408 INFORMATION FOR PEARL-SEEKERS. [CHAP. ix. 



have to be opened before this toil is rewarded with a find of 

 pearls, let them be told that, on the average, the searcher 

 never opens a hundred mussels without being made happy 

 with a few of the gems. It is remarked that they are more 

 certain to have pearls when they are taken from the stony 

 places of the river. Thousands of mussels have been found in 

 the sand, but these have rarely if ever contained a single pearl ; 

 whilst the shells again that are found in soft and muddy bot- 

 toms have plenty of gems, but they are poor in quality and 

 bad in colour. No pearls are ever found in a young shell, 

 and all such may at once be rejected. A skilful operator 

 opens the mussel with a shell, in order to avoid scratching 

 the pearl ; the opened fish is thrown into the water, and it is 

 either the mussels or the insects gathering about them that are 

 greedily devoured by the salmon and other fish, so that those 

 proprietors of streams who were becoming uneasy as to the 

 effects of the pearl-fishery on the salmon may set their 

 minds at rest. Although at one time none of the London 

 dealers in gems would look at a Scotch pearl, it is an interest- 

 ing fact that now the fame of the Scottish fisheries has so 

 extended as to bring buyers from France and other Contin- 

 ental countries ; and, as boats and dredges are now being in- 

 troduced, it is thought that any moderate demand may be 

 supplied. Great quantities of pearls have been sent to the 

 collector through the post-office. 



An Ayrshire paper says of the Doon fishery : " That ow- 

 ing to the wholesale slaughter of the mussels last season, the 

 pearl-fishing this summer (1864) in the river Doon has been 

 neither so exciting nor remunerative. Few have paid much 

 attention to it ; but even amongst those few rather more than 

 100 has been obtained for pearls since the month of May, 

 there being more than one individual who has earned at least 

 13 during that period, having followed their avocation daily, 

 whilst the pearl-fishing was engaged in as a profitable recrea- 



