204 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



being taken in the vicinity of Perth, which brought 

 high prices. The Earn, a tributary of the Tay, is also 

 amous for pearls, and some families living on its 

 banks derive their living chiefly from this source. 

 A dealer in Edinburgh some years ago is said to 

 have asked ^350 for a necklace of Scottish pearls, 

 the single value of each pearl being estimated at from 

 5 to 9- The best Scottish pearls have a delicate 

 pink hue. The mussel is found singly in the muddy 

 bottoms of rivers, and not in beds, like oysters, and 

 the pearls are only bred in old shells. 



Spruel, an old writer, states that a " birthy shell " 

 should be wrinkled and nicked like the horn of 

 a cow, " for the more nicks or wrinkles in the shell, 

 the older and better the pearl is. Smooth shells are 

 barren." 



Some of the rivers of Ireland were also famous 

 formerly for pearls. Speaking of the value of Irish 

 pearls two hundred years ago, Sir Robert Redding, 

 F.R.S., wrote to Dr. Leslie, i3th October, 1688, as 

 follows : " Being in the north in August last, and 

 calling to remembrance your desire to have some 

 of the mussel shells sent you wherein the pearls 

 were found, I have sent four or five of the shells, 

 and a few pearls taken out of the river near Omagh, 

 in the county of Tyrone. The poor people, in the 

 warm months before the harvest is ripe, whilst the 

 rivers are low and clear, go into the water some 

 with their toes, some with wooden tongs, and some by 

 putting a sharp stick into the opening of the shells, 

 take them up. And although not above one shell in 

 a hundred may have a pearl, and of those not above 



