CELEBRATED PEARLS. 71 



weight. Those found in the body of the animal, and isolated, are called virgin pearls. They 

 are globular, ovoid, or pyriform, and are sold by the individual pearl. In cleaning them, they 

 are gathered together in a heap in a bag, and worked with powdered nacre, in order to render 

 them perfectly pure in colour and round in shape, and give them a polish ; finally, they are 

 passed through a series of copper sieves, in order to size them. These sieves, to the number of 

 a thousand, are made so as to be inserted one within the other, each being pierced with holes, 

 which determine the size of the pearl and the commercial number which is to distinguish it. 

 Thus, the sieve No. 20 is pierced with twenty holes, No. 50 with fifty holes, and so on up to No. 

 1,000, which is pierced with that number of holes. The pearls which are retained in Nos. 20 

 to 80, said to be mill, are pearls of the first order ; those which pass and are retained between 

 Nos. 100 and 800 are vivadoe, or pearls of the second order ; and those which pass through all 

 the others, and are retained in No. 1,000, belong to the class tool, or seed pearls, and are of the 

 third order. They are afterwards threaded ; the small and medium-sized pearls on white or 

 blue silk, arranged in rows, and tied with ribbon into a top-knot of blue or red silk, in which 

 condition they are exposed for sale in rows, assorted according to their colours and quality. 

 The small or seed pearls are sold by measure or weight. 



We cannot wonder at the estimation in which these beautiful productions of nature have 

 always been held. Our Lord speaks of (< a merchantman seeking goodly pearls/' and once of a 

 "pearl of great price." The ancients held them in great esteem. Ahasuerus had a chamber 

 with tapestry covered with valuable pearls. Julius Caesar offered to Servilia, the mother of 

 Brutus, an " Orient pearl," valued at money representing a million sesterces ; * Cleopatra's 

 expensive draught is estimated by Pliny at the equivalent of 80,729 ; Lollia Paulina, wife of 

 Caligula, used to put on about 200,000 sterling's worth of them on high days and holidays. 



In our own country Sir Thomas Gresham powdered up a pearl worth 65,000, in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time, and drank it up a la Cleopatra, excepting only that he took it in wine instead 

 of in vinegar. It was done in vain-glory to outshine the Spanish ambassador, with whom he 

 had wagered to give a more expensive entertainment than he could. 



Scottish pearls, which are slightly bluish in tint, were much celebrated in the 

 Middle Ages, and were sent to London from the rivers Tay and Isla; the trade carried 

 on in the present century, the Rev. Mr. Bertram tells us, has become of considerable im- 

 portance. 



The pearl, according to the same authority, is found in a variety of the mussel which is 

 characterised by the valves being united by a broad hinge. "The pearl fisheries of Scotland," 

 he adds, " may become a source of wealth to the people living on the large rivers, if prudently 

 conducted." Mr. Unger, a dealer in gems in Edinburgh, having discerned the capabilities of 

 the Scotch pearl as a gem of value, has established a scale of prices which he gives for them, 

 according to their size and quality ; and the beautiful pearls of our Scottish streams are now 

 admired beyond the Orient pearl. Empresses and queens, and royal and noble ladies, have 

 made large purchases of these gems. Mr. Unger estimates the sum paid to pearl-finders in the 

 summer of 1864 at 10,000. The localities successfully fished have been the classic Boon, the 

 Forth, the Tay, the Don, the Spey, the Isla, and most of the Highland rivers of note. 



* About 48,000. 



