APPENDIX. 2*1 



fearch and inquiry I have made after thefe oyfters in the 

 Red Sea, defpairing always to fee a pearl, till we had firfl 

 found an oyfler. The fact, however, turned out to be, that 

 there are no fuch fifh as oyfters in the Arabian Gulf, and 

 though our fuccefs in finding pearls was fmall, yet we got 

 from the natives of the coaft a fufficient number as well as in- 

 formation, to put it beyond doubt to what fifh this beauti- 

 ful and extraordinary production belonged. 



Pearls are produced only in fhells that are bivalves, that 

 is, which have an upper and lower fhell clofing by a hinge 

 in a- manner little differing from the oyfler. It is common- 

 ly faid by the fifhermen, that all bivalves in the Red Sea 

 have pearls of fome kind in them. This is a very rude and 

 large view of the matter, for though it is true that fome ex- 

 crefcences, or fecretions, of the nature of pearls, may be 

 found in the bilTer, and the large bivalves with which this 

 fea abounds, yet it is well known to all converfant in thefe 

 matters, that many of the pearl fhell itfelf (I fhall not call it 

 an oyfler, for it is not one) are found without any pearl or 

 likenefs of pearl in them ; being, I fuppofe, not yet arrived 

 to that age when the extravafation of that juice which 

 forms the pearl happens. 



There are three fhell fifh in the Red Sea which regularly 

 are fought after as containing pearls. The firft is a nmffel, 

 and this is of the rarefl kind, whether they are now failed 

 in number, or whether they were at any former time fre- 

 quent, is now unknown. They are chiefly found in the 

 north end of the Gulf, and on the Egyptian fide. The only 

 part I have ever feen them was about Cofleir, and to the 

 northward of it, where I mull obferve there was an ancient 



Gg2 port, 



