5O LIVING CREATURES. 



The Queen paid two hundred dollars for a Scotch 

 pearl. It is also said that one of the pearls that adorn 

 the royal crown of Great Britain was found by the 

 waiting lady of Catharine, the wife of Henry VIII. 

 She was fishing, and either hooked up or picked up 

 the mussel which bore the gem. 



In 1857, great excitement was created by the discov- 

 ery of a very large pearl in Notch Brook near Pater- 

 son, New Jersey. A shoemaker named Howell was 

 the fortunate finder, but he had ruined the jewel by 

 cooking the mussel that contained it. A carpenter of 

 the name of Quackenbush, heard of this good fortune 

 and took to pearl-hunting. After wading about for 

 several days, he picked up a mussel containing a pearl 

 five eighths of an inch in diameter, for which a jeweler 

 in New York paid a thousand dollars. It was after- 

 ward sold in Paris for five thousand dollars. 



PART 2. 



ROSY and green pearls, and those of a fine luster, 

 are preferred. Pearls are classed as clear, half-clear, 

 and sand-pearls. In China, mussels are kept in acqua- 

 riums and are made to manufacture pearl ornaments. 

 The natives make of tin foil little, flat, stamped images 

 for idols. These they insert within the valves of a liv- 

 ing mussel, where they remain for two or three months. 

 At the end of this period the images, still retaining 

 their original features, are covered with a coating of 

 pearl, and are then worn as pendants. 



The most valuable of the gems we are describing are 

 taken from the pearl oyster, which lives in certain fa- 



