CHAP, ix.j THE BOON PEARLS. 409 



tion. As a whole the pearls of the river Doon are of an in- 

 ferior quality, 2 being about the highest price at which any 

 of them have been sold ; these weighed from eight to twelve 

 grains, but were far from being very bright in colour. ' It is 

 all a matter of chance,' say some of the pearl-fishers ; * you 

 may fish a whole day and not make sixpence, and one worth 

 a pound may be, yea has been, found in the second shell." 

 Such things have frequently happened, but the earnest plod- 

 ding fisher has always been handsomely paid for his work. 

 Though on an average a pearl is found in every thirty shells, 

 only one pearl in every ten is fit for the market. It will thus 

 be seen that one hundred and thirty shells have to be gathered, 

 opened, and examined, and one hundred and thirty lives sacri- 

 ficed, in order to secure one marketable pearl.* 



It is not unlikely that the present mania for pearl-gather- 

 ing may very speedily exhaust the supply of mussels. The 

 energy with which the fishing is carried on undoubtedly 

 points to a very speedy diminution of a shell-fish which was 



* The following information as to the colour and structure of the 

 pearl may interest the general reader : 



Sir Robert Reading, in a letter to the Royal Society dated October 

 13, 1688, in speaking of Irish pearls, states that pearls, if once dark, 

 will never clear upon any alteration in the health or age of the mussel. 

 This Mr. linger stoutly contradicts ; he shows by many specimens that 

 some of the finest Scotch pearls are perfectly dark inside. The theory 

 put forth by Sir Everard Home, that the peculiar lustre so much valued 

 in the pearl arises from the centre, is thereby upset. There is no doubt 

 Sir David Brewster is correct in his statement on that point in the 

 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. Some writers assert that irregular pearls may 

 be rounded. This of course is erroneous : they are, as everybody knows, 

 formed in layers like an onion, and these layers being cut across would be 

 exposed in such a manner that even the highest polish would not hide 

 them. It is, however, quite possible in many instances to improve a 

 bad-coloured pearl by removing one or more of the coats ; and in this 

 way many a pearl of comparatively trifling value has been turned into a 

 gem of rare beauty. The best way to distinguish a real pearl from an imi- 

 tation one is to take a sharp knife and gently try to scrape it : if imitation 



