274 Pearls.
the silky sheen, which gives them their great value and chief beauty.
"The
conch abounds in the waters of the Bahamas, and thousands of them are
annually obtained and destroyed for their shells, which form quite an
article of commerce, but in not one conch in a thousand is a Pearl
found. When this is taken into account, and the other fact, that not
more than one in twenty of the Pearls found turns out to be perfect, it
will at once be seen that a good conch Pearl will always be a rare and
costly gem.
"
Most of the conch Pearls found in the Bahamas are exported to London,
where they are readily sold. A few have been sent to New York, having
been purchased in Nassau by an agent of Messrs. Tiffany & Co., the
well-known jewellers.
"
Like everything else that is valuable, the conch Pearl has been
imitated, and some of the imitations have been sold as the genuine
article. Many years ago an ingenious American visited Nassau and
conceived the idea of making conch Pearl. He succeeded admirably in
cutting out of the pink portion of the shell some very creditable
imitations. To make success doubly sure, he procured a number of the
live shell fish, carefully inserted his spurious Pearls in the position
in which the genuine Pearl is usually
