THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 65

THE SKETCHER.

SOMETHING ABOUT PEARLS. Regarding the small pearl -found some time ago at Port Chalmers, the northern fresh-water Scottish streams were once the seat of a pearl fishery that yielded in the year 1864 pearls to the value of £10,000. Single specimens, even, have been found there worth as much as £60. Pearl-hunt-ing among the fresh-water mussels found in the streams and rivers of Scotland has become a regular occupation. The beautiful pink-hued pearls of our Scottish streams are admired beyond the Oriental pearls of Ceylon, The Empress Eugenic, the late Queen Victoria, and other royal ladies, as well as many of the nobility, have made large purchases of these Scottish gems. Many of the weavers and cobbler's whose residence is near a pearl-producing stream continue in the early morning and after the usual day's work to step over and gather a few hundreds of the pearl-containing mussels, in which they are almost sure to find a few gems of more or less value. A pearl is found in every 30 shells ; but only one pearl in every 10 is fit for market. Thus 300 shells have to be examined before one gem can be secured. In the River Earn, a tributary of the Tay, and in the River Don, pearl -mussel gathering formed among certain families not only a trade, but their sole means- of Evelihood. During the years 1761 to 1764 pearls to" the value of £10,000 were rent to London from the Rivers Tay and Isla. Pearlmussels are found in most of the mountain streams, but the Scottish pearl-fishing has been chiefly prosecuted in the Rivers Earn and Doon. An Edinburgh dealer says : "If a Scotch pearl be of a fine transparent colour, and perfectly round, it may be worth £3 up to £16. I have dealt in pearls these 40 years and more, and vet I could never sell a necklace of fine Scots pearls in Scotland, nor yet fine pendants, the generality seeking for Oriental pearls, because farther fetched. At this day I can show some of our own Scots pearls as fine, harder, and more transparent than any Oriental peails." Ihe extraoidinary pearl, or rather cluster of pearls, known as "The Southern Cross ' is the most remarkable production of its kind that Nature has ever produced. It consists of a group of nine pearls naturally grown together in so regular a manner as to form an almost perfect Latin cross. This pearl was discovered by a man named Clark whilst pearl-fishing at Roeburn, in Westralia (where a valuable pearl was discovered recently and sent Home to the King). It was valued by the owner at £10.000. The cross was. found in the oyster just as it was taken from its native element, without any human manipulation. The Southern Cross peaii .vas ex-nrbited in the Westralian Court of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886. The pearl known as the Peregrine Night, obtained by Philip II of Spain, weighs 134 carats ; it was in the form of a pear, and of the size I of a pigeon's egg. There is also a magni- j ficent pearl which was brought from Berlin by the first Napoleon, and which was exquisitely mounted in a breast plate by Lemonnier. When the Princess Royal of i England was married to Prince Frederick i William of Prussia die received, among j other objects of jewellery, a magnificent ' necklace of 32 pearls. It is said that although these pearls were not all of the fii.«t water, the necklace was valued at £20,000. A necklace m which the pearls have been chosen from a great number will be held at double the value of a necklace where the pearls have been picked from a smaller , number, even when the individual value of the peails is identical hi both. The pearls most highly esteemed are those which, with a white colour, show a delicate reflection of azure. To this day the natives of Ceylon believe that pearl's are formed of drops of dew falling into the shell, for which purpose it periodically rose to the surface (as recorded in the Sanscrit books of the Brahmins). Pearls cop&:'tinc ' of carbonate of lime ure very soluble in i acids. Hence it could have been possible for Cleopatra to dissolve a pearl in vinegar and drink it to Marc AntoDy's health at supper. Pearls of great value 'were in Cleopatra's possession. At Ningpo, the great Chinese market for pearls. English sailors obtained .some live mussels in which, on being opened, several pearls were found in The course of formation. It appears that the Chinese introduce pieces of wood oi baked earth into the live mussel, which, being irritated, covers the substance with a pearly deposit. Aitfficial pearls have been made fiom the scales of fish since the reign of Henry 111 of France. The peails are of glass, and are coated inside with the pearl essence. The taking of the fish and the i manufacture of the pearls and bead* employ 100.000 persons in France and Switzeilfnd " j