
trick worth two of that. Certain kinds 
of fresh water mussels bear pink pearls, 
and pearl oysters produce different col- 
ored pearls, according to the part of the 
oyster which is irritated by the foreign 
substance. The artificial pearl pro- 
ducer knows this, and plants his seed 
accordingly. In Washington is an ar- 
tificial pink pearl as large as a pigeon’s 
egg, and its heart is a bit of beeswax. 
Perfectly round pearls which weigh 
over twenty-five grains each are scarce, 
and command large prices, but such 
pearls are natural. Artificial pearls 
are usually flat on one side. 
PLANTING YOUNG FISH. 
Young, artificially hatched fish, in- 
tended for stocking open waters (creeks, 
rivers or lakes), should not be fed ar- 
tificially. They being expected to 
make their own living, it is best to 
make them dependent upon their own 
resources as soon as the desire to feed 
is noticed and their digestive organs are 
about developed, which state is easily 
ascertained by unfailing signs. 
In nature young fish begin to look 
out for themselves at this age, and in 
tanks they manifest their desire for in- 
dependence ; they become enterprising, 
especially towards night, and many of 
them will make their escape through 
the overflow pipe. We have had fre- 
quently opportunities to meet such de- 
serters again later on and noticed, to 
our surprise, that in every case they 
had, in a remarkable degree, outgrown 
all their comrades. Follow Nature! 
She is a reliable teacher. 
Young fish that had been regularly 
provided with food, artificial or natural, 
and kept in shelter, have not learned 
how to hunt and how to protect them- 
selves. They have also lost much of 
their alertness, and they will conse- 
quently fall an easy prey of their many 
enemies. 
It is, therefore, of great importance 
