390 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



stagnant in the lagoons of the Pacific, there makes its 

 appearance in great numbers a hideous reptile, resembling 

 a centipede, which is found from the smallest conceivable 

 size up to a foot long. These enter and devour the oyster. 

 They may have other enemies, but this one is the most 

 notable. 



Under favourable conditions, the life of the pearl oyster 

 would seem to be one of uninterrupted ease and passive 

 enjoyment. Himself a creature most gloriously beautiful, 

 his existence is passed among forms of the most surpassing 

 loveliness, bathed in the cool, bright, unpolluted waters of 

 the main. There he adheres to the side of some caverned 

 cliff, covered with marine vegetation, spreading out his 

 ample beard .(of which the dazzling colours, when viewed 

 in the light of the refracted sunshine, beaming through the 

 limpid element in which he dwells, are like the tints of the 

 opal), and sweeping around him his snaky tongue, he feeds 

 daintily and waxes fat, devoting the surplus of his nacreous 

 secretion to the production of a precious gem. 



It may be as well to mention here that pearls are, under 

 certain conditions, liable to a form of decay, or loss of 

 brilliancy, which impairs their value. A good preservative 

 against such a contingency is to keep them in magnesia. 



Surely, his lines are cast in pleasant places, and his 

 existence might be one of unalloyed happiness ; neverthe- 

 less, he has his afflictions. Almost all well-grown pearl 

 oysters are infested with parasites, in the shape of a scarlet 

 lobster, about the size of a shrimp. This pestilent intruder 

 introduces himself into the shell in conjunction, as it 

 appears, with the partner of his joys, and making them- 

 selves a bed under the fat, soft body of their victim, resist- 

 ing all attempts to dislodge them, rear their interesting 

 progeny, and cause no end of pain and annoyance. 



