APPENDIX. 22J 



rived from penna, a feather, as being broad and round at 

 the top, and ending at a point, or like a quill below. The 

 Englifh translation of the fcripture, erroneous and innacu- 

 rate in many things more material, tfahflaters this peninim, 

 by rubies *, without any foundation or authority, but be- 

 caufe they are both red, as arc bricks and tiles, and many 

 other things of bafe and vileanaterials.. The Greeks have 

 tranflated it literally pina, or pinna, and the {hell they call 

 Pinnicus ; and many places occur inStrabo, Elian, Ptolemy, 

 and Theophraftus, which are mentioned famous for this 

 fpeeies of pearl. 1 ihould imagine alfo, that by Solomon 

 faying it is the moft precious of all productions, he means, 

 that this fpeeies of pearl was the moft valued, or the befl 

 known in Judea. For though we learn from Pliny that the 

 excellency of pearls was their whitenefs, yet wc know the 

 pearls of ayeilowifh call are thofe eileemed in India to this 

 day, as the peninim, or reddiili pearl was in Judea in the: 

 days of bolomom 



The third fort of pearl-bearing mell is what I fup- 

 pofe has been called the Oyfler ; for the two ihells I have 

 already fpoken of furely bear no fort of likenefs to that 

 fhell-flih, nor can this, though moft approaching to it, be 

 faid any way to refemble it, as the reader will judge by a 

 Very accurate drawing given of it, now before him, 



Bo CHART 



* See Proverbs, chap. xxxi. verfe 10. Bur in Job, where all the variety of precious 

 ftones are rnentioned. the uanflator is Forced, as it v.- ere unwillingly, to render Penioim pearls,, 

 as he ought indeed to have done in many other places where it occurs. Job. chap, xxviii. 

 vcrfe id. 



