72 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSC A. 



The penrl-inussels are collected in the same manner 

 now, viz., by wading for them in shallow pools, or by 

 thrusting a long stick between the valves when the 

 shell is open. When a number have been collected 

 they are left to decompose, when the pearls drop out.* 

 They may also be found in Kerry, in the Moy, near 

 Foxford, and in many of the other Irish rivers; and 

 Mr. Buckland stated in the ' Field/ December 10th, 

 1864, that they abound near Oughterard, and that a 

 man called " Jemmy the Pearl-catcher" told him he 

 knew when a mussel had a pearl in it, without re- 

 quiring to open it first, because " she (the mussel) sits 

 upright with her mouth in the mud, and her back is 

 crooked/' that is, it is corrugated like a cow's horn. 

 Bruce, in his ' Travels/ observes that the pearl-fishers 

 of Bahrein informed him that they had no expectation 

 of finding a pearl when the shell was smooth and per- 

 fect, but were sure to find some when the shell was 

 distorted, and deformed ; and he adds that this applies 

 equally to the Scotch pearl-mussels. In France they 

 also collect pearls from the pearl-mussels, and they 

 generally sell them as foreign pearls. At Omagh, in 

 the north of Ireland, there was formerly a pearl-fishery, 

 and Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, about 1094, sent a 

 present of Irish pearls to Anselm, Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. Pearls were much used in Irish religious 

 ornaments in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 

 Scotch pearls were in demand abroad as early as the 

 twelfth century. In the fourteenth century (1355) 

 Scotch pearls are referred to in a statute of the 

 Parisian goldsmiths, by which it was enacted that no 

 worker in gold or silver should set them with oriental 



* ' Tour in Ulster.' 



