326 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE F1SIL 



no trouble beyond stripping off these valuable appendages, 

 throwing away the fish when scaled. Roach and dace, and 

 some other fish also furnished a colouring substance, though of 

 an inferior quality, the best of all being procured from the 

 white-bait ; and it was the regular custom amongst hawkers, 

 before selling any 'white fish,' as they were termed, to supply 

 the bead-makers with their scales. 



The method of obtaining and using the pigment was, first 

 by washing and then scraping the scales, until the colouring 

 matter descended to the bottom of the vessel in the form of a 

 pearly precipitate, whence it was removed by small tubes and 

 injected into thin hollow glass beads of various sizes. These 

 were then spread on sieves, and dried in a current of air. If 

 greater solidity appeared to be necessary, a further injection of 

 melted wax was resorted to. 



At present the material for making the artificial pearls is 

 supplied by the swimming bladder of the Argentine or Tiber 

 pearl fish. The bladders are placed in spirits of wine, and 

 when required for use, are taken out and steeped in a solution 

 of isinglass until all the pearly particles have been detached, 

 the method of injection being as before. 



It occasionally happens to the angler to catch pearls ready 

 made. These are found in the large river mussel, which, as is 

 well known, will not unfrequently swallow a worm or other 

 ground bait, taking so fast a hold with its shell lips as to be 

 fairly hoisted out of the river's bed and basketed. An instance 

 recently occurred near Tweed Mill, Coldstream, where a boy, 

 who was worm fishing for trout in the Chapel Brook, caught a 

 mussel four inches long and two broad, containing no less than 

 forty fine pearls of different sizes, some of which were thought 

 to be worth ten shillings each. 



It has several times happened to me to take mussels whilst 

 fishing ; but, cither owing to my want of luck or lack of in- 

 quisitiveness, I have hitherto discovered nothing in them more 

 valuable than mud. There is another species of mussel, never, 

 I believe, found on these shores, called the 'nacre,' from which 



