PEAR PEARL. 



447 



studied, during the years 1770 and 1771, in the 

 royal academy at London, under the direction of Mr 

 West. The writer of this article was informed by 

 colonel Trumbull, that, one day when he was in Mr 

 West's painting room, some hammering arrested his 

 attention. " Oh," said Mr West, "that is only that 

 ingenious young man, Mr Peale, repairing some of 

 my bells or locks, according to custom." This cus- 

 tom, much to the comfort and amusement of many 

 a host, he continued all through life, whenever he 

 was on a visit in the country, either for business or 

 pleasure. On his return' to America, he removed 

 to Baltimore, and afterwards to Philadelphia, where 

 he opened a picture-gallery. For about fifteen years, 

 he was the only portrait-painter in North America ; 

 and persons came to him to be painted even from 

 Canada and the West Indies. During the revolu- 

 tionary war, he raised a company, was often em- 

 ployed in confidential services, and was engaged in 

 the battles of Trenton and Germantown. In 1777, 

 he was elected a representative of Philadelphia in 

 the state legislature, where he chiefly interested 

 himself in the law for the abolition of slavery. 

 During the revolutionary contest, he had painted 

 the portraits of many distinguished officers, some of 

 whom were afterwards killed. This collection con- 

 stituted the chief interest of his gallery, and was, 

 from time to time, extended, and afterwards made to 

 comprise the portraits of men eminent in the different 

 walks of life. Some large bones of the mammoth, 

 found in Kentucky, and brought to him to be 

 drawn, laid the foundation of his museum, when the 

 name of museum was scarcely known even to our 

 travellers, and Europe possessed none of great 

 note but the celebrated Aldobrandine collection at 

 Florence. The increasing income from his museum 

 at length enabled Mr Peale to procure almost an 

 entire skeleton of the mammoth, at an expense of 

 5000 dollars. A large quantity of the bones of an 

 individual of this species was discovered in Ulster 

 county, New York, which Mr Peale purchased, 

 together with the right of digging for the remainder 

 in a swampy marl pit, which was obtained after 

 very great exertions. When the Pennsylvania 

 academy of the fine arts was founded, he zealously 

 co-operated for many years, and lived to contribute to 

 seventeen annual exhibitions. After a life of extra- 

 ordinary exertion and temperance, he died, in 1827, 

 at the age of eighty-five. 



PEAR ; the fruit of the pyrus domestica, a tree 

 growing wild in many parts of Europe, and now cul- 

 tivated in all temperate climates. The pear tree 

 belongs to the rosaceee, and, by some authors, is 

 placed in a different genus from the apple, from 

 having flexible sides to the cells which contain the 

 seeds, and from the turbinated form of the fruit. It 

 is the largest of the genus, and reaches the height 

 of forty feet, with the trunk two feet or more in 

 diameter. The leaves are simple, alternate, oval, 

 and finely serrated. The flowers are white, about 

 an incli in diameter, and are disposed in terminal or 

 lateral corymbs. The fruit, in a wild state, is 

 regularly tnrbinated, about an inch either way, 

 and to the taste is austere until perfectly ripe, when 

 it becomes soft, juicy, and not disagreeable. In the 

 cultivated plant, the fruit varies exceedingly in size, 

 colour, taste, and time of ripening. The culture of 

 the pear is very ancient, and several varieties were 

 known to the Greeks and Romans. At the present 

 day, more than two hundred, fit for the table, are 

 enumerated, and constant accessions are made every 

 year ; for the seeds never reproduce the same 

 variety without more or less modification. These 

 varieties are perpetuated only by grafting ; they 

 differ in colour, being either greenish, yellowish, 



grayish, or reddish ; in the consistence of the pulp, 

 dry and firm, or melting and watery ; and in taste, 

 insipid, austere, acid, or sugary. A constant suc- 

 cession may be had from the beginning of summer, 

 throughout the winter. Pears are chiefly used in 

 deserts, and are generally considered much superior 

 to apples ; some varieties are stewed with sugar, 

 baked, or preserved in sirup. France and the north 

 of Italy are celebrated for the perfection to which 

 they have carried the culture of this fruit. Even in 

 districts where it grows wild, the tree is very liable to 

 injury from frosts, which greatly diminish its bearing. 

 There are, besides, numerous varieties of pears, cul- 

 tivated solely for the purpose of making perry, a 

 liquor analogous to cider, and prepared nearly in 

 the same manner. This is less wholesome, and in 

 general is less esteemed, than cider, though often 

 very agreeable ; indeed, many of the dealers in 

 Champaigne wine are said to use perry to a great 

 extent in the adulteration of it; and really good 

 perry is little inferior to it in taste or quality. The 

 wood is fine-grained, of a yellowish colour, and 

 susceptible of a brilliant polish : it is not subject to 

 the attacks of insects, and receives a black dye 

 remarkably well, when it so much resembles ebony, 

 that it can only be detected by the difference in 

 specific gravity. In the early ages of Greece, this 

 wood was employed in statuary ; now it is used for 

 musical instruments, the handles of carpenter's tools, 

 and a great variety of mechanical purposes ; it is, 

 besides, excellent fuel. Nine other species of pyrus, 

 as the genus is above restricted, are known; all 

 natives of the temperate parts of the eastern con- 

 tinent. 



PEARL. Pearls are produced by a testaceous 

 fish of the oyster kind, which lives in the waters of 

 the East and West Indies, and in other seas in warm 

 latitudes. They are found in some parts of the 

 globe in clusters of a great number, on rocks in the 

 depths of the sea. Such places are called pearl- 

 banks, of which the most famous are near the coast of 

 Ceylon, and that of Japan, and in the Persian gulf, 

 near the island of Bahreim or Bahrein. Near the 

 coasts of Java, Sumatra, &c., the pearl is also 

 found. The finest and most costly pearls are the 

 Oriental. Some consider pearls to be unfructified 

 eggs, others a morbid concretion or calculus, pro- 

 duced by the endeavour of the animal in the shell 

 to fill up holes in the shell : others consider pearls 

 as mere concretions of the juice of which the shell 

 has been formed, and with which the animal annually 

 augments it. To collect these shells is the business 

 of divers, brought up to this most dangerous occu- 

 pation from early youth. They descend from their 

 boat with a rope fastened round their body, and a 

 stone of twenty or thirty pounds weight attached to 

 the foot to sink them. Generally they have to 

 descend from eight to twelve fathoms, before they 

 reach the shells. Their nostrils and ears are stopped 

 up with cotton ; to the arm a sponge, dipped in oil, 

 is fastened, which the diver now and then brings to 

 his mouth, in order to draw breath without swal- 

 lowing water. Every diver has, besides, a knife, to 

 loosen the shells, and a little net or basket, to collect 

 them. When he has filled this, or is unable to stay 

 any longer under water, he unlooses the stone 

 quickly, shakes the line, and is drawn up by his 

 companions. These divers are often destroyed by 

 sharks ; their health always suffers by this occupa- 

 tion. Other divers use the diving bell. The shells 

 thus obtained are put into vessels, where they 

 remain till the body of the animal putrefies, when 

 they mostly open of themselves. Those which con 

 tain any pearls, have generally from eight to twelve. 

 After being dried, they are passed through nine 



