black by wear, and therefore were of
incomparably lower value than the latter. But of late two causes have
given an enormous development to the Scottish fishery : the first being
the failure of the Indian ; the second, its largely producing the
rose-tinted kind, now infinitely the most esteemed in Parisian high
life—a change of taste effected recently " mulierum sane
senatus-consulto." These Scottish Pearls attain to a considerable size
: one weighing 30 grains and of fine quality was found at the
confluence of the Almond and Tay in the summer of 1865. De Boot notices
their existence in Scotland in his own times; and also in Silesia and
Bohemia, but adds they were all very insignificant. Of these the finest
were found in the last-named kingdom near the village Horasdovitz, and
these could hardly be known from the Oriental. But out of 500 shells
opened by himself he got no more than ten good Pearls, all the rest
being either black or yellow.
It
may here be observed that the faculty of generating this precious
concretion is not confined to a single species of shell-fish, large
rose-tinted specimens of the greatest beauty being sometimes discovered
in the West-Indian Conch.
The
present commercial importance of the Scottish fishery demands a fuller
notice, and the following details will doubtless prove of interest to
many of my readers.
In
spite of the unfavourable judgment of Pliny's, upon the character of
the British Pearls, Marbodus, we may suppose, upon the authority of
some Roman original, speaks of the British Pearls as equalling the
Persian and the Indian species. Amongst the motives impelling Caesar
to attempt the conquest of Britain was the fame of its pearl-fisheries
; for Suetonius records that when he was planning that enterprise he
carefully compared the
