208 SHELLS AND MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS. 



have been procured from the rivers in the counties 

 of Tyrone and Donegal, in Ireland. " One of 

 them," says Captain Brown, quoting from the 

 Philosophical Transactions, " weighed thirty-six 

 carats, and would have been worth 40L but owing 

 to its being impure, it lost much of its value ; 

 other pearls from the same places have sold at from 

 4J. 10s. to 10/. each. One of the latter price was 

 sold a second time to Lady Glenlealy, who had it 

 placed in a necklace, and refused 80/. for it." This 

 writer adds, that there was a great fishery for 

 pearls in the river Tay, and that pearls sent from 

 thence for the years 1761 to 1764, were worth 

 10,000/., while the pearls in the Scottish crown, 

 forming part of the Regalia, exhibited in the Castle 

 of Edinburgh, are the produce of the river Tay. 

 County tradition tells us that a pearl found in this 

 pearl my a in the river Conwy in Wales, was pre- 

 sented by Sir Eichard Wynne of Gwydin to the 

 Queen of Charles II., which was afterwards placed 

 in the royal crown. 



Our engraving exhibits a very pretty shell, the 



Chione Venus (Venus chione), very common on the 

 coast of Cornwall, and often found, too, on many 



