518 PEARLS, ARTIFICIAL 



there was no especial fear of skates. These fishes, however, were abundant in the 

 following year ; but, as I have said, there was the strongest evidence in the unbroken 

 shells that most of the oysters had died a natural death. 



' The banks, or beds, as they might more properly be called, are in from 7 to 9 

 fathoms water, and almost out of sight of land. They are exposed during great part 

 of the year to strong and often irregular currents, which sweep the bottom, and from 

 which no protection can be given ; and the weather is generally so bad that a regular 

 inspection of the banks of a fishery can only be carried on during the month of March. 

 Skates are indigenous to the Ceylon seas, and they obviously cannot be kept away 

 from the banks if they choose to go there ; but I heard nothing after the inspection in 

 March last of the army of monsters your correspondent speaks of: and I can only 

 conclude that a short examination was made at the end of October, of which I have 

 yet had no account. I hope, for the sake of the colony, that matters are not so bad 

 as stated, for skates are undoubtedly capable of doing a vast deal of mischief, even if 

 they do not devour all the oysters.' 



Pearls of considerable beauty are found in Scotland. Mr. Alexander M. Cockburn 

 thus describes them : 



' The beauty of lustre and form, and the fine opaque colour of the Scottish pearl, 

 attract more attention now than formerly. The late Prince Consort ordered a neck- 

 lace to be made of pearls of a certain size, which took more than twenty years to 

 complete. 



' The fishing for these pearls is now a regular trade. Fine and large specimens 

 of pearls are found in the rivers Teith, Forth, Dee, Don, Earn, Tay, Tweed, and the 

 rivers of Ross and Sutherlandshires. Country people often bring these treasures to 

 town, and sell them for prices varying from a few shillings up to 251. Scottish pearls 

 are easily known from the fine Oriental pearls : they are of a different shade of colour. 

 Pearls about the size of a pea bring as much as 151. to 251. ; very large and fine ones 

 from 301. to 901. The trade in these has increased very much within the last few years. 

 A very fine specimen of Scottish pearl, mounted in gold, was sent from Edinburgh to 

 the late Dublin Exhibition, the value of which was 5001. ; it was set in enamel and 

 gold as a tiara for a lady's head-dress.' 



PEARXiS, ARTIFICIAL. These are small globules, or pear-shaped spheroids 

 of thin glass, perforated with two opposite holes, through which they are strung, and 

 mounted into necklaces, &c., like real pearl ornaments. They must not only be 

 white and brilliant, but exhibit the iridescent reflections of mother-of-pearl. The 

 liquor employed to imitate the pearly lustre is called the essence of the East (essence 

 cCorient}, which is prepared by throwing into water of ammonia the brilliant scales, 

 or rather the lamella, separated by washing and friction, of the scales of a small 

 river-fish, the bleak, called in French ablette. These scales, digested in ammonia, 

 having acquired a degree of softness and flexibility which allow of their application to 

 the inner surface of the glass globules, they are introduced by suction of the liquor 

 containing them in suspension. The ammonia is volatilised in the act of drying the 

 globules. See Beckmann's ' History of Inventions' for an interesting account of this 

 manufacture. 



It is said that some manufacturers employ ammonia merely to prevent the altera- 

 tion of the scales ; that when they wish to make use of them, they suspend them in a 

 well-clarified solution of isinglass, then pour a drop of the mixture into each bead, 

 and spread it round the inner surface. It is doubtful whether by this method the 

 same lustre and play of colours can be obtained as by the former. It seems, more- 

 over, to be of importance for the success of the imitation that the globules be formed 

 of a bluish, opalescent, very thin glass, containing but little potash and oxide of lead. 

 In every manufactory of artificial pearls there must be some workmen possessed of 

 great experience and dexterity. The French greatly excel in this ingenious branch of 

 industry. 



These false pearls were invented, in the lime of Catherine de Medicis, by a person 

 of the name of Jacquin. The manufacture of pearls is principally carried on in the 

 department of the Seine in France. There are also manufactories in Germany and 

 Italy, but to a small extent. In Germany, or rather Saxony, a cheap but inferior 

 quality is manufactured. The globe of glass forming the pearl in inferior ones, being 

 very thin, and coated with wax, they break on the slightest pressure. They are 

 known by the name of German fish-pearls. Italy also manufactures pearls by a 

 method borrowed from the Chinese : they are known under the name of Roman pearls, 

 and are a very good imitation of natural ones ; they have on their outside a coating of 

 the nacreous liquid. The Chinese pearls are made of a kind of gum, and are covered 

 likewise with the same liquid. 



In the year 1834 a French artisan discovered an opaline glass of a nacreous or 

 pearly colour, very heavy and fusible, which gave to the beads the different weights 



