Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Lx. (19 1 6), No. \%. 15 



very probable from the discovery of the shell of the 

 fresh- water pearl-mussel {Margaritana margaritifera) 

 associated with human remains in the sepulchral cave at 

 Perthi Chwareu, near Llandegla, Denbighshire. 42 



The presence of fragments of pearl-shell in the paste 

 of early hand-made pottery may also be an indication 

 that the Early Britons considered the shell as auspicious 

 and consequently adding further value to their product, 

 analogous to the use in India of lime obtained by burn- 

 ing both chank and pearl oyster shells. It is significant 

 how widely spread are both these customs. The shells 

 of Unto are recorded from North American Indian graves 

 where they had been placed to serve as food for the dead 

 during the journey to the land of spirits ; and fragments 

 of Unto shells were used by the Indians to temper the 

 clay for pottery. Beads of Unio shell have also been 

 found in graves in the neighbourhood of Bulawayo, 

 Rhodesia, as already stated. 



An interesting survival of the Greek word TplyXrjva 

 (triple drops or beads, i.e., pearls) seems to exist in the 

 Welsh glain (bead), the name having been carried to 

 Britain by Phoenician traders. 43 It is well known that the 

 Phoenicians, after founding many colonies in the 

 Mediterranean, passed on through the Straits of Gibraltar, 

 and in course of time probably reached the British Isles. 

 Here no doubt they became acquainted with the pearls of 

 the British rivers. 



The principal fresh-water pearl fisheries in the British 

 Isles are those of the Conway River, in North Wales, 

 where it is supposed Caesar obtained his pearls ; the Irt, 

 in Cumberland ; the Tay, Earn, and Teith, in Perthshire ; 

 the Dee, Don, and Ythan, in A.berdeenshire ; the Spey 



42 J. W. Jackson, Lancashire Naturalist, Dec, 1913, pp. 321-2. 



43 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 8. 



