River Pearls ; British and Foreign. 243 



favourable localities rarely proves remunerative. The 

 industry has been rather discouraged, in consequence 

 of its reputed interference with ordinary fishing. 



Irish Pearls. 



The earliest reference which we have found on 

 the subject of Irish Pearls occurs in the " Philo- 

 sophical Transactions" for the month of March, 1693, 

 which contains a curious letter from Sir Robert 

 Redding, "Concerning Pearl-fishing in the North 

 of Ireland." It appears that the writer had visited 

 the fisheries in the preceding August, and obtained 

 specimens of the shells and Pearls for transmission 

 to the famous Dr. Lister. " I have sent you," he 

 says, "four or five of the shells, and a few of the 

 Pearls, though clouded and little worth, taken out 

 of the river, near Omagh, in the county of Tyrone, 

 in which county are four rivers abounding with 

 these mussels, all emptying themselves into Lough 

 Foyle, whereon stands the town of Derry, and so 

 into the sea. There are also other rivers in the 

 county of Donegal, a river near Dundalk, the shore 

 running by Waterford, the lough called Lough Lean 

 in Kerry, which afford the like fish." After de- 

 scribing the primitive method of obtaining the Pearls, 

 the writer says that : "Although by common estimate 



