370 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
In America the bivalve is opened with a knife, like the common 
edible oyster, and the pearl is obtained by breaking up the mollusc 
between the finger and thumb, without waiting for its decomposition; 
nor is it boiled. This is a much longer and less certain process than 
that pursued in the East; but the pearls are preserved in greater 
freshness by the process—for the nacre of the dead shells is less 
brilliant than’ that of those which have been suddenly killed and at 
once separated from the soft parts. 
Some few pearls have become historical for their size and beauty. 
A pearl from Panama, in the form of a pear, and about the size of a 
pigeon’s egg, was presented in 1579 to Philip II., King of Spain, it 
was valued at £4,000. A lady of Madrid possessed an American 
pearl in 1605 valued at 31,000 ducats. 
Pope Leo X. purchased a pearl of a Venetian jeweller for 
414,000, Another was presented to the Sultan Soliman the Great by 
the Venetian Republic valued at £16,000. Julius Cesar, who was a 
great admirer of pearls, presented one to Servilia which was valued at 
a million of sesterces, about £448,c00 of our money. 
There is no data for the volume or value of the two famous pearls 
of Cleopatra: one of these, which the queen is said to have capriciously 
dissolved in vinegar and drank—Heavens preserve us from such a 
draught !—is said by some authors to have been worth £60,000; the 
other was divided into two parts, and suspended one half from each 
ear of the Capitoline Venus. Another pearl was purchased at Califa by 
the traveller Tavernier, and is said to have been sold by him to the 
Shah of Persia for the enormous price of £180,000. 
A prince of Muscat possessed a pearl so valuable—not on 
account of its size, for it was only twelve carats, but because it was 
so clear and transparent that daylight was seen through it—that he 
refused £4,000 for it. 
In the Zozema Museum at Moscow there is a pearl, called the 
“Pilgrim,” which is quite diaphanous ; it is globular in form, and 
weighs nearly twenty-four carats. It is said that the pearl in the 
crown of Rudolph II. weighed thirty carats, and was as large as a 
pear. This size, besides being indefinite, is more than doubtful. 
The Shahs of Persia actually possess a string of pearls, each indi- 
vidual of which is nearly the size of a hazel nut: the value of this 
string of jewels is estimable. 
At the Paris Exposition of 1855, her Majesty the Queen exhibited 
some magnificent pearls ; and on the same occasion the Emperor of 
the French exhibited a collection of 408 pearls, each weighing over 
