River Pearls ; Chinese. 253 



in securing only two good Pearls." Such at present 

 is the rarity of the River-Pearls of Canada ! The 

 author believes, however, that there is a great future 

 for Canadian Pearls : many of them are of large size, 

 and in beauty they approach nearer to the Oriental 

 than any other River-Pearls yet discovered. 



Chinese River-Pearls. 



Pearls have been highly valued in China, for 

 purposes of personal adornment, from a very early 

 period. Many of the Pearls frequently mentioned 

 by Chinese historians, as remarkable for size and 

 brilliancy, were no doubt marine Pearls ; but never- 

 theless it seems certain that the most ancient 

 Chinese Pearls were of fresh-water origin. Thus, 

 the earliest dictionary, which was compiled eleven 

 cenj:uries before our era, by Chan, the inventor of 

 the compass, makes mention of Pearls as one of 

 the precious productions of Shensi. Now as Shensi 

 is an inland province, in the very heart of China, 

 It is evident that the Pearls of this country must 

 have been obtained from the rivers by which 

 it is watered. 



Fresh-water Pearls are largely used by the 

 Chinese at the present day ; and these ingenious 

 people, not content with the Pearls which the 



