PEARL FISHING. 103 
the water, they sink at once to the bottom, knowing well in what 
estimation the fruit of their body is to all people.” In the East, a 
drop of rain caught by the oyster is supposed to be the origin of 
the pearl ; and on Dee the fishers for pearls speak of the finest as 
dew drops. Whether the Chinese, a fresh water mussel, could 
be kept here I have not heard, but it readily lends itself to such 
production, and the wonder is that it has not been tried. 
Whether it would be possible to form pearls artifically has only 
once been tried in this district to my knowledge. The late Frank 
Buckland, whilst staying at the Hensol, a mansion on the banks of 
the Dee, near New-Galloway station, employed Mr Bridger, 
the butler, to get him some pearl mussels. He then proceeded io 
bore holes in them, and inserted pegs, but unfortunately for the 
experiment, the fish were swept away by a flood. 
The shells that contain pearls are nearly always deformed. 
Indeed it is a rare thing to find a pearl in a well-formed healthy 
fish, and fishers can tell at a glance if the shell contains a pearl, 
and the more deformed the more likely to contain one of some 
size. These fish are often unhealthy, and the pearl I conclude 
to be the outcome of violence in some shape or other, or else of 
disease. An old farmer on the Hensol estate gave it as_ his 
belief that pearls were far more abundant when Irish cattle were 
pastured at the side of the river in great numbers, their trampling 
causing this condition of the shell. He had known the river 
for sixty years, and I afterwards discovered that below fords 
there are always more pearl-bearing shells than above them. 
Possibly, also, the floods may cause them damage by knocking 
them about amongst the stones, or the faulty shape may in many 
cases be a malformation. 
The manner of fishing on both Dee and Doon is rather primi- 
tive. It is pursued during the warm weather, and the lassies on 
the Banks of Dee and Doon enjoy the sport as much as the males, 
and are equally successful. Experts bring to their aid a few 
articles of no great mechanical intricacy, one of them being a 
pewter pot with the bottom knocked out and replaced with a piece 
of glass. This, or an equally simple arrangement, is passed over 
the rough water, and shews the bottom very clearly on looking 
through it, great difficulty being found in recognising the fish 
owing to the shell being the colour of the stones. The putting 
forth of the light coloured foot is what is most quickly recognised ; 
