CONCHIFERA OR BIVALVES. 99 



The shells of this family (like all others 

 which are lined with what is called mother-of- 

 pearl) are sometimes found to contain pearls of a 

 good quality, and in large numbers, as many as 

 sixteen having been taken from one shell. The 

 Esk and Conway are celebrated for them. Sir 

 Richard Wynn, chamberlain to Catherine, 

 queen of Charles II., is said to have presented 

 her majesty with a Conway pearl, which is to 

 this day honoured with a place in the regal 

 crown. Some of the Scotch rivers have pro- 

 duced numerous specimens of large and beau- 

 tiful pearls, which have borne a high price. 

 A paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1693 gives a curious account of the fishery for 

 these pearls in the river Omagh, county Tyrone, 

 Ireland. " The poor people," the writer says, 

 " in the summer months go into the water, and 

 some with their toes, some with wooden tongs, 

 and some by putting a sharpened stick into the 

 opening of the shell, take them up; and al- 



! though, by a common estimate, not above one 

 shell in a hundred may have a pearl, and of 

 these pearls not above one in a hundred be to- 



t lerably clear, yet a vast number of fair mer- 

 H 2 



