302 Pearls. 



Browne," writes Mr. Cheesewright, under date August 

 7, 1886, "that the Pearl was discovered by a man 

 named Clark, while Pearl-fishing at Roeburn, in 

 Western Australia, in the schooner ' Ethel,' the 

 owner being a Roman Catholic, called ' Shiner 

 Kelly.' When the shell was opened, Clark senior, 

 Shiner Kelly, and more especially young Clark, 

 were filled with amazement and awe. Kelly re- 

 garding it as some Heaven-wrought miracle, with a 

 certain amount of superstitious dread, buried it — 

 for how long it is not known. The Pearl was dis- 

 covered in 1874, and in 1879 the great Australian 

 explorer, Alexander Forrest, saw it in Roeburn, just 

 before he commenced his journey to Kimberley. The 

 Pearl has changed hands many times, and each time 

 it has done so, the person parting with it has made a 

 hundred per cent, on the price he paid for it. It is 

 now the property of a syndicate of gentlemen in 

 Western Australia, and it was at the solicitation of 

 these gentlemen that I was induced to bring it home." 



This extraordinary Pearl Cross was exhibited in 

 a prominent position in the Western Australian 

 Court of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 

 1886. The cluster of Pearls was set in a simple 

 gold mount, leaving the back of the Cross as well 

 as the front face perfectly free. In consideration of 



