Mothcr-of -Pearl Shell. 105 



Mr. P. L. Simmonds, writing in 1879, "by a large 

 wholesale shell merchant in London, of a workman 

 in Birmingham having volunteered to dig up his 

 neighbour's yard or garden free. The offer being 

 declined, the man persisted, agreeing to give ^^5 if he 

 might be allowed to do it, and cart away the rubbish. 

 Consent was at last obtained, and the digger cleared 

 ;£"20 by the Pearl-shells he thus obtained, and sold. 

 My informant also told me that the Town Hall of 

 Birmingham is built on such mounds of these shells 

 that it would almost pay, at present prices, to pull 

 it down and rebuild it, for the sake of the shells 

 that could be thus obtained." 



In a valuable paper by Mr. J. S. Wright, on the 

 Jewellery trade of Birmingham, we are told that 

 the workers in the Mother-of-Pearl shells occasionally 

 find real Pearls embedded in the shell. *'A few 

 years since (this w^as written in 1866) a small lot 

 of shells was brought to Birmingham, which either 

 from ignorance or mistake had not been cleared of 

 the Pearls at the fishery. A considerable number 

 were found and sold ; and one especially was sold, 

 by the man who had bought the shell for working 

 into buttons, for £6,0. The purchaser, we believe, re- 

 sold the same for a profit of ^160; and we have 

 heard it was afterwards held in Paris for sale at ^^800." 



In countries where Mother-of-Pearl is abundant, 



