RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE. 
55 
hard as it appears in the market; or whether it acquires its consistence 
by exposure. I was assured by a gentleman (who had been encamped 
at Congoon close to the bank; and who had often bought the oysters 
from the boys, as they came out of the water,) that he had opened the 
shell immediately, and when the fish was still alive, had found the pearl 
already hard and formed. He had frequently also cut the pearl in two, 
and ascertained it to be equally hard throughout, in layers like the coats 
of an onion. But Sir Harford Jones, who has had much knowledge 
of the fishery, informs me, that it is easy by pressing the pearl between 
the fingers, when first taken out of the shell, to feel that it has not yet 
attained its ultimate consistency. A very short exposure, however, to 
the air gives the hardness. The two opinions are easily reconcileable by 
supposing, either a misconception in language of the relative term hard, 
(by which one authority may mean every thing in the oyster which is 
not gelatinous, while the other would confine it more strictly to the full 
and perfect consistency of the pearl;) or by admitting that there may 
be an original difference in the character of the two species, the yellow 
and the white pearl; while the identity of the specimen, on which either 
observation has been formed, has not been noted. 
The fish itself is fine eating; nor, indeed in this respect is there any 
difference between the common and the pearl oyster. The seed pearls, 
which are very indifferent, are arranged round the lips of the oyster, as 
if they were inlaid by the hand of an artist. The large pearl 
is nearly in the centre of the shell, and in the middle of the fish. 
In Persia the pearl is employed for less noble ornaments than in 
Europe: there it is principally reserved to adorn the kaleoons or water 
pipes, the tassels for bridles, some trinkets, the inlaying of looking 
glasses and toys, for which indeed the inferior kinds are used; or, when 
devoted more immediately to their persons, it is generally strung as 
beads to twist about in the hand, or as a rosary for prayer. 
The fishermen always augur a good season of the pearl, when there 
have been plentiful rains; and so accurately has experience taught 
them, that when corn is very cheap they increase their demands foy 
