On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 73 



Penemin, Pearl, is derived, as the root of it signifies red, and that 

 it was from these shells the pearls used in Judea were taken ; of 

 course it is impossible to decide, as oriental pearls are also found thus 

 tinged, but it is not improbable.* 



The derivation of the word Byssus — (Sutfrfo?, is probably /Surftfocr, 

 lonice for /3u6og — depth, as being found in comparatively deep wa- 

 ter. The word Pinna has been idly supposed to be derived from the 

 Latin word penna, a feather — from an imagined resemblance between 

 the shell and the quill. The Greeks, however, used the word ^iva 

 or ifivva, and must have derived it from the Hebrews. Bruce asserts, 

 that in the Red Sea they live in the mud without any byssus, stick- 

 ing up horizontally on the sharp end ; he is, however, most probably 

 mistaken. They were the only shell fish that he found there not 

 eatable. 



IV. Mytilus ? (Linn.) 



There is another shell in the Red Sea, which is regularly sought 

 after as containing pearls. It is a Mytilus, and appears nearly to 

 resemble the M. edulis. It is the rarest kind, and is chiefly found 

 at the north end of the Gulf, and on the Egyptian side. The only 

 place where Bruce ever saw them, was about Cossier and to the 

 northward of it, where there was an ancient port, which took its 

 name Myos Hormos, the Harbor of Muscles, from their locality. 

 The fish contains often pearls of great beauty for lustre and shape, 

 but seldom of a white or clear water. They lie in the deepest and 

 stillest water and on the softest bottom, and they stick upright by 

 their extremity .f 



V. In Australasia we are told of another large pearl-bearing shell, 

 but of what genus we are not able from the accounts to decide. 

 It is the Menangey — occasionally denominated the New Holland 

 cockle, and it produces large and beautiful pearls. Mr. Dalrymple 

 mentions one belonging to Lord Pigot, which weighed 8 dwt. 17 

 grains, and was || inch in length, and f § inch in diameter. J 



( To he conti?iued.) 



* Stalius {Silvia;, 4. 6. 18.) uses the phrase ' Erythrceus lapillus' and some other 

 writers make use of the words ' Erythrcece gemmcB,' for pearls, but whether from 

 their red hue, (£pu()paioj) or because they were from the Red Sea, Erythrecum, 

 Mare, is questionable. Pliny says that the pearls from this sea in his time were 

 the most orient and clear. Plin. ix. 35. 



t Bruce's Abyssinia, VII. 314, and VIII. Plate 43. 



t Burney, Chron. Hist, of Dis. I. 94. 



Vol. XXXII.— No. 1. 10 



