PEARL FISHERY. 203 



Mr. Richie to produce pearls, and some years before 

 he wrote, a Jew is said to have employed people to 

 fish for them, and a good many were taken. In the 

 Ythan, a stream of Aberdeenshire, many pearls were 

 formerly found by the shepherds who fed their flocks 

 on its banks. In dry summers numbers of small 

 pearls were said to be found in the mussels in some 

 of the streams in Kirkcudbright, in the south of 

 Scotland. This fishing for pearls in Scotland was 

 discontinued for many years. But again Scottish 

 pearls became fashionable, and the search for them 

 revived. 



A writer in Land and Water about ten years ago 

 wrote : " During the season a pretty large number 

 of persons engage in the pearl fishery, which is open 

 to all. The mollusc is obtainable at none of the 

 serious risks attending the pearl fishery of the East ; 

 for, instead of lying at a great depth in the bottom 

 of the sea, it is usually found among the mud in the 

 beds of rivers, which the summer droughts render 

 shallow and clear, so that it can easily be perceived 

 by the eye and almost reached by the hand. In this 

 way boys and girls can perform the work of pearl 

 fishing as easily as their elders. The ' herd laddie ' 

 on the hill-side can go down to the neighbouring 

 stream, and if the water be limpid and shallow he 

 can pick up the mussel without the aid of any appa- 

 ratus, or if it is deep he has but to reach down a 

 stick and insert the point of it betwixt the open shells, 

 which instantly closing like a vice upon the intruding 

 body, the mussel can be thus lifted up." 



The same writer says he knows of many fine pearls 



