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THE PEARL
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irregularities of shape which have been rounded over to the improvement of the sphericity of the pearl.
It
is currently reported among the pearl hunters who fish the western and
southern streams, that the finding of soft pearls is not infrequent.
Upon opening the mussel, they sometimes see through the mantle of the
creature, an apparently fine pearl which upon being taken out proves to
be a soft jelly-like substance, the form of which is usually destroyed
in squeezing it out. These men do not believe that a pearl is formed in
layers, but think that all pearls are originally globules of a similar
soft substance, hardening later to a compact solid ball and they call
them "mussel eggs."
Many
pearls taken from the small thin-shelled varieties of the ocean
mollusk, as for instance those of Venezuela, are devoid in part, or
wholly, of the nacreous luster and instead have a china like or waxy
luster, or a dead chalky skin. A large proportion of the Abalone pearls
and baroques are lustrous only in part2 one section having an earthenware appearance. Many appear to be formed of interstratified
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