360 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
great admirer of pearls, presented one to Servilia which was valued a 
a million of sesterces, about £48,000 of our money. 
There is no data for the volume or value of the two famous p ea,r s 
of Cleopatra ; one of these which the queen is said to have capriciously 
dissolved in vinegar and drank — Heavens preserve us from such 9 
draught ! — is said by some authors to have been worth £60,000 ; ^ 
other was divided into two parts, and suspended one half from eaC 
ear of the capitoline Yenus. Another pearl was purchased at Can 
by the traveller Tavernier, and is said to have been sold by him to th e 
Shah of Persia for the enormous price of £180,000. 
A prince of Muscat possessed a pearl so extremely valuable — not 011 
account of its size, for it was only twelve carats, but because it was 
clear and transparent that daylight was seen through it — he refus 6 
£4000 lor it. 
In the Zozema Museum at Moscow there is a pearl, called 1 'j 
“Pilgrim,” which is quite diaphanous; it is globular in form, 
weighs nearly twenty-four carats. It is said that the pearl in 1 
crown of Eudolph II. weighed thirty carats, and was as large » s 
pear. This size, besides being indefinite, is more than doubtful. 
The shahs of Persia actually possess a string of pearls, each m 
vidual of which is nearly the size of a hazel nut. The value of " 
string of jewels is inestimable. . ^ 
At the Paris Exposition of 1855, Her Majesty the Queen exhibit 
some magnificent pearls ; and on the same occasion the Emperor 
the French exhibited a collection of 408 pearls, each weighing 
nine pennyweights, all of perfect form and of the finest water. 
0 ver 
The 
itted 
Bomans were passionately fond of pearls, and they have transm 
their taste to the Eastern nations, who attach notions of S tea 
grandeur and power to the possession of large and brilliant pearls- 
The many interesting details connected with the oyster and $ 
products have led us to write at greater length than we intend®^ 
With the Meleagrina, true proletarian of the ocean, we terminate ^ 
history of the first group of Acephalous Molluscs, whose mouths a 
largely opened, but which have neither tubes nor spiral openings- 
