302 TROCHID^I. 



pliance, and having plenty of time at his disposal, he 

 will frequently be unable to leave harbour for many days 

 together, or to remain any time out at sea. Hence 

 arise continual disappointments, rarely alleviated by 

 such a discovery as I have just described. In one of 

 these periods of despondence there was a lull between a 

 past and coming storm, when this loveable pearly shell 

 made its appearance and gladdened our longing eyes : 

 we realized the thought in ' Endymion ' 



" in spite of all, 



Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 

 From our dark spirits." 



We were the first of human race that beheld it; 

 although, for ages uncountable, generation after gener- 

 ation of it must have lived and died, 



" Full many a fathom deep, 

 On thy wild and stormy steep," 



Hialtland ! 



Perhaps with our joy was not unmingled a secret 

 feeling of pride in the discovery, against which, as 

 little short of a sin, Professor Kingsley cautions us in 

 his pleasant little book ' Glaucus/ Our " pearl of the 

 deep " might have served to bedeck the mermaid in the 

 lay of the ' Queen's Wake ' ; Burns would certainly have 

 called it " a bonie gem." The eastern seas do not sur- 

 pass our own in furnishing such a marvel of Nature's 

 workmanship, although the oriental pearl and the nor- 

 thern shell are alike perfect in opaline lustre and purity. 

 Their production, however, is a plain sphere. Ours is a 

 pyramidal cone, encircled by a winding gallery, and more 

 elegantly sculptured than the finest rood-screen; its 

 base is hollow and exhibits a spiral staircase. The door 

 or operculum is circular and transparent ; it may be 



