404 THE DOON PEARL-FEVEK. [CHAP. ix. 



ing them for pearls, having heard somehow that money could 

 be obtained for them ; but they often enough found that, 

 however difficult it might be to secure the pearl, it was still 

 more difficult to get it converted into cash threepence, six- 

 pence, or a shilling, being the ordinary run of prices, buyers 

 and sellers being alike ignorant of the commodity in which 

 they were dealing. It was not until the middle of the summer 

 of 1863 that the fever of pearl- seeking broke out thoroughly 

 on the banks of the classic Doon. The weather had been un- 

 commonly dry for some time, and the river had in many places 

 become extremely shallow ; some of the women and children 

 had been employing their spare time in gathering mussels 

 and opening them, and few of those who had given it a trial 

 failed to become the possessors of one or more pearls. Just 

 then Mr. Unger made his appearance, and bought up all he 

 could get at prices which perfectly startled the people ; and, 

 as a consequence, young and old, male and female, rushed like 

 ducks to the water, and waded, dived, and swam, till the 

 excitement became so intense as to be called by many the 

 ' pearl fever.' The banks of the river for some time presented 

 an extraordinary scene. Here a solitary female, very lightly 

 clad indeed, is seen wading up to the breast, and as she stoops 

 to pick up a mussel, her head is of necessity immersed in the 

 water. Having got hold of a shell she throws it on to the op- 

 posite bank and stoops for another, and in this manner secures 

 as many as her apron will hold, and carries them home to find 

 that, very likely, she has more blanks than prizes among them. 

 There, in a shallow part of the stream, a swarm of boys are 

 trying their fortune ; there is a great degree of impatience 

 in their mode of fishing, for each shell is opened and ex- 

 amined so soon as it is lifted. A little above them are two 

 scantily-clad females earnestly at work ; one of them is 

 actually stone blind, but she gropes with her naked feet for a 

 shell, then picks it up with her hand, carefully opens it with 



