The Southern Cross PearL 305 



examination, any artificial junction between the 

 Pearls^ or any trace of an artificial cementing medium, 

 must have been detected by some of the acute critics 

 who handled the gem. It is satisfactory however, to 

 state that the Cross came out from the ordeal with- 

 out shadow of suspicion, and was pronounced to 

 be a liisiis naturcE of unique character. 



How it came about that these Pearls should 

 be so regularly grouped together, no one has yet 

 been able to explain with satisfaction. Dr. MacLarty 

 has suggested, with some feasibility, that a fragment 

 of serrated sea-weed may have gained access to 

 the shell, and that the succession of teeth along 

 the margin of the frond, may have determined the 

 deposition of nacre at regular intervals, so as to 

 form a string of Pearls running in a straight line. 

 Whatever may have been the determining cause, 

 it seems clear that it was a perfectly natural one, 

 in no way resembling that artificial production of 

 Pearls, which is practised on the fresh-water mussels 

 of China. The Cross was found in the oyster, just 

 as it was taken from its native element, without 

 any possibility of its having been subjected to 

 human manipulation. 



As this remarkable cruciform group of Pearls 

 was found in the southern hemisphere, it has very 

 appropriately received the name of the Southern Cross, 



