262 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
by
his age and size, exactly as bees have a queen, wonderfully expert in
keeping his subjects out of harm's way ; but if the divers once
succeeded in capturing him, the rest straying about blindly fell an
easy prey. Though defended by a body-guard of sharks, and dwelling
amongst the rocks of the abyss, they cannot, says Pliny, in his pithy
way, be preserved from ladies' ears.
The
shells when caught were thrown into vessels filled with salt, and left
there until all the fish was consumed, leaving the Pearls, " its
kernels," at the bottom.*
The
Eed Sea Pearls were the most transparent; the Indian, though superior
in magnitude to all the others, had something of the opaque lustre of
talc. Those of the best quality were distinguished by the title "
Exaluminatae," i. e., clear as a globule of alum. Others,
though very inferior to the two sorts just named, were fished up in the
Mediterranean, in the Bosphorus where they were found in the mya-shell
(pearl-mussel), and off the Acaruanian coast in the pinna (scallop);
these last were mis-shapen and opaque like marble. Those obtained off
Cape Actium were better, though always small-sized; as were also those
procured off the Mauritanian coast. It had been ascertained that they
were natives also of the British waters, though there was proof
positive (constat) of their being only small-sized and bad-coloured,
for Julius Caesar " had wished it to be known," by the inscription
placed upon it these words imply, " that the breastplate dedicated by
him to Venus Genetrix was made out of British Pearls."
Pearls
are still procured in large quantities from Scotland, and are much
used in London-made jewelry, being, when recent, hardly distinguishable
from the Oriental. They are, however, liable to the great defect of
turning
* The best account of the modem mode of carrying on the fishery will be found in Percival's ' Ceylon.'
