expedient
is to feed chickens with them; then the animals are killed after two
hours' time, and the pearls are rescued from their hiding-place, the
action of the gastric juice having somewhat restored their colour. The
true shape of the pearl should be a perfect sphere, or pear-shaped,
like the celebrated monster pearl of the Great Mogul.
Not
even excepting the diamond is there a jewel so often spoken cf in
history, sacred and profane, or so treated of in story or romance, as
the pearl. In Sacred Writ, we have frequent mention of it and many of
the ancient writers speak in glowing terms of its beauty. It has always
been the type of purity, and the word has from time immemorial been
used to illustrate whatever was pure and beautiful, and this
especially in the language of the East, where such mouth-rounding names
as Looloo, Mootoo, &c., represent, it. Some pearls have become
historic. Thus we read in an old play—
In good sooth,
If this the manner giveth not content,
Then may the matter, like the famous cup
Wherein old Egypt's Queen resolved a pearl,
The ransom of a kingdom, at a draught
Contain some stuff of value.
This
refers to one of the two celebrated pearls possessed' by Cleopatra—the
other, saved from a similar fate, was slit into halves to form earrings
for the statute of Venus in the Pantheon.
Julius
Caesar, in love with Serrilia, the mother of Marcus Hrutus, presented
to her a pearl valued at six million sesterces (£48,417 10s. of our
money). It was with a ring of pearl that the Doge of Venice wedded
every year since 1177 the Adriatic Sea. Pope Leo the Tenth is said to
have paid a Venetian jeweller ,£14,000 for a single pearl. We wonder if
he had ever heard of the class of persons who and their money are soon
parted. The traveller Tavernier purchased a pearl at Califa, which he
is said to have sold to the Shah of Persia for the enormous sum of
£180,000. If this be true, he was a lucky man, surely, to get out of
Persia with his head on his shoulders. A Prince of Muscat possessed a
valuable small pearl only weighing 12 carats, but it was so clear and
transparent that daylight could be seen through it. He refused ,£4,000
for it. Perhaps a better proof of its value would have been that he had
taken £4,000 for it. The pearl in the crown of Rudolf the Second, it is
said, was as large as a pear. What pear? A Jargonel or a Duchesse? And
how big was the oyster from which it was taken'! The Shah of
Persia actually possesses a string of pearls, each individual of which
is nearly the size of a hazel-nut—an inestimable string of pearls. At
the Paris Exhibition of 1855 Queen Victoria displayed some magnificent
pearls, and (he late Empress of. the French exhibited on the same
occasion a collection of four hundred and eight pearls, each weighing
over nine penny-weights, and all of perfect form and the finest water.
Here we must close our paper on The priceless pearl,
Without the diamond's sparklings eyes,
The ruby's blushes--there it lies,
Modest as the tender dawn
When her purple veil's withdrawn,
The flower of gems, a lily cold and pale.
UNDERGROUND
TREASURES : HOW AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. A KEY FOR THE READY
DETERMINATION OF USEFUL MINERALS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES. By James Orton, A.
M. Only those minerals are mentioned which are useful : any specimen,
therefore, which dtts not fit any of the descriptions given, may be
considered of
