206 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



fellows will guess so well by the shells that, though 

 you watch them never so carefully, they will open 

 such shells under the water, and put the pearls in 

 their mouths or otherwise conceal them. That same 

 person told me that when they have been taking up 

 shells, and believed by such signs as I have men- 

 tioned that they were sure of gooji purchase, and 

 refused good sums for their shares, that yet they have 

 found no pearls at all in them. 



" Besides the river near Omagh, other rivers which 

 empty into Lough Foyle produce pearls j so also the 

 Suir, running past Waterford, the Lake of Killarney, 

 in Kerry, and others." 



In Connemara they are still taken, and sold to 

 tourists for a trifle. This is chiefly at Oughterard 

 and Letterbrack. The pearls at the former place 

 being chiefly got in the Owenfough, a river that runs 

 through that village ; and the latter chiefly at Dawros, 

 the river that runs westward into the Atlantic from 

 Kylemore Lough. 



The Irish pearls, like the Scotch, are said to have 

 a slight pinkish tinge. The Dublin jewellers do not 

 value them, as they say they will not cut. Some are 

 very large, one as much so as a No. 5 Colt pistol 

 bullet ; but it is not of a good colour, being some- 

 what brownish. The waste in this search is very 

 great, for hundreds are opened which have no pearls, 

 and many young ones uselessly so, as they could 

 never have had any. 



The largest of British fresh-water shells is un- 

 doubtedly Anodonta. 



There is considerable difficulty in distinguishing 



