Transcriber's Notes.

Hyphenation has been standardised.

A number of different spellings have been retained, e.g. rubies/rubyes, encrusted/incrusted.

Other changes made are noted at the [end of the book.]

THE PEARL

H. M. QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER PEARLS

THE PEARL

ITS STORY, ITS CHARM,
AND ITS VALUE

BY

W. R. CATTELLE

AUTHOR OF
"PRECIOUS STONES"

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

MDCCCCVII

Copyright, 1907

By J. B. Lippincott Company

Published September, 1907

Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A.

NOTE

In these pages the story of the pearl is told from its birth and growth under tropic seas, through the search for it by dark skinned divers of the Orient and its journeyings by the hands of men who traffic in precious things, until it becomes finally the cherished familiar of the great. Historical and traditional allusions, the sentiment and superstitions, the romance of ancient and noble associations, drawn to it through the ages, are garnered here and to them added the more prosaic facts which a merchant's experience suggests, to enable lovers of the dainty sea-gem to discriminate. The qualities which make some pearls of great value and the imperfections which render others less valuable are described in detail, that owners and buyers may appreciate at their true value the gems they have or would purchase and the market price of all kinds is given. Means for the detection of imitations are included.

Long time has been given to microscopic research and though much remains to be learned of the genesis of the pearl, it is hoped that something of value has been added to the knowledge of Nature's wonderful and curious processes whereby through the humblest she makes a jewel fit to adorn the most beautiful of her creatures—woman.

My thanks are due Messrs. Combes & Van Roden of Philadelphia for the loan of the original photographs from which were made the reproductions of the portraits of Queen Alexandra, The Marchioness of Londonderry, Countess Torby and Princess Lazareff, which will, I trust, be of great interest to lovers of pearls: also to Mr. Ludwig Stross for much valuable information about Oriental pearl fisheries.

W. R. C.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE
DEEP BLUE SEA

The sea in all her moods has a strange fascination for the children of the dry land. The rumble and thunder of her never ending procession of rolling breakers, rising and falling, tumbling over the sands, to race hissing back to shelter under the curling crest of an eternal successor; the mad recurring dash which cannot be discouraged, of great waters upon unyielding rocks whose grim faces smile at the spume fountains falling back upon them; the wash and mutter of rocky shoals; the suck and bellow of her caverns and the monotone she chants, heedless of hearers to the ages; all these charm the hearts of men and bring them into the fellowship of spirits they feel, but cannot understand. For the moods of the sea and the ways of the wind are akin to the heart of a man. His eyes dance with the flicker of light in the path of the sun over watery wastes; his breast heaves in unison with the multitudinous swellings of the sea; he finds peace in the slumber of her calms and exults in her mad race before the drive of the tempest, but he seldom thinks below the surface and knows little of the things she hides in her deeps. Yet a world lives there, very strange and full of enchantments. Sheltered under the breasts of the sea and undisturbed by the furies of the upper world, myriads of living creatures, graceful, beautiful, wonderful, traverse the peaceful depths. In the vast and fathomless solitudes, things grow and take on form, meet for the eyes of the gods. In everlasting touch with soft currents, trees of coral grow from rocky beds and finny tribes of every shape and hue glide in and out among their fantastic branches. Water covering all, on hills, plateaus, shelving stretches, sandy bars and rocky shoals; in valleys, chasms and even in the dread abysses, are things as strange to man as Jupiter or Saturn holds; weird as the creatures of our dreams; uncanny as the pictures a riotous imagination paints and some as beautiful.

Near the shore and a few miles out, where the bottom of the sea is but a few fathoms deep and where man can go and come and live, there are among other marvellous creations, shells of wonderful structure and beautiful to look upon. One by one these have been discovered during past ages by the adventurous and for their usefulness or beauty have awakened the desire of those who dwell upon the earth. The chank, the sacred shell of the Hindus, has been used by the priests of Buddha for centuries as a horn to call the faithful. Shankar the Destroyer, of Hindu mythology, and Vishnu, each hold a chank shell in one of their hands.

The shell whorl usually runs from left to right, sometimes it is found with the whorl reversed and these were so highly regarded by Hindus, Cingalese and Chinese that in old times they were sold for their weight in gold. Even now they bring a good price in the eastern markets. They are kept in the pagodas of China to hold the sacred oil: the priests of Ceylon administer medicine by them. In Dacca the chank is cut into armlets and anklets for Hindu women upon whose persons they are left after death. The delicate pink cameos carved from the Queen Conch have delighted feminine eyes of almost every race. The Pearly Nautilus decks many a dainty lady's table and is wrought into a thousand quaint conceits. The silky byssus of the Pinna has been woven into fabrics of such fineness as to be thought worthy of acceptance by Popes and princes.

Before Europe knew of their existence, the people of China and Japan, the Maoris of New Zealand, the Indians of our Pacific coast and the brown skinned natives of far-off islands of the Southern Seas, were delighting themselves with the magnificent coloring and iridescence of the Haliotis even as ancient Greece and Rome made ornaments from the "Venus Ear-shell," as they called it, brought from the ruder coasts and islands further west. In these later days the costly outer garments of proud dames are ornamented with buttons cut from the same resplendent shell. But of all the beautiful things old ocean pays as tribute to the adventurous spirit of man, the pearl-oyster and the gem found sometimes in it are most precious.

From unknown times when man discovered them until now, mother-of-pearl shells and their pearly treasures have held desire constant and the eyes of modern queens brighten when the opening of the gift casket reveals a string of these spheres of beauty just as eyes did in the far-off Indies thousands of years ago. When Europe was a land of barbarians and America an unknown country of savages, dusky fingers that held the life and destiny of millions, toyed lovingly with pearls, even as now the favored few who enter the sanctum sanctorum of fortune, pride themselves in the possession of them and find pleasure for cloyed desire, in every addition to their store.

In all ages, pearls have been the social insignia of rank among the highly civilized. No other gem was so abundantly used for adornment by the princes of the east. Above great diamonds from the mines of India or glowing rubies from Burmah, the ocean gem became peerless among the ancient nations of Asia and as their power began to wane and the tide of empire swept westward, there went with it the love of pearls. The rulers of Rome when she was Empress of the world sought pearls, so also have the rich and powerful of every nation as it rose to affluence, and now in this new western star of Empire the men who hold the vast wealth of these United States in their hands, when they place their consorts on the last plane of social eminence, buy pearls.

Before the machine-like system of modern industry had combined ownership and seized the vast natural reservoirs which hold the diamonds of Africa, and brought the output to a known average yield of so many carats to so many loads, and established the cost of mining, washing, shipping and marketing, separately or together, to the fraction of a penny, there was a fascination in the hunt for diamonds there, the charm of which drew thousands to the fields.

From the discovery of them as baubles in the hands of children and the Hottentots, or plastered in the mud walls of Boer farm-houses through the search for them along the Vaal River, to the time where findings led men to the kopjes, which capped the great chimneys of diamond bearing clay, where they staked and worked their individual claims, the ever present hope of finding a royal gem among the small stones which formed the every-day yield, gave edge to appetite and the spur to toil, and the stories of fortunes diverted from one man to another by the lapse of a few minutes at the beginning or expiration of a lease, or by the line separating the mining rights of one from another, read like fairy tales.

More exciting yet is the search for them when, as in Brazil, they lie scattered over the river beds where one man hunts in vain and another by chance stumbles upon a pocket full, or as in India, where one must dig for them blindly into detrital matter ten or twelve feet under a later covering of earth. Who has not felt the stir of it while reading of miners in Brazil using diamonds worth a king's ransom as counters in their games of chance, or of a naked Hindu, emaciated and diseased carrying about his person, wrapped in a bit of soiled cloth, a gem found by chance which the richest prince of India would covet. So also do the tales of rubies brought from Death's Valley of Burmah renew within us the glow which fired the heart of youth when we read of Aladdin and his lamp.

But none of these are so redolent of romance as the story of the pearl. Beneath the rolling of the sea, where the waves pace softly and restlessly like caged lions, or lift themselves roaring to answer the voice of the storm; where at times the water lies green and placid under burning skies; at times, lashed by tornado and monsoon, becoming a seething caldron of black perdition; where spice-laden vessels sail, and where in the old days, privateers and pirates lay in wait for prey, there, at the bottom of the sea, unruffled by storm or pirate, unmindful of sun and calm, myriads of delicate creatures toil ceaselessly to strew old ocean's bed with gems. The chaste spheres with which you toy, while counting up the cost of hanging them round some fair neck, at one time lay fathoms deep, the ocean rolling over them. Dusky fishermen, at risk of life, brought them up and turbanned merchants gave great sums of money to own them; ships carried them, and dealers in precious things handled, sorted, examined and matched them, ere they came to rest in festooned rows within the velvet covers your jeweller opens to you.

THE RAJAH OF DHOLPUR
Whose pearls were valued at $7,500,000

On almost every tropical sea that washes a shore near the equator, when the time of storm is over, boats ride over the shallows, and men dive from them for the pearl oyster as they have done for ages. Black slaves for Arab masters in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf: Tamil and Singhalese in the Indian waters: Polynesians about the islands of the South Seas: Indians and other natives along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of tropical America, and not a few white men in "dress" off the coasts of Australia. Your pearls have seen the dusky man-fish come silently and swiftly from the world of air to wrench the gaping shells that held them, from their anchorage. It may be your pearl lay twenty fathoms deep in the clear water of some lonely atoll in the great Pacific, among branching coral, and found its way from water's solitudes to the light of the Sun and admiring eyes by the hand of a bright-eyed Polynesian. It may have come from Egypt or the Indies, from Australia or Mexico; but from whatever quarter of the globe it came and by whom, it was born and grew somewhere at the bottom of the sea.

A PEARL OF LEGEND

Long ago, ere the great Nations of Europe came into existence; before Rome was, or Greece had made history: when the power of the Earth dwelt in the lands of the Sun and was for good or evil in the hands of princes, there lived in Travancore a ruler of renown. Of those who came from the north, he with his followers had subjugated the fierce native tribes inhabiting the country for many miles along the seacoast and back to the mountainous interior. Over all, to the utmost bounds of his territory, the land was fertile and very beautiful. Along the shores, but a short distance from the ocean, were numerous shallow stretches of water, formed by the meeting of the inland streams with the swift current of the sea which there sweeps the coast. In them fish abounded, yet were they free from the dangers of the outer waters, so that young and old could there disport themselves without fear. Though the tropic heat was often great there were no parched and barren wastes in the land, for the rains were many and the streams which ran to the sea from the mountains were numerous. Everywhere luxuriant verdure swayed to breezes that played to and fro over the rolling lowlands and about the hillsides, now coming from the water and now from the mountains. Coffee, rice, the palm, cocoanut, the areca-nut, the pepper, tamarind, and other tropical fruits and trees grew in rank abundance, and huge forest timbers sheltered many noble creatures of the wild.

At the first coming of this prince, fighting was constant and bloody. The hill tribes, more war-like than those of many lands, made frequent descents from their fastnesses, seeking by every ruse of barbarous warfare to exterminate the intruder. But this man was wary and alert. Possessing the confidence of his followers, they obeyed him with unquestioning obedience. Quick to move, merciless in his reprisals, he was soon feared by all the surrounding country and as it became known that he was also just and generous, peace presently followed.

Then did he seek to establish his kingdom wisely and well. He encouraged his subjects to cultivate the land, to fish the waters, and to trade with those who came by ship and over-land bringing all manner of things for barter.

Though he and his people were devout believers in the Veda, yet did he tolerate the faith of others, and considered the low-born, for Brahmanism had not yet established the extremes of caste which came later. He himself was a Kshattriya but he ruled the Brahmans and would not permit injustice to the Sudras, therefore was he as a god among his people.

And this prince was good to look upon. Tall and straight as a tree of the forest, the fine lines of his grave impassive face were made alive by the light of eyes keen as an eagle's, inscrutable as those of a lion when he looks beyond.

One son only had he, for the others had all fallen in battle. The son was like the sire, and the father's heart was knit to him as steel when it is welded.

Now the time came when it was good that the young prince should marry, for he was man-grown and had been invested with the sacrificial cord. So the prince his father said to him, "My son, thou standest alone to guard the manes of thy fathers. It is meet that the sons of my son be alive upon the earth, that when the time is come I die in peace and return to the place from whence I came, in confidence. I will find for thee a wife." And the young prince answered, "Let it be as my lord wills."

Now there was in the country beyond the hills, on the eastern coast of India, a prince whose daughter was famed for her beauty and he also was Kshattriya. To him the ruler of Travancore sent certain of those who were near him, and a wise priest in whom he had great confidence, to treat with the father of the maid. And these when they had arrived, made haste to do their lord's bidding, nor was it difficult to obtain his desire, for the prince of Travancore was in great repute. So as soon as could be, the maid become the wife of the heir of Travancore.

Report had not lied concerning the beauty of the girl, and such other qualities had she that the heart of her husband melted to her and became as the gold of a jewel when it holds a ruby most precious.

In due time a son was born to them, and the father and his sire and all the people with them were exceeding glad, for said they, "Now is wisdom and power established on the throne of Travancore and a son's son will guard the name of our lord."

Now when the princess was a maid in the land of her father, a Rover from the coast of Kandy had greatly desired her, and when she was carried away to Travancore he was very wroth. It was told that he would seek vengeance, but another year passed and another son came and both the children and the mother thrived.

But one day, when many sea-boats lay within the harbor of a city of Travancore where much trading was done with men who came from far-off countries and when multitudes were gathered there, it chanced that the princess passed by the market-place. Suddenly, a great number of them that were there from foreign shores, gathered together, and drawing swords, rushed upon the guards which accompanied her. These, with the bearers they over-powered, and ere the bewildered populace knew the meaning of the tumult, the princess was dragged from her attendants and hurried to a boat waiting and ready to sail. Immediately this glided swiftly toward the sea followed by many others manned by ruffians who had lately mingled with the men on shore as peaceful traders. They were followers of the Kandy Rover.

In a very little while, the King, with the trusted priest of his household, the prince and many picked men of the King's body-guard rode furiously to the water-side. The face of the King was very stern, but only in the flashings of his eyes could be seen the unrelenting vengeance which moved him. Quietly he gave orders to man his ships of war. Then it was found that every one of them had been damaged. Not until the sailors made ready to sail were the hindrances observable, and in no case was the evil great, or so that it could not be presently repaired, for fearing discovery the doers of it sought only to delay the sailing of the King's ships, as the ships of the Rover were swift, and after they were out of the harbor, Travancore had none which could overtake them. Then was the wrath of the King terrible to look upon.

Now while the prince and his followers chafed, and the dismayed populace watched the work of the men who sought to make the boats ready to sail, the King filled them with the fiercest of his soldiers, being resolved that if the pirate escaped him on the sea he would follow him to his lair with swift and overwhelming vengeance. While these things were being done, the Rover passed out to the open sea and in sight of all the people turned his prows to the south.

Then the Brahman, standing where the lapping waters encircled his feet, stretched forth his hands toward the white sails as they spread to the west wind and called upon Shankar to destroy the despoiler. Immediately the wind died out and the ships were becalmed. Then the heart of the King swelled with fierce joy.

At his orders all the lighter boats were filled with men and oars were provided that they might row to the attack, and the young prince stood in the front of the fastest one. But while the people whetted themselves for battle, the Brahman still stood and prayed. And presently the air became thick. Though no clouds appeared the sky faded rapidly from sight, and the sun could no more be seen and the light of it was as the color of fire in thick smoke only.

Darkness as of chaos and a silence like that of a dead world encompassed the people, and a great dread gripped them. Suddenly there came from the sea a breath of sighing broken by sobs very heartrending, and this was followed by the sound of churning and lashing water. Soon a furious wind swept the coast in gusts which rested only that they might gather strength to rage, as the rush of rioters is momentarily stayed between whiles. And the black air, writhing like smoke, was driven hither and thither, and shaken by the din of thunder. Fierce lightnings pierced the darkness and in passing gave lurid glimpses of the sea's frenzy and the wind-swept earth. But though the storm raged so that the roaring sickened the hearts of the people, the Brahman remained unmoved, his hands stretched toward the sea where the Rover and his fleet were when it began.

Presently the wind passed, and the people looking seaward saw that there were no ships there, but the foam of the surf was black with wreckage, and tossing in it were the forms of dead men. The Rover and his followers had all perished. But the joy of the King and his people was savage, and their thoughts were black, for the princess was with them that were destroyed. Then the people made haste to spread themselves along the coast to watch if perchance the gods might cast her ashore alive, but no living thing appeared, neither was her body seen.

Now while these things were being done, great clouds, very thick and black, gathered, and rolling together, poured themselves in torrents into the sea. So thickly did the rain fall that the waves were beaten down and the sea became as a threshing-floor on which the rain fell white and hissing. The Brahman watching, said "Behold! the Heavens weep," and turning, he went straightway to the temple.

For many hours thereafter did the torrents fall and all Travancore mourned, the lamentations of the people being very loud, for the King and his son were much beloved and it was known that the prince was sorely distressed, and the more so that his sword must needs be idle for there were none left upon whom he could take vengeance.

Now when the elements were at peace again, the King gave orders that certain fishermen of his people who were expert divers, should explore the bottom of the sea where the ships of the Rover were destroyed. One of these discovered the body of the princess and brought it to shore. And when they prepared it for burial, the women found fastened upon one of the hands a shell-fish, the two shells of which had closed upon a finger when it fell between them as they gaped. And when the shells were pried apart, there rolled from between them a round bone, white and shining, yet of a luster so soft and beautiful that no man had seen the like. And the Brahman when he saw it said, "Herein are the tears of Heaven which fell into the sea congealed and have become a gem which is beyond price." And he named it "Pearl," and carried it to the King. Then the King after he had heard the story of it, sent for the chief man of them that worked in gold and commanded him that he make for the pearl a setting most precious, and when it was done he gave it to the prince his son saying, "Above all things let this be first among the jewels of Travancore for-ever." And the prince when he looked upon it said, "The beauty of it is like the brightness of her eyes when they veiled themselves before my passion," and he prized it more than all the diamonds and rubies in his treasure-house.

From that day, when the fishermen dived for the chank, they sought also for shells like unto that in which the King's pearl was found, and after great rains many more pearls were brought from the depths of the sea, and fishermen following the coast, found them on the shoals between India and Kandy in great plenty. These were carried to the King, for no man dared to sell them, yet did the King reward the finders very liberally. So the store of them in the King's treasury grew, and for that there were no gems like them in all the earth, the fame of them spread, and travellers came from many and far-off lands to look upon the pearls of Travancore.

ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL

How long the pearl has been used as a jewel is unknown. It is seen all through the pages of history, from the long ago days when records were inscribed on the leaves of plants, to the rapid-fire prints of to-day, which unceasingly scatter to myriads the knowledge of things as they occur.

Back of history, pearls loom everywhere in the mists of tradition like delicate but imperishable orbs of beauty set in the smoulder of burned out days and passions. And wherever their tranquil light attracts the eye of imagination, the ghosts of the great are seen, for pearls lie in the hair of royalty and clasp the fair necks of Queens. Upon them shine the eyes of turbanned princes who valued them above the blood and life of thousands of subjects. Shades of imperious fingers, long since fallen to the elements, toy with them: they deck the spectral gatherings of the mighty in all lands and ages, and there is no dream of song or story which does not hold them among the chief enchantments. As the fair moon hangs from the brow of night when she broods over lonely waters, so does the pearl shine in the shades of the ages.

In this country abundant evidence exists that before the advent of the white man, or of the red-skins as we know them, the aborigines, from the cold rise of the Mississippi to the glades of Florida, used them for their adornment. In savage wilds, and on coasts that knew not the sight of ships or other shores, copper-skinned natives treasured the glistening things they found in the mollusks of the sea-shoals and inland streams. Quantities of pearls have been found in the Indian mounds, many of them loose, others strung for necklaces and wristlets, some mounted in quaint and primitive fashion, all showing that in the days of unbroken forests and swarming game and roving tribes of untrammeled savages, in the tepees of the braves, their queens wore pearls even as they are worn now by fairer successors in the palaces reared where once were forests and camping-grounds. In those days the savage lords of the undivided earth knew nothing of whirring lathes and drills; of hardened points of steel turning with lightning rapidity and unerring precision. Slowly they burned a way through the gem with hot copper wire, destroying thereby with ruthless ignorance the delicate beauty of jewels fit for royalty. To them the slender prongs of gold with which the modern jeweller holds the lustrous balls, uncovered and in safety, were unknown. Instead, the savage set them in holes bored in the teeth of animals, possibly to enhance the relics of a great fight with some fierce beast that succumbed finally to his prowess: possibly to add beauty to the grim reminders of her lord's valor when he hung them round the neck of a favored mate. The Indian of this continent was much more primitive in the art of the jeweller than in the manufacture of implements for war and the chase. Gaudy colors extracted from plants and minerals appealed more to his unthinking eye than a chaste form of beauty. With these he could stain his blankets, record on skins of slaughtered animals his deeds, or paint in hideous signs upon his face the malignancy of war. His time and thought and ingenuity were given to things which would contribute to his master passion and glorify its deeds. The scalps of his enemies, the skins of animals he slaughtered, the feathers of birds that fell to his unerring arrow, the teeth of bears and mountain lions slain in desperate encounters, these were his jewels. Nor was his sexual instinct sufficiently refined to enthrone his mate. She was his slave, and her reward for toil was pride in his deeds and glory. He knew little of the tender homage which brings gifts and lays them at the feet of woman. Instinctively he made a setting for his pearls of bears' teeth, that they might carry the scent of blood and tell the story of his conquest. Nevertheless, among these rude tribes of wolfish savages, sequestered from the touch of other people more refined, the modest pearl found favor, and in it they unconsciously paid tribute to one of the purest forms of beauty. But even this recognition must have been the growth of years, possibly of ages, for not until the understanding of worth has become general among a people is value established, and only things valuable are stored. As desire for a thing for its inherent qualities spreads, there is added a larger number of those who seek to possess it for the profit they can make in supplying that desire. Not many years ago, fishermen along the streams of remote parts of Kentucky had no eye for the beauty of a pearl, and no knowledge that men and women lived who prized them. If while fishing, the fisherman's hook fell between the gaping valves of a mollusk it was immediately seized. The disgusted angler thereupon angrily pulled the nuisance out, and if upon disengaging the hook from the bivalve, he found within the shells a pearl, it was immediately tossed back into the stream for luck; for the beginning of a day's sport with a catch of that kind was ill-luck and the fates could only be appeased by the finding of a pearl, or a "mussel egg" as he would call it, in the mollusk, and its return to the water. There lives yet on the banks of the Clinch River, an old pearler, the distress of many a speculator for his knowledge of pearls and their value, who sometimes sorrowfully relates how he thus in bygone years angrily threw away many good pearls, one of them the finest "ball" pearl he has ever seen. If these gems were so regarded by the ignorant white settlers of the west until the advent of men who had learned to appreciate them either for their beauty or the price they would bring from the outside world, it may be surmised that the awakening of the ancient Indian to their beauty, must have been a much slower process, unassisted as it was by men from beyond their limits who had long regarded them as precious. At first, probably, pearls were thrown to the children as playthings, as diamonds were in the Cape: then the young squaws gradually opened their eyes to the fact that the white shining things enhanced the charms of their smooth copper skins by contrast: the brave sought them to please the maid he would bring to his tepee: perhaps rovers brought news that in the far south, in lands of houses and teocalli and much magnificence, or farther off among the Incas, these baubles were prized by the chiefs. So gradually it dawned upon some that the "eggs" of the mollusk were beautiful, and upon others that they could be bartered for skins, blankets, or arrows, possibly for a pony, and so they came to be gathered and stored and displayed as things which enriched the owner.

How far back in the ages the use of pearls on this continent extends cannot be estimated. The discovery of them in the mounds east of the Mississippi, which are credited to an ancient race that finally succumbed to the similar but more war-like red men found here when the country was discovered by Europeans, suggests many centuries. And the use of pearls to the extent manifest by the discoveries, favors the theory that the mound-builders had reached a degree of refinement never attained by the North American Indians of record. When white men invaded the North American continent, they found tribes of red men as rugged as the coasts of New England. Inured to hardships, despising pain, contemptuous of death, they lived by hunting and found their chief pleasure in the slaughter of their enemies. Camping at will, their lodges were here to-day and there to-morrow, and brutal if heroic, they roamed over fields once inhabited by a race which had passed, but left evidence that they were sufficiently civilized to appreciate the pearl.

In Florida and South America, the conditions, when the country was discovered by the Spaniards, were different. The ancient races, corresponding with the mound-builders of the north, undisturbed by the incursions of stronger tribes, had continued to progress and had reached a high degree of barbarous luxury.

In Mexico, when Montezuma gave audience to Cortez, he was ablaze with gold and silver and precious stones. His cloak and sandals were adorned with pearls. Pearls were used to decorate temples, canoes and even the paddles. Indian women had great strings of them coiled around their necks and arms, and the chiefs used them freely on all occasions of state. It was the same on the Colombian coasts.

At the island of Cubagua and on the main coast, Columbus found great quantities of pearls, as did De Soto and his followers when they landed at Tampa Bay, known by the Spaniards as "Spiritu Santo," in Florida in 1539. The Incas of Peru also owned many fine pearls. Though the natives of all these countries ignorantly injured the gems by cooking the oyster to extract them, or by their crude methods of boring, and reckoned them of little value as compared with the European idea, they nevertheless esteemed them as jewels and must have done so for ages, for the invaders found them in the sepulchres of the dead, so altered by the processes of time that they retained nothing of their original beauty.

From these premises therefore it can be said of the antiquity of the pearl in this hemisphere, that it had been used as a jewel for some centuries before the early part of the sixteenth century.

The European regard for the pearl at this time may be estimated by the eagerness with which pearls were sought on the American continent by the adventurers of Spain, and by the pains they took on the arrival here of a new expedition, to convey assurances to the King of Spain that pearls were to be had in the new conquest. In the commission appointing De Soto to the governorship of Cuba, and as adelantado of Florida, Charles V. stipulated that of the gold, silver, stones and pearls, obtained by barter or in battle or otherwise, a certain portion should be reserved for the Crown.

In all the courts of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the pearl was, if not the chief, one of the most prominent jewels. Mary, Queen of Scots, possessed a rosary of pearls which excited the envy of Catherine de Médicis and Elizabeth of England, both of whom sought diligently to acquire them when the Scotch Queen became mired by misfortune.

The virgin queen of England when she went in state to chapel, wore pendent pearls in her ears after the fashion of Rome, and borders of large pearls fastened on her dress. When in her time Sir Thomas Gresham of London, a wealthy subject, wished to show the Spanish Ambassador, who had boasted of the magnificence of his Sovereign's court, how prodigal her liege subjects could be in her honor, nothing occurred to him more striking than to grind to powder a large pearl and mix it with the wine he drank to her health. This act of the English merchant shows that the pearl was then regarded by the great as the acme of costliness and beauty.

From the reign of Francis I. of France to that of Louis XIII. the pearl was prominent in all jewels of note, and from that time to the death of Maria Theresa of Austria toward the close of the eighteenth century, it was worn in preference to all other gems. It was during the reign of Louis XIII. that Tavernier, the celebrated French Jeweller and traveller, assisted by that monarch, made his journeys into Asia. The account of his travels, published later, are highly esteemed for their truthfulness, and are regarded as exact, if prosaic statements of fact.

The desire for the gem in Europe at this time was so great that Tavernier purchased over half a million dollars' worth from the Arabian Sea. Probably the immense quantities of pearls sent to Spain from the Indies by her rovers in the early part of the sixteenth century, caused the vogue of that gem during the three centuries following, for not much mention is made of them in western Europe prior to that time. Nevertheless pearls were esteemed in the British Isles as early as the eleventh century, for it is recorded that Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick, sent a present of Irish pearls from the fishery at Omagh, to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, about 1094, and Scotch pearls were not only in demand in Britain but on the continent also as early as the twelfth century. In 1355, the Parisian goldsmiths forbade by statute, workers in gold and silver to set Scotch pearls with the Oriental.

The Oriental pearl probably came into Europe first from Egypt through the incursions of the Macedonians into that country. Later, when Alexander overran Persia his followers doubtless became yet more familiar with the gem, for they spread through Arabia and the Persian Gulf where ancient fisheries also existed.

Pearls were not well known west and north of Asia and Africa at this time, for a writer of Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, about 350 B.C., which was but a few years before Alexander's conquest of Persia, says: "In the Indian Sea, off the coasts of Armenia, Persia, Susiana and Babylonia, a fish like an oyster is caught, from the flesh of which men pick out white bones called by them 'pearls'." This would indicate that knowledge of them was being carried at that time by returning soldiers, camp-followers and travellers, and these men probably brought home also many of the "white bones" obtained by trade or looting. Whatever the method by which they were introduced, pearls came into favor, and the favor increased as they were brought with other jewels from the looted treasuries of eastern potentates. The Macedonians established fisheries in the Red Sea, where the Egyptians obtained their chief supply, and the Romans later brought them also from the Arabian Sea.

Three centuries B.C., the power of the Macedonians commenced to wane; Rome began to rise and overrun the countries which had been subject to the Macedonians; and pearls were thereby carried further west. The Romans adopted the pearl as a jewel of the first importance if not the chief of all, probably because they had found them so regarded by the older royalties they plundered. As the riches of surrounding and far-off countries which she raided, poured into the coffers of Rome, and the city grew to be the centre of power and wealth, the excesses of the rich became ludicrous to the verge of insanity. In their wild extravagances the pearl was prominent.

Affected doubtless by the splendor of Asiatic courts, the rude soldiers of Rome learned to regard the pearl as a royal luxury, and therefore adopted it as a sign of great wealth and power. Enormous sums were paid for pearls of rare size and beauty. Great leaders of men vied with each other in the effort to add to their collections. It is said that Julius Cæsar's chief incentive for pushing his conquests into the west so far, was his desire to obtain the pearls to be found in the streams of the British Isles. The Emperor Caligula decked his favorite horse with a necklace of pearls. Pliny says of Lollia Paulina, Caligula's wife, that he had seen her so bedecked with pearls and precious stones that "she glittered and shone like the sun as she went." Clodius, the glutton, claiming for them a very delicate flavor, placed one by the plate of each guest at a great banquet to be mixed with the wine. This same profligate, either setting the example or emulating Cleopatra, swallowed in a cup of wine one worth eight thousand pounds that he might have the pleasure of consuming so much value at once.

If in the intrigues so common then, a woman's influence was required, pearls were given her. To convey an indirect bribe to a man of high station a pearl of great price was presented to a member of his family. Women wore them while they slept that they might possess them in their dreams; they hung them in loose clusters suspended from the ears, that the tinkling might remind them of the beauty they could not see, and to attract the admiration and envy of others. These were called "crotalia," meaning "rattles." Young men of fortune in Athens and Rome followed the Persian fashion of wearing one in the right ear, hung as a clapper in a small bell of metal. So strong and general did the desire to own them become that Cæsar forbade unmarried women, and women under a certain rank, to wear them.

Perhaps never in the history of jewels has the vogue of one so nearly approached a frenzy as that of the pearl in Rome during her days of extreme power and grandeur. The high esteem in which it was held there is reflected in the Scriptures. The Saviour used it in His parables as a symbol. The gates of the Holy City, as the prophet John saw it in his vision, were pearls. From that time until now, writers have used pearls to symbolize purity, innocence and the highest type of feminine beauty. To say that a woman's teeth were like pearls has been the poets' favorite adulation, and the discovery and sale of great pearls has been deemed of sufficient importance by travellers and historians to record them.

Much of the literature of pearls is founded on the statements of Pliny regarding them: many, if not most, of the absurd beliefs as to their origin and superstitions concerning them, may be traced to the same source; and though these ancient errors have been repeatedly exposed by later scientists and naturalists the poetic absurdities of the industrious Roman compiler, gathered from contemporaneous writers and tradition are current to-day, for they appeal more to the child-like human love of the indefinite wonderful than the exact statements of research, though the latter are really more marvellous.

Though jewels are regarded by many as baubles and of little account among the great commercial interests of the world, they have been an important factor in shaping the destiny of nations, changing the borders of great countries and thereby aiding the progress of civilization. As pearls helped materially to bring Rome to the British Isles and the colonists of Spain to South America, so it is quite probable that the pearls of Egypt had their influence in drawing the Macedonians to that country, to be followed by the Romans when the latter sought to overturn the Macedonian empire. Beyond this, their influence among those who held the reins in the government of empires, or those having power with them that did, cannot be estimated.

Passing beyond the days of Greece and Rome to more remote times and countries, we come to the realms of conjecture. We know that pearls were known and used as jewels in Egypt under the Ptolemies. Chares of Mytilene mentioned that they were worn by women of the East about the neck and arms and even upon the feet. It is said there is a word for them in a Chinese dictionary four thousand years old.

There is evidence that they had been used in India and the far East long before the West had knowledge of those countries, but we have nothing recorded which penetrates the past beyond three to four hundred years B.C., for there is not as much mention made of them in ancient writings familiar to the West as of other precious stones. Nevertheless the pearl is among the most ancient in the nomenclature of jewels because when it did come to be written of only the one thing could be meant. Nature produces nothing similar with which it could be confounded, whereas it is not certain that the diamond, ruby, and other stones as we know them, were intended when the names by which we designate them were used. Such indiscriminate use of names has been made by translators that it is difficult to determine what the stones really were about which ancient authors wrote. The names of those in the Jewish High Priest's breastplate, given in our English version of the Old Testament, undoubtedly misrepresent the stones actually used, and the only thing authorities agree upon regarding the names is that they are incorrect.

As there was no definite knowledge of the crystallography and chemistry of stones in the old days, writers referred to them often in general terms rather than by specific names, and these were translated into the names of later times according to the understanding of the translator, who had neither expert knowledge of his own nor reliable literature from which to gather information or guidance. An illustration of this general confusion occurs in the book of Job XXVIII. 18. It is written there, "No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls; for the price of wisdom is above rubies." Scholars tell us that the words translated here "coral" and "pearls," signify "found in high places," and are thought to be precious stones though the variety is unknown. The Targum renders the first "Sandalchin," probably our sardonyx. Junius and Tremellius translated it "Sandaztros" in their Latin version of the Old Testament, whereas Pliny described it as a sort of carbuncle having shining golden drops in the body of it.

After the same manner the last sentence, "For the price of wisdom is above rubies" is rendered by the great oriental scholar Bochart, "The extraction of wisdom is greater than the extraction of pearls," and other authorities agree with him.

Although there is evidence that many if not all the precious stones of to-day were known and used by the ancients, it is equally evident that they were much confounded and very roughly classified by general appearance only, and as various peoples gave them different names, all records of them are as misleading as the recorders were ignorant of their differential qualities. Even with the rapid increase of knowledge in the last few centuries, not until quite lately has science drawn the lines clearly between stones similar in appearance though essentially different and furnished means for the detection of those inherent differences. It is impossible therefore to learn by ancient writings how long any of the precious stones have been known and used as jewels, for we do not know positively what the stone was by the name given in old writings or by the translator of them. The pearl only has not been thus generally confounded with other gems.

Once only are pearls mentioned in the Old Testament—the instance quoted from the book of Job. It would seem therefore, that although used as jewels, they were not regarded as of great value in the East prior to about 400 years B.C., at which time the last of the sacred Jewish books is supposed to have been written. True, royalty wore them in Egypt and the people of Persia and Arabia used them very generally for personal adornment; but they were abundant in those countries and there had been no demand for them beyond their borders, therefore, though beautiful, they were common and not appreciated fully. Upon the influx of foreign invaders from shores that yielded no such gems their status changed rapidly. The greedy avidity with which Greeks and Romans seized them, and the demand for them from the West which came later, gave these natives of pearl-producing shores a new idea of the value of their pearls and the trinkets became gems.

It was a condition similar to that which arose nineteen hundred years later when the Spaniards invaded America. At their first coming the natives gave them freely large quantities of pearls and gleefully traded magnificent gems for broken pieces of gaudily painted and varnished porcelain. As one to-day might take a new acquaintance for a day's fishing to a well-stocked stream, so the Indians took the Spaniards to the pearl banks to show them how they obtained their pearls. With pleasure and probably some amusement, they watched the eagerness with which the strangers sought the pearls, and doubtless wondered at the gratification displayed when they found any.

The Egyptians and Asiatics being more highly civilized undoubtedly valued their pearls more than the South American Indians did, but naturally they would not appreciate them so highly as they did after foreign desire had depleted their hoards and established a constant demand for them, greater than the yield of their fisheries.

That this condition prevailed in Egypt and Asia prior to the advent of Europeans, is indicated by the apparent ignorance of the writer of the book of Job concerning pearls. The word used in Chapter XXVIII. 18 is simply the translator's sign for an unknown quantity, and as the pearl is an apt symbol and illustration of many ideas connected with or embodied in the cult of the Jewish Church, the fact that the Jewish writers did not so use it, though the precious metals and other precious stones were so used, and though their books were written in various countries, suggests that the pearl in those days was not reckoned of equal importance with gold and silver and stones like those set in the Jewish High Priest's breastplate for instance.

That a very considerable change in the world's estimate of the pearl took place during the four centuries B.C. is illustrated by the references made to pearls in the New Testament. Rome had made of the "white bones from a shell-fish" of the fourth century B.C., a gem for the rich and powerful and so generally established it in the public estimation that the sacred writers used it to illustrate their greatest conceptions of beauty and spiritual worth.

The Saviour likened the Kingdom of Heaven to "a pearl of great price:" under the similitude of pearls He counseled the reservation of holy things from men incapable of appreciating them. Paul and John numbered them among the costly adornments in the pride of life and with the most precious articles of merchandise. From that day, with the extension of commerce, and the growth of Western nations in affluence and refinement, the demand for pearls grew and spread until even the rude island of Britain learned to appreciate them.

The quantities of large and beautiful pearls stored in the treasure-houses of Hindu princes suggest that they have existed as jewels in India for a very long period, but for how many centuries cannot be definitely stated. The probability is that in very remote ages, rude fishermen of tropic seas all over the world, while fishing for food were attracted by the lustrous objects found occasionally in the oysters which they gathered and that they saved them as things likely to please some maid or matron of their affections. A favor for them once established, they would be sought, and with the growth of intelligence and refinement would come increased appreciation. There is a close analogy in all things between the development of the individual and nations, and even of the world. Each progresses on the same lines, the difference consists in the magnitude and duration of the processes only.

To the child, pearls are playthings; to youth, pretty baubles; to mature years, important gems; to age, most beautiful and wonderful creations, and the more intelligent and refined the individual, the more quickly are these stages of regard reached.

So probably, in countries where they were found, pearls have risen with the evolution of a great nation out of a primitive race, from the rude favor of toilers of the sea, to a high place in the esteem of the princes of a cultivated people. It is quite probable that when the Aryans from the north spread over India, they found pearls among the possessions of the natives of the Madras and Malabar coasts, if not of the interior and north, as Spain found them among the natives of South America. Having a higher order of intelligence, they would naturally estimate the gem as of greater value than the aborigines would.

As the invaders in the course of centuries gradually divided themselves into castes, the gem would come largely into the hands of the highest and its value would increase with the affluence of the ruling class, according to the ratio existing between their wealth and that of the average community; for the centralization of wealth establishes a price for its imperishable forms which debars the masses from ownership. So, probably, the Aryans from the north acquired the pearls they found in the possession of the Dasyus. When the shepherd invaders were settled in the territory they had conquered and became divided into castes of Vaisyas, Kshattriya and Brahman, pearls gravitated to the upper classes, to be garnered later by their princes as the government assumed a tyrannical form; and so it is that the great pearls of India found in ancient times are among the jewels of the princes of India, or of the Shah of Persia and the Afghan Ameers, who in turn looted some of the richest treasuries of India.

In countries east of India one can only imagine the history of pearls for there are no records of them. Year after year, for centuries and cycles, in undiscovered deeps, the beds of the sea were strewn with noble gems that through all their years of beauty lay neglected: the soft luster of succeeding charms appealed in vain for eyes which never came, and when the slow processes of time had brought decay they passed unseen to the catacombs of Nature.

So it was in many a tropic sea, on unknown shores and about islands holding strange creatures and stranger men. In the still, clear waters of far-away lagoons, treasures of pearls, released by the death of their creators, have rolled to a resting-place on coral reefs, to lie there until the sea, atom by atom, devoured them. Could all the pearls hoarded by every nation on earth be gathered together, the mighty sum would be small compared with the number of those which lie buried beneath the ocean.

But, one by one, slant-eyed Celestials, Maoris, Malays, Papuans, Polynesians and others, discovering, learned to prize and hoard the pearl. Then came men from far-off wonderlands, whose great ships spread their sails to the winds of the deep waters and who could endure for many days the solitudes of the great seas. These in the early days made war to plunder, but were replaced as the centuries passed, by others who gave gaudy beads and cloths of many colors and water that fired the soul and other wonderful things, in exchange for the white beads of the sea, and so the pearls of the unenlightened children of the South Seas passed to the princes of the West, even as the same restless spirits, spreading their sails to the winds of the great seas in the opposite direction, brought them east from more barbarous shores far away to the westward.

Our knowledge of pearls reaches back about twenty-three hundred years, through the writings of Pliny, who nearly nineteen hundred years ago gathered the facts of his day and the rumors of traditions concerning them. Beyond that we can only surmise that in prehistoric ages, with the dawn of intelligence in the infantile period of the race, men dwelling near tropic seas were attracted by them as children are by bright and pretty baubles; and that as humanity by families, tribes and nations, grew out of savagery to the mental stature of a man, so pearls grew to be jewels very precious.

THE FASHION OF PEARLS

Although the pearl like all other jewels, has had its periods of extreme and general public favor, unlike other gems if it is once appreciated by an individual or a nation it is never utterly discarded by either. If not the fashion, pearls are always in fashion. Far as we can look back among the dim, uncertain figures of the mystic past whose shades stand where the unknown multitudes have fallen, we find pearls.

The princes of India through all their generations, the dynasties of Egypt, the royalties of Persia, the wild chiefs of Arab tribes, the potentates of Greece, Rome and Venice, the houris of Turkey, the Queens of every European court, from the time they found a place in history until now, all wear pearls. At first thought this seems strange, for of all gems the origin of the pearl is most humble. No titanic forces, groaning in the travail of subterranean convulsions, crushed and ground and fired its particles to shape and beauty. It grew, a few fathoms deep, where the waters are at peace, in the embrace of a mollusk and out of its exudations.

PRINCESS ABAMALEK LAZAREFF
(From the painting by Vitelleschi)

From this lowly parentage it rises at once to a place among the noblest, for it is the aristocrat of gems and finds its warmest admirers among the aristocrats of all nations. The favorites of fortune the world over in all ages have succumbed to the modest beauty of the pearl. Its ascendancy marks not alone the refinement of the individuals with whom it finds favor, but the high status of the nation where it is widely appreciated. The pearl is the favorite of those who are surfeited with jewels. One may become tired of the diamond's splendor, but those who learn to appreciate the unobtrusive loveliness of the pearl, seldom lose that fondness for them which it develops. It is the one gem which does not satiate. The love of pearls usually marks a connoisseur of gems and one accustomed to the possession of jewels. Diamonds emblazon the gates of luxury but pearls are the familiars of the luxurious. Glittering gems are admired by all classes but usually the pearl is fully appreciated only by old countries and persons "to the manor born." It is in the treasure-houses of the princes of the Orient and among the jewels of great and noble families that one must look for the pearls gathered during the centuries. Except in Italy and Arabia, where all classes prize them, the pearl is not a jewel of the people, but of the gentry and the very rich who come in contact with them.

It is essentially a jewel for the wealthy. Unostentatious, exquisite, it is insufficient for those who have no other jewels and unfit for common wear. Of a nature too delicate for rough usage, it must be well cared for and properly housed. Even then the hand of time bears heavily upon it for it is susceptible to many influences which do not affect other gems. Comparatively soft, the lustrous skin is injured by rough and careless contact with other jewels. The gold of the setting, in time, cuts into the surface where it binds, or if it is pierced and strung, the rings of nacre about the orifices gradually peel away. Hot water injures it; gases discolor it. As the cheek of beauty grows dim with age, so gradually the brilliancy of youth fades from the pearl and the complexion of it is changed. And yet it retains a certain loveliness which may well be compared to the exquisite serenity with which the maturer years of some women are adorned.

The pearl, therefore, being essentially a jewel of the rich, is not affected as others by the whims of fashion. In Oriental countries, where the lives of the masses and what little property they hold are practically at the mercy of their rulers, the centuries make little change in conditions and less in fashions. The nobles have always possessed the jewels of the various eastern countries and the fashion continues through generations and dynasties, to accumulate and hold them until some stronger power takes them away by force. As the people hammered heavy bracelets and anklets out of the precious metals, not alone for display, but also to hoard them, so their princes hoarded jewels.

In the old times these hoards of the precious metals were periodically gathered by the requisitions of the princes on the people, and of jewels by the demands of a successful invader upon the princes; but while the possessors changed, the fashion remained always the same, and whether the Shah of Persia, the Ameer of Afghanistan, or the Mogul, there has been no variation in the constant desire to obtain more jewels, pearls among them, and to display them after the same fashion through all the generations.

To some extent this is true of pearls in the Occident also. Since Rome set the fashion there has not been a time in the history of any European nation, once it had risen to the pearl-wearing eminence, when the upper classes did not wear pearls. There is this difference between the East and the West however; whereas the men of the East wear them, in the West, pearls are worn almost entirely by women alone. The more rugged life of European men, the coarser fabrics of their garments to suit climatic needs, and their virile distaste for effeminate display, all combine to bar them from a jewel suited only to soft silks and linens or the touch of softer flesh.

In ancient times, among Asiatics, fashion probably did not culminate in any direction, as to-day, in a vogue. The inability of the masses to follow a fashion of the upper classes, both for lack of means and permission to do so; the absence of all rapid methods of communication between sections of country within and without national borders, with the consequent limitations of a knowledge of men and things to community affairs, and the paucity of manufacturing possibilities, all combined to make fashions permanent. With the awakening of the vigorous barbarian tribes of Europe to a knowledge of their power, and their rapid civilization, came the frenzied desire of men new to the situation, to crowd as much as possible into the span of life.

Rome rioted in the accumulations of ages. With an appetite whetted by an heredity of unsatisfied desire, she drank the finest vintages and gourmandized the choicest morsels of the world, immune from present punishment for excess by a long ancestry of hard and simple life. Every land that she could reach, sent to her the best of all their products, and from the incoming tide of things new to her experience, she adopted many fashions, among them that of wearing pearls. For several centuries they were in vogue, so much so that edicts were issued restricting them to certain classes. Since that time, the very general use of them by persons of high station in Europe, beyond all other gems, seems to have been confined to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is now being revived at the opening of the twentieth.

There is one fashion of wearing pearls which is common to all ages and races, viz. strung as beads in chains to hang about the neck. The mound-builders of North America, the Indians of the Mississippi Valley, of Virginia, of the coasts of Florida, of the lands around the Gulf of Mexico and everywhere in New Spain, all wore them so. Egyptians, Persians, Arabians, Hindus, Singhalese and South Sea islanders, many of them without knowledge of countries or peoples beyond their own or very near territory, alike adopted this fashion. And it has been followed by every newer people, as they acquired by trade or the sword, the pearls with which to so adorn themselves.

In lands of tropic heat the women wound these strings of pearls about their arms, wrists and ankles also. Nor was the fashion confined to women. When the Spaniards first reached these shores, the caciques of Florida and the incas of Peru, on occasions of State, wore ropes of pearls around their necks, and so to this day do the rajahs and princes of India and the eastern islands. The more civilized peoples used round pearls, and became more critical about the quality and perfection of the gems as they grew in wealth and refinement.

The necklaces found in the Indian mounds are made principally of baroques, some of them rounded, but many of them long, slender pieces, bored a short distance from the thinner end, so that they hung in pendant festoons. As with all primitive races, the magnificence of size appealed to the Indians of this hemisphere, as it did also to the Spanish adventurers who first landed on the coasts of America. A chronicler of events during the time when De Soto was governor of the province which now forms several of the Southern States, mentions that a cacique brought as a present to the governor at the town of Ichiaha, a string of pearls as large as filberts, five feet long.

It is noticeable, that in all the accounts given of the wealth of pearls discovered in the possession of the natives, the Spaniards rarely say anything about the shape or quality of the pearls seen or taken, but always mention the size when large. They do, however, constantly deplore the discoloration caused by the use of fire in the process of boring them. One may imagine the chagrin of these freebooters on finding heaps of royal gems wrecked by the ignorance of the plundered; the value burned out of them, like bank notes for millions mutilated beyond redemption. The pearls composing this five-foot string were all discolored,—good enough for Indians, but of little value in Spain and Europe.

Round baroques are strung for necklaces to this day, especially in Italy, where the peasantry save from their small earnings the equivalent of two to three hundred dollars, to them an enormous sum, to buy the coveted necklace of pearls. These necklaces are composed usually of several strands of small rounded baroques weighing about one to two grains each and connected by bars. Usually there are three to five strands, but some are made with as many as eleven or twelve. Necklaces are made also in the same way, of small round pearls, and the bars, of which there are generally four, including that containing the clasp, are studded with diamonds.

The Asiatics prefer strings of large pearls, graduating in size on either side from a large central one. A number of these of increasing length and fastened together at the clasp are worn by Oriental royalties, so that each string festoons below the preceding one, the lowest and longest string sometimes hanging to the waist. There are few however even among the Hindu princes whose store of large pearls is equal to such prodigality.

When pearl necklaces were adopted by the Romans after their conquests in Egypt, Persia and India, they vied with the monarchs they had conquered, some of their rulers acquiring pearls of enormous value. The wife of Caligula owned pearls worth two million dollars, but Oriental treasure-houses held greater accumulations. The pearls of the late Rana of Dholpur in Upper India, were valued at seven and a half million dollars. From Rome the fashion spread with the advance of civilization through all the nations of Europe and followed their colonizations westward. Only in the last decade has the use of pearls in the United States become sufficiently general to place them in the list of things that are a fashion.

Many large pearls of pear, egg, or drop shape, and some round, are used as pendants, to be hung on slender gold neck chains, or suspended from brooches of diamonds. They are bored at the smaller end to a depth of about one-eighth of an inch, the hole is filled with a composition which hardens rapidly, and in this a gold wire, looped at one end for connecting, is inserted. Formerly the pearl was drilled quite through and the suspending wire riveted, but this is rarely done now as it lessens the value of the pearl and destroys the perfect pendant effect. This is a European fashion. The Chinese mount pearls by boring into the body of the pearl at two, three or four points and inserting the bent ends of spreading wires so that the gem is clasped as by spreading finger tips.

Pear-shaped pearls were used in Rome for pendant purposes as now and were known as "elenchi." After the Roman fashion of "crotalia" or "castanet" eardrops had passed, drop pearls continued in more or less favor throughout succeeding centuries as eardrops, the matching of one nearly doubling the value of both. Of late, egg and pear-shaped pearls have been used largely as heads for scarf pins. They are drilled and set on a gold wire or "pegged" as it is called, in the manner described for pendants but with the smaller end resting upon a light gold ring soldered to the scarf pin, or in a small cup, so that the pressure, while inserting the pin, is distributed over the body of the pearl and upon the end, instead of upon the inner wall in contact with the end of the pin.

The Persians used pearls largely in the jewelling of royal headgear, for Pompey is said to have brought home twenty crowns of pearls with the loot from his eastern raid. Hindu princes strung them on straight wires of equal length and bound a number of them together, to be fastened as pompons or aigrettes, to their turbans. They encrusted and edged their robes with them as also did the royalties and nobles of Europe during the middle ages. Seed pearls were strung in lengths of four to six feet and the strands twisted together like a rope. This fashion continues to this day, such ropes of pearls sometimes measuring five feet in length.

The semi-barbarous Indian tribes of America did not confine the use of pearls altogether to personal adornment. They decorated their idols, state canoes, the handles of the paddles, and the figures in their temples with them, and they buried enormous quantities in the sepulchres with their dead. There is no evidence that this latter form of extravagance was at any time general in Asia or Europe, but Julius Cæsar made a buckler of British pearls which he hung up in the temple of Venus Genetrix after dedicating it to her.

Among the ancients it does not appear that pearls were used in connection with the precious metals to a great extent. Collars of gold and silver with large pearls as pendants were sometimes seen upon the necks of Indians by the Spaniards when they landed on this continent, but in Asia, Africa, and upon their first introduction into Europe, pearls were not used with the metals as freely as other gems. As the art of the jeweller developed however, they came into more general use and are now utilized with gold in every form of jewelry. Round and button pearls with diamonds or other stones, or alone, are set in gold as brooches, ear-rings, finger-rings, bracelets, hair-ornaments, scarf-pins, dress-pins, studs, cuff and dress buttons, etc., and baroques are also used for the same purposes. Brooches, lockets and pendants are paved with solid masses of half pearls.

Some ancient swords of Hindu warriors betray a curious custom. A groove with over-lapping edges was sunk in the blade and into this pearls were introduced from the hilt end to represent the tears of enemies. There are blades so constructed in the collection of Indian swords presented to King Edward of England when, as the Prince of Wales, he visited India.

Jewellers frequently avail themselves of the odd shapes in which baroques occur to construct unique jewels. Nature frequently gives them a resemblance to animals, and sometimes to the human figure and face, which may be accentuated by the jeweller's art so as to make the resemblance striking. In one notable instance lately, a baroque was so mounted that it might easily pass as a modelled portrait of Queen Victoria. Baroques resembling bird's wings are common and are often made effective by mounting them on a bird of gold. Others remind one of fish, birds, insects, and beasts of various kinds. Clustered pearls enveloped together sometimes look like dog's heads, in which two of the enveloped pearls near the surface pass for eyes. Long, slender baroques are set to resemble the petals of a chrysanthemum, and others, mounted singly in sepals of gold, are suggestive of the buds of various flowers, roses, lilies, etc.

VARYING FORMS OF PEARLS
1-5 Abalone Baroques. 6 Blister. 7-10 Twinned Pearls. 11-21 Baroques. 22-29 Round Baroques. 30-31 Wing Pearls. 32-35 Button Pearls. 36-37 Colored Round Pearls. 38-41 White Round Pearls. 42 Jockey Cap.

Round and button pearls are used extensively now, and have been at various periods formerly, as centres for circles, or "clusters" of diamonds mounted as scarf-pins, finger-rings and formerly, when they were worn, as ear-rings. The pearls are sometimes drilled and set on a peg; sometimes they are held by claws or prongs as the diamonds surrounding them are.

Pearls are very generally used now as studs by men for evening dress, usually mounted on pegs so as to avoid the display of any gold.

But all fashions of wearing pearls except as necklaces, are ephemeral. The fashion of pearl necklaces has been constant for thousands of years, though it is only brought to general public notice when some new country with its great and rapid accretions of wealth, adopts it. The markets of the world are then affected, the price of the gem rises, and this in turn tempts ancient and impoverished families to unlock their jewel cases to the bidding of the nouveau riche. That this condition has existed from the beginning of this century is shown by the sales which are being made constantly in Europe at the great public auctions of jewels. In 1901 the Comtesse de Castiglione necklace was sold for $84,000. At the sale of the Princess Mathilde jewels in Paris, a three strand necklace of 133 pearls weighing 3320 grains, once the property of Queen Sophie of Holland, brought 885,000 francs, which with the taxes to the purchaser made the cost $188,000. At the same sale, a seven strand collar given by Napoleon I. to the Queen of Westphalia, weighing 4,200 grs., brought $89,000, and another collar once owned by the same Queen containing thirty-three black pearls, weighing 1040 grs. was sold for $20,240. Several fine strings were sold in London in 1903. Among them a three-row necklace from the Aquila Jewels for $22,400. A string of 198 finely matched gem pearls, round and graduated, was sold at Christie's for 6,500 pounds. A triple row of 153 of the same kind brought 6,500 pounds. Many important sales have been made in the States, during the last ten years especially, but as they were made privately, and as buyers here are averse to any publicity they are not chronicled. It is a fact well known to jewellers, that Americans in their home market are extremely difficult. They demand a degree of perfection, not only in the gems themselves, but also in the matching of them, rarely exacted in other countries. There are strings of pearls in this country which if less magnificent, for extreme perfection and beauty are seldom equalled by the more notorious jewels of Europe, and princely sums have been paid for single pieces of great size and purity. Greater quantities of the coveted treasures of the earth are pouring into the lap of the United States of America through the channels of peaceful industry, than were ever gathered to a nation in the olden times by the marauders of the sword, and the jewel cases of our princes of commerce will soon eclipse those held by the scions of ancient freebooters.

VARIETIES

True pearls are divided primarily into two classes, "oriental," and "fresh-water." By true pearls those creations are meant which consist of concentric layers of nacre or mother-of-pearl, as distinguished from similar formations by mollusks out of material that is not pearly.

In the early days pearls brought from the Orient were therefore called "Oriental" pearls. For the same reason the fine mellow luster which characterized and made them superior to others came to be known as the "orient" of the pearl. These pearls were taken from oysters found on the coasts of Ceylon, Arabia, and the Red Sea. Later, when the same kind of oysters containing similar pearls were found in other seas, they were also classified with them, until the term "oriental" is now applied usually to all true pearls taken from salt water mollusks, to distinguish them from those found in the fresh water mussels and other products of ocean shell-fish which, though similar in construction and composition, are not nacreous. Occasionally, however, the term is still applied specifically to pearls from the Indian Seas, though their "orient" or luster is not always finer than that of like pearls found in many other localities.

Pearl oysters are varieties of the Avicula Margaritifera, of which the Meleagrina Margaritifera is the most prolific of mother-of-pearl and pearls combined, and, the Indian excepted, yields the finest pearls. All pearl oysters do not produce sufficient mother-of-pearl to make their shells valuable, nor do they all contain pearls. The name therefore applies to all oysters whose secretions are productive, in some degree, of mother-of-pearl and therefore under favorable conditions of pearls also.

"Fresh-water" or "sweet-water" pearls are, as the name signifies, those found in the mollusks of inland waters. This mollusk is a mussel. The name "mussel" in Anglo-Saxon signifies something which retires on being touched. It is known as "Unio" of which there are many pearl-bearing varieties.

In both the sea oyster and the fresh-water mussel, other nacreous formations occur of irregular shape called "baroque" pearls. The orientals approach more nearly to the globular and hemispherical form of true pearls, having frequently the lumpy rotundity of a snowball and sometimes sections which are smooth and round. The fresh-water baroques are usually very irregular, often fantastically so. Many resemble the incisor teeth of man or distorted grains of corn. Slender pieces similar to the wing of a bird and therefore called "wing" pearls, or "hinge" pearls because they are found near the hinge of the shell, are common. Some are shaped like a flat spike nail. Unlike oriental baroques, the surface of a large proportion of the fresh-waters is grooved or indented and some show a beautiful iridescence. Large button baroques of fine luster and iridescent, especially when they have a decided tinge of pink, have come to be known of late as "rose" pearls. Another variety of pink baroques having a fairly regular shape with a lustrous and finely irregular pimply surface are known as "strawberry" pearls. These terms are applied indiscriminately to the two varieties however.

Another nacreous formation found in the mother-of-pearl oyster shells is the "blister." It is produced by the raising of the nacreous deposits above the level of the shell to cover some intruder of considerable size. This results in a growth similar in shape to a blister on the flesh, hence the name. It is cut out of the shell and used in various ways as a set for jewelry, or to imitate the bodies of insects or small animals. Others with a slightly higher dome and rounded oval shape, regular in form, are called "turtlebacks."

PANAMA PEARL-SHELL, SHOWING MUD-BLISTERS, BORERS, AND PEARL

Some of these hollow shells of pearl have been found to cover small fish, lizards, etc. The writer saw one which appeared to be a large button-pearl. On lifting, it proved to be a shell of several thicknesses of nacre covering a small shell-fish about a half-inch in diameter. The imprisoned mollusk was shrunken and crumbling so that the nacreous covering could be lifted from over it, a hollow dome of pearl. Mud blisters are common in some waters and depreciate the quality of the shell and are otherwise useless. A typical mud-blister appears in the shell illustrated herewith.

The Abalone pearl occurs usually as a baroque or blister but occasionally it is found solid and spherical. Although it is not classed among true pearls, a few globular pieces found are entitled to a place among them because they are sometimes identical in construction and have a similar pearly luster, it is however very liable to crack and break and can seldom be pierced with safety.

The shell-fish from which it takes the name is the Haliotis, called here the Abalone. It is known under many names—ear-shell, Venus's ear, etc. In the English Channel Islands it is the ormer, and on the adjacent coast of France where it is very abundant the name for it is similar— "ormier." The Aelonians called it the "Ear of Venus." The shell is ear-shaped, flattened, slightly spiral and has a series of round holes near the edge curving with the last whorl toward the boss. As it grows, the oldest of these are successively filled up and the last remaining open, serves as the anal channel. The exterior is very rough and unsightly, but the mother-of-pearl interior is one of the most exquisite pieces of color work painted by the hand of nature and to this is added an enlivening iridescence most fascinating. Like it, the pearl formations are deeply tinted. Brownish reds, peacock greens, and dark grays are the prevailing colors. They are seldom of even color or luster, many of them having but one lustrous point where a pearly glaze seems to have been incorporated with the earthenware like surface.

Usually the pearls when round and lustrous are not constructed as compactly as those of the bivalves. The texture of the skins vary in quality and the frequent presence of intermediary strata of black conchiolin which shrink, makes them liable to crack and break. The blisters run very even in these two qualities of color and luster and though seldom quite as brilliant as the nacre of the shell, are very beautiful and often curiously formed. These blister-baroques are like two blisters joined at the edges, and are liable to separate there. The interior consists chiefly of black conchiolin, rough and somewhat shiny.

The "Conch" pearl, found in the Conch (Strombus gigas) of the West Indies, also is not a true pearl. The shell is used largely for ornamental purposes, especially for the cutting of cameos, and also in porcelain works. It is a large shell, sometimes weighing four or five pounds. Formerly great quantities were exported to England from the Bahamas; in one year as many as three hundred thousand. Conch pearls are devoid of nacreous luster, the surface having an appearance like china. They are slightly transparent and show under the surface a series of delicate wavy markings.

The silky sheen of these lines causes them to appear lighter than the body color of the pearl, and they seem to branch toward the surface, changing kaleidoscopically as the pearl is turned. Almost without exception the shape is ovoid, or a flattened ovoid, though some are distorted. In color they range from very pale to deep pink and coral red, the ends being usually much lighter than the body and often white. In the deeper tints they are more uniform in color, and as they are apt to be less lustrous and transparent as the shade deepens to red they show less plainly the distinguishing wavy lines, and may be easily mistaken for pieces of coral cut to the shape and polished. They are very delicate and therefore easily fractured or cracked. As the natives usually obtain the pearls by cooking the fish, for which they have a great liking, a large proportion of the few which come into the market are cracked. It is claimed also that the color fades with time. They are sometimes called "Nassau" pearls.

Pearls similar in appearance to the Conch, except that the wavy lines are absent and the skin rarely as brilliant, are taken with true pearls from the small varieties of the Avicula, especially about the coast of Venezuela. Some are white as chalk, many are tinted in various shades of gray, yellow and brownish reds. They have the shining appearance of china in different degrees, but no nacreous luster. The skins of many of these are peculiarly constructed, they show modified characteristics of various parts of the shell. The surface wave lines are present to some extent, together with curious malformations of prisms and conchiolin.

The hexagonal faces look as though they had been doubled up upon themselves together with a layer of conchiolin, the latter appearing as thick black V or U shaped marks in the faces of the distorted hexagons. Heretofore these have been considered valueless, but it is possible that with the increasing vogue of pearls and the growing desire for oddities, they will be utilized in the cheaper forms of jewelry.

Creations similar in construction to pearls are found occasionally in the common oyster and clam. Though entirely devoid of the pearly texture and luster, some of them are very perfect in shape and smoothness of skin. Whether taken from the oyster or clam they are usually called "clam pearls." The color of the oyster pearl is generally a light drab. The clam pearls are mostly purplish red or blue, often dark enough to appear black. Those taken from the oyster are generally round; those from the clam are more frequently ovoid. Occasionally one or both ends of the oval are lighter in color, as the Conch pearl is, changing there to a dark red or purple. When the color is very dark and the skin uncommonly good, they have been sold for black pearls by unscrupulous dealers. They are accounted of little value, though exceptionally large pieces will sometimes sell for as much as one hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars. Similar to these, pearly formations characterized by a glazed, or glassy, or shiny surface, are found in many molluscan varieties, bivalves and univalves, but none of these are true pearls.

Pearls similar to the pink Conch are found in the shank or chank of Ceylon (Turbinella scolymus). This is the sacred shell of the Hindus and the national emblem of Travancore in the Madras presidency, India. Vishnu carries a chank called "Devadatta" in his hand. It is said his first incarnation was for the purpose of destroying Shankhásura (the giant chank shell), and thereby regaining the Vedas, which had been stolen and taken to ocean deeps.

COLOR

The ideal color for a pearl is white. Although all fine white pearls show by comparison a tint of some color, a fine white must be free from an appearance which can only be described as "dark." It is not color always but a certain density which makes the gem appear dead by comparison with the soft, warm, life-like white of the perfect pearl. The layers or skins of some pearls are more transparent than others and this imparts a liveliness which is absent in the more dense.

Upon looking at a string of pearls held between the eye and the light, some will appear much lighter than others and show a translucent band about one-fifth the diameter of the pearl, extending from the edge of the circumference inward. Such pearls upon examination will be found much finer in color and texture than those which have the appearance beside them of dark opaque spots when held against the light.

There is also a white which is not dark and is yet dead. To some extent it is characteristic of all fresh-water pearls. It is a chalky, milky white that even when lustrous, carries a reminder of chalk in the texture and lacks the essential life of the ideal pearl. Color in the highest perfection is found in the pearls of the Ceylon and Australian waters, the former being also very lustrous, and such are sometimes termed by the trade "Madras," after the city where the Indian pearls have been marketed for ages. It must not be inferred however that pearls equally good are not found in other localities, but that the color averages better, and the number of gems of ideal color and luster is greater from the Ceylon fisheries than elsewhere. The color and texture, and therefore luster, of fine Indian pearls is seldom equalled, never surpassed.

To those who are without experience, and see for the first time a large quantity of pearls apparently alike in color, it would seem an easy matter to match any required number; but in attempting to gather sufficient for a single strand necklace, one would learn that a parcel or series of pearls, seemingly all white, contains a surprisingly great variety of shades or tones of color; that which appears at first sight quite easy becomes in the attempt extremely difficult. Probably nothing requires a sharper eye, a more delicate sense of color and greater patience, than the assembling of a finely matched string of pearls. Bearing in mind that size, shape, color, and perfection, must all correspond, it is not surprising that few strings exist which are above criticism.

Those who buy them seldom realize what enormous quantities of pearls, and skilful and painstaking effort is necessary, to match perfectly, thirty or more, especially of large size. Pearls which, separated by a few inches seem alike, when brought close together reveal differences of texture and tone of color sufficiently pronounced to arrest the eye and destroy that ideal perfection of purity which permits no spot to mar the symmetry of an assemblage of these emblematic gems. It was said in old times that to match a pearl perfectly was to double the value of both; one may imagine therefore the difficulty which confronts the modern jeweller when he undertakes in this critical age to match thirty or forty.

The color most common in pearls of all seas is yellow, but it is not so with fresh-water ones. Other colors are seldom found except as tints in white pearls, but distinctly yellow oriental pearls are abundant. The tones of color in the white are, yellow, blue, pink and green. They are so slight that it is difficult to recognize them except by comparison. The blue and pink are considered best, the champions of each being about equal. The green come next in favor and the yellow last. This order applies fully however to the Occident only. Some Oriental peoples do not draw such fine distinctions, and the Chinese prefer the creamy yellow to any other.

The "blue" pearls, or "Panama" pearls as they are sometimes called in the trade, must not be confounded with the blue white pearls just mentioned. "Blue" pearls are of a dingy, slaty blue tint. They have a dark appearance and the luster is seldom good. As many of this character are found in the Panama waters such pearls are often sold as "Panama" pearls. They are even less desirable than those which are decidedly yellow, though persons of a little knowledge will often buy them in preference to others which are better, because they are not yellow and are cheap.

"Fancies" include all decided colors, or those having a rare and beautiful tint. Yellow pearls as generally found are not classed among them because the color is not fine, but dark,— "brackish" one might term it. A clean buttercup yellow, or an orange yellow, would be "fancy" however. On the other hand a deep pink is seldom fine as the color is then almost invariably muddy, whereas the clean delicate light pink pearls are rare and highly esteemed. A clear grass green is never seen but the color occurs in very beautiful bronze and peacock shadings. Various shades of blue, rose, copper, and red with bronze effects, and black are included in this classification.

Black pearls are much prized, and the term covers a wide range of dark shades of gray, slate, brown and red. The ideal color however is sufficiently deep to be, as the name indicates, black, though it has not the metallic appearance of hematite, nor the polished shine of the black clam pearl. Black pearls having a bronze effect are open to suspicion, especially if they are pierced, as many of them are artificially colored and are liable to fade. Such pearls have a somewhat metallic appearance, are seldom very lustrous, and if there is a rough chalky place in the skin it will be blacker there than elsewhere.

It is difficult to give rules by which to judge color, but there is a quality which can only be described as "clean." It is free from muddiness and is desirable in pearls as in all other gems.

The proportion of fancy colors is greater in fresh-water pearls than in the orientals. In the United States the fisheries which have yielded the finest "fancies" are those of Wisconsin, Kentucky and Tennessee. Of sea pearls, most of the fine black ones come from the coasts of Mexico. Beautiful colored pearls are found in fisheries of the Oceanic Islands, for instance at the Isles of New Caledonia and Gambier, and in China and Japan.

To make close comparisons of color in pearls, place them on white cotton under or opposite a strong natural light. To judge shape and luster, roll them on black cloth. These are the most trying conditions and it should be remembered by those who test them thus, that no position as jewels when worn can be so unfavorable or trying.

IMPERFECTIONS

Few pearls are perfect. The great majority of small pearls even, fail in one or more of the ideal qualities, and as the size increases perfection becomes more rare. A perfect pearl is not necessarily of the finest luster, but it must be lustrous and of even luster all over. If round, it must be spherically round; if pear or ovoid, symmetrically so, and the skin must be free from blemishes.

Baroque and button pearls are naturally imperfect pearls, the former being fantastically irregular in shape and the latter partially deformed. Imperfections of shape in what are termed round pearls are more numerous than those unaccustomed to handling them would suppose.

A lot of pearls which to the casual glance seem to be all quite round, will be found often on close examination to contain many, if not a majority, that are not. Upon rolling them separately, irregularities will appear which the luster and contiguity of others concealed. It will be discovered that the domes of some are slightly flattened at one part of the sphere; in others at two opposite points so as to form a double domed disk. Very many have slight protuberances above the contour of the sphere, or places in the spherical line, which though not flat, are depressed. While these minor imperfections of shape do not materially hurt the beauty of the pearl, they do decrease the value somewhat, and as they are quite common even among fine selected pearls they accentuate the rarity of the perfectly spherical.

The adventures of a pearl from the moment when the mollusk begins to cover its nucleus with nacre, until the fisher squeezes it from the folds of the creature's mantle, are many and varied. A few only escape untoward happenings. The fortunate, born where the mollusk gathers and spreads its choice secretions of mother-of-pearl, with room to grow on every side, are nursed in the lap of good fortune and uncheckered, round out layer by layer to perfection.

But some are not so fortunate. In some way cramped, they are held against the unyielding shell and grow flat on one side. These are the button pearls. Others either from an irregular rolling, or unequal action of the mollusk's mantle, become imperfectly round. Sometimes foreign particles attach themselves to a growing pearl and becoming enveloped with it in future layers, make an uneven surface.

Not infrequently two round pearls grow side by side until they touch, and together are enveloped by succeeding deposits; a twinned pearl is the result. For some reason, drop and pear-shaped pearls are seldom imperfect in shape. They may not be ideal but the form is usually good and the contour even and regular. This would imply that the simple rolling motion by the fish is more regular than the more complicated movements necessary to form a sphere.

Imperfections in the texture and luster of the skin are said to be due to the movement of the growing pearl among the zones of the mollusk's mantle supplying the varied material for the epidermis, middle shell, and lining. The difficulties confronting this theory are explained in the chapter on the "Genesis of Pearls." These imperfections consist generally of dead white chalky spots and streaks, distributed over the surface of the pearl, oftentimes so small as to escape notice except under the loup. Sometimes these imperfections take the form of rings or bands which encircle the pearl. Pearls so marked are rarely if ever round, but ovoid, capsule, or cartridge shaped, and these chalky lines always encircle the cylinder; they never cross the dome. Rings around the dome occur, but the surface over them is of equal luster. Frequently the entire outer skin is without luster. Whether this arises from lack of some element in the exudations of the mollusk from which the pearl is created, or from an imperfect crystallization of the calcium carbonate, is not known. Such skins have the usual nacreous surface wave lines and are often lustrous immediately under the outer plates of the skin.

It is possible that these chalky skins may result from the extraction of the pearl from the mollusk during a transitional stage, and that the presence of spots and streaks of that character, scattered over an otherwise lustrous surface, indicates that the secretions of the creature's mantle did not hold some essential ingredient in sufficient quantity to secure perfect crystallization and thereby cover the entire surface with transparent plates of calcium carbonate. It may be also that a lack of essential elements in the creature's exudations, causes a cessation of the mantle's action which by all signs appears necessary for the production of transparent plates of nacre.

"Peelers" are pearls of imperfect skins having indications of a better one underneath. Speculators buy these pearls at a low price and skin them. Sometimes they are rewarded by a smaller, but much more valuable pearl. Many times the under skins are no better or worse, or if better, the loss in size and weight, together with the cost of the work, make it unprofitable.

Peeling should not be attempted with cylindrical shaped pearls having chalky bands or rings around them, as such imperfections usually penetrate to the interior in pearls of that character. Cylindrical pearls are almost invariably fresh-waters. The imperfections disclosed in the under skins by peeling, are commonly 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 part, one section having an earthenware appearance. Many appear to be formed of interstratified layers of nacre and conchiolin. This construction is very distinct in a formation peculiar to the Abalone, consisting of two nacreous shells joined perfectly at the edges, the inside walls of both being covered with rough black conchiolin.

Peculiarities in the quality of the nacre sometimes give an appearance of uneven shape which does not exist in reality. The light falling upon such pearls produces a knobby effect, as though there were protuberances on the surface. The texture of others is such that when looked at squarely from the front they appear pyramidal in form, the rounded apex pointing toward the observer. Such pearls have a soft, waxy appearance generally.

Another common imperfection consists of pits in the surface. These may result from various causes: in many cases from the dislodgement and rolling of a pearl which has been flattened during earlier stages by pressure in one position against the shell. Freed from this hindrance to spherical growth, the later concentric layers would round over the edge of the flat spot and thereby leave a pit, or cavity, in the centre.

In other cases pressure against the pearl, or the partial inclusion of foreign substances, especially of an organic nature which decay before being entirely covered, are possible causes. The reverse of this also occurs; grains of sand or other minute particles adhering to the surface are covered by succeeding layers, thereby producing knobs, more or less observable according to the lapse of time between their inclusion and the taking of the pearl from the oyster.

If undisturbed, the fish will by the deposit of sufficient layers of nacre, fill the intervals and round the surface again. That this is done in time is shown by the occurrence of pearls having an even dome over a nucleus formed by a cluster of small round and irregular pearls enveloped together. In the process of skinning, or the removal of one or more of the layers of nacre, it is sometimes found that a depression has been filled by a thickening of the deposits in the hollow; at other times extra layers fill the space, and these flaking out with the outer skin reveal the hidden irregularity which lay beneath the round surface, thus necessitating the removal of several entire skins before a sphere is reached again. The under skins of some pearls appear to have failed to completely envelop the nucleus. The cavity resulting is then filled to an even surface and is succeeded by fully developed skins. It is, therefore, not certain that a pearl, perfect in form and skin when found, has been so at all stages of its growth. Broken pearls sometimes show not only differences of color but of thickness in the successive layers. The skins of fresh-water pearls especially are often very irregular in thickness.

Many pearls have cracks in them. These generally escape the observation of inexpert persons, as they are usually under the outer layer. The fact that they rarely extend to the surface suggests that the solidification, or drying out of the confined interior layers, may be the cause. These are considered detrimental and dangerous by dealers, so that pearls with cracks in them will not bring as high a price as they would if free from them.

As cracked pearls are liable to break, especially when pierced for stringing, it is well to avoid them, though the percentage of those which do break is small. In reality these cracks are more of an imperfection than a danger. Occasionally they are quite noticeable and are then a bad imperfection, but frequently a sharp eye or the loup only will detect them. Surface cracks however are quite perceptible. They are dangerous and are considered a serious imperfection.

There is a peculiarity of rare occurrence which, as it is a departure from the ideal, may be termed an imperfection, though some regard it of value as unique. It is a similarity under the surface of some pearls to a metal which has been hammered into small flat spots identical in appearance with the jewelry in vogue during the latter part of the 19th century made of "hammered gold." It is scarcely noticeable except under a loup, when the fine lines dividing the confused planes appear. These pearls are usually slightly pink or pinkish yellow. Sometimes these planes resemble the facets on a cut diamond, generally lozenge shape, and often grouped similar to those on the under side of a diamond.

Small holes and blisters on the surface are quite common, but ordinarily they are scarcely perceptible to the naked eye.

Many faults can be concealed by the jeweller when the pearl is mounted. Slightly buttoned pearls are set on a peg in the centre of a small shallow cup; they then appear quite round. A spot, blister, or cavity, in a round pearl can be obliterated by pegging, or hidden in the setting. Great irregularities in the sphericity are lost to the eye when the gem is set in the prongs of a ring or other piece of jewelry. Pearls shaped like a double convex lens may be made to look round, or very nearly so, by piercing them so that the flattened domes are brought in contact on the cord holding them together as a necklace.

Piercing and stringing obliterates or hides many flaws. By careful selection, the jeweller can utilize pearls having a blemish by drilling through the spot where the flaw is, and if there is another on the opposite side that also will disappear. Other imperfections near the hole are often hidden in necklaces, as they cannot be seen when the pearls are held close together on the string. It is for this reason that a string of pearls can often be bought for less than a like number of loose pearls apparently no better but which in reality are much more perfect in shape and free from flaws. Imperfections unseen in the strung pearls would be quite noticeable in the loose and undrilled.

The irregularities of baroques cannot properly be called imperfections; nevertheless a baroque is more valuable as it is free from indentations and approaches the round in appearance, or has sides which will give it a round face when mounted. The curious forms into which nature moulds many of them are very attractive, and as they lend themselves to the imaginative skill of the jeweller, are valuable. The faults common to them are rough places uncovered by nacre and colored streaks or spots, usually yellow tending to brown. These discolorations are confined generally to the point where the baroque was attached to the shell, but not infrequently they extend far enough to leave no front which would be quite clean to the eye, when mounted.

Oriental baroques as a rule are more lustrous, more even in shape and seldom discolored. Many of them are sufficiently regular to string for necklaces, and some can be used in jewelry so that on the face they appear like round, drop, or pear-shaped pearls.

GENESIS OF PEARLS

TUAMOTU PEARL-SHELL

Pearls are found in certain marine and fresh-water mollusks. The former are usually termed oysters, though zoölogists regard it in some instances as a misnomer. The sea-fish is the avicula margaritifera, a bivalve of which there are many varieties, all of similar shape and nature but differing widely in the size, weight, coloring, and quality of the shell.

Of them, the genus "meleagrina" is the largest, has the heaviest shell, and furnishes the greatest quantity of the beautiful substance known as mother-of-pearl. The other extreme is the small, frail-shelled variety taken off the coast of Venezuela, called sometimes avicula squamulosa. Similar to this is the margaritifera vulgaris, or avicula fucata, of Ceylon. The pearl oyster of the Persian Gulf though similar is somewhat larger.

Exact and uniform classification of the pearl-bearing mollusks of the sea does not exist, nor is it necessary in this connection, as the one distinctive feature which places them in the class under consideration is the possession of a nacreous lining to the shell, for no shell fish can produce a true pearl without it. The fresh-water pearl-bearing mollusk is a mussel, unio margaritifera, also found in many varieties, but all characterized alike by the nacreous lining of the shell.

These creatures, living upon the earth where water always covers it, create in the building of their habitations a material of great beauty, and sometimes produce gems which princes covet. Of the most delicate nature, they build for themselves out of the water by which they are surrounded, houses strong and enduring, fitted for their protection from the rough chances of life, yet so furnished within that they suffer no inconvenience from the rugged strength which encloses them. Few things are coarser than the exterior of these domiciles, but nothing in nature is finer or more exquisitely beautiful than the substance with which they are lined.

The avicula margaritifera is a habitant of the coral reefs and shoals about the islands and shores of the tropics; there are none living now in northern latitudes, though fossils of many species are found north of the present boundary of their habitations. An idea can be formed of the general shape and appearance of pearl-oyster shells by the neighboring illustrations of three varieties. These show the two extremes of the marine mollusk, the meleagrina of the South Sea and Australia, and the squamulosa of Venezuela.

AUSTRALIAN PEARL-SHELL

In some of the small species, that of the Venezuelan Coast for instance, the outer shell is yellowish, with fan-like markings of dark reddish brown radiating from the boss or beak and growing darker as they near the lip. This shell is thin and frail. The nacreous lining is also thin but brilliantly iridescent and shows a series of fine lines and irregular fissure-like markings extending outward from the hinge and crossed by bands of color which curve with the outline of the lip edge of the shell.

These colors, as brilliant but more evasive than the hues of the rainbow, are not due to the presence of a pigment; they arise from a phenomenon of light and form one of the most wonderful illustrations of the ease with which our senses play tricks upon judgment and understanding. It is the striated surface and the very thin transparent plates of nacre, which cause a double interference and produce the beautiful iridescence peculiar to the lining of these shells.

"Interference," as it is called, is an optical phenomenon arising from two causes. When light falls upon a sufficiently thin transparent surface covering a denser substratum not exactly parallel with it, part of the light is at once reflected. Of that which passes through to the under surface a part also is in turn reflected through the first surface, and the confusion of rays or "interference" resulting, produces to the eye the sensation of color.

VENEZUELAN PEARL-SHELL, WITH PEARL ATTACHED

A familiar illustration is seen when a thin film of oil is spread over water. The other way in which iridescence by interference is produced in shells, may be demonstrated by drawing fine lines close together on glass with a diamond. Light falling upon them will make the surface iridescent. Melted wax dropped upon this striated surface would, upon removal, show a like iridescence, reproduced with the impression of the fine lines. The outer markings of the large Australian shell are similar to the small Venezuelan. The mother-of-pearl interior is not so iridescent.

Pearls and the shells in which they grow are composed almost entirely of calcium carbonate or lime. A small percentage of organic matter and water are the other ingredients.

As pearls are accidental and the result of a misdirection of normal processes, a general knowledge of those processes is necessary to an insight into the nature and genesis of the pearl, and as pearl shells and the pearls in them are constructed on the same general plan, a knowledge of the former will assist to a better understanding of the gem and its eccentricities. The mother-of-pearl shell is built up of a series of calcium carbonate plates or prisms set in organic matter. In the material of the inner shell, the calcium carbonate greatly preponderates; on the outside of the shell, the organic matter is largely in excess. In the building of its shell, the animal deposits the finest material and does the best and most compact work where the house is in touch with itself, the walls becoming coarser in construction and quality as they approach the outer surface.

In the inside of the shell, the calcium carbonate plates are very fine and transparent, and the animal membrane in which they are set is of extreme tenuity. In the middle shell these plates become more chalky and less compact; in the exterior shell they are set in a thicker binding of organic matter and terminate outside in rough, horny fringes, completely covering the shell.

In a general way therefore, the animal deposits the best of its secretions about itself and pushes out to the outer extremities, the coarser elements which are fitted to preserve the finer parts of the shell, as the finer parts of the shell are fitted to protect the delicate organism which they enclose. The building of the shell is done by a membraneous covering of the fish which entirely envelops the body and is attached to the shell a short distance from the inner edge, leaving a rim of membrane free around the fish and the edges of the two valves. This membrane is called the mantle. It extracts lime from the water, and at different parts exudes modified solutions of it mixed with animal tissue, suitable for the construction of the various parts of the shell.

The exterior of the shell or epidermis consists of conchiolin, an organic compound. It is a horny-looking substance, and in the large salt-water shells and in most of the fresh-water mussels, the nigger-head of the Mississippi Valley especially, it appears to the eye as a series of extensions, sometimes terminating in ridges, which curve about the umbo and spread to the edge of the shell, each extension coming from under the one preceding. In some varieties it is attached as an excrescence to the prismatic formation immediately under it, and may be easily detached in thin flakes: a rusty black in some, brownish-yellow in all on the inner surface and in some on the outside. The substance is generally opaque, but contains spots of which some are translucent, resembling horn or amber, while others are more transparent, similar in formation to the inner parts of the shell.

In most of the marine and fresh-water varieties, unlike the nigger-head, the conchiolin exterior does not easily flake off. In these the outer shell is composed of wave-like plate extensions, superimposed one upon the other recedingly from the lip to the umbo as in the others, but without the ridges, the plates being flat and the edges more irregular. These extensions are formed of a number of horizontal composite plates, which penetrate the shell to the mother-of-pearl.

Not only may they be separated into thinner horizontal plates, but they divide vertically into prisms. Under the microscope the edge of a composite plate appears as a number of prisms placed side by side lengthwise across the plate edge, but showing dark, intersecting lines through the series where they divide as plates.

These prisms appear on the face of the plates as translucent hexagons, separated by dark lines like a tessellated floor, and under a powerful microscope are seen to be composed of similar smaller particles, also joined together by a binder of tissue. The exposed parts of the epidermis plates, forming the outer skin of the shell, are more dense than the unexposed portions; the hexagonal dividing lines are thick and blurred, and the faces are almost opaque, whereas in the unexposed parts, the faces are translucent and the hexagonal markings are clear and fine.

Though constructed in the same way throughout, these plates appear to follow the general plan of shell construction, the preponderance of calcium carbonate in the interior parts gradually changing to an excess of organic matter as they become exposed to form the outer part of the shell. The outer shell is in some varieties of a brownish-yellow with radiating fan-like markings of a deeper tint or red; in others, dark gray and brown to almost black. Immediately under the surface, the plates become lighter in color, and finally almost white as they approach the nacreous interior.

In all varieties the outer plates lie almost parallel with the extension of the shell, so that, lapping each other as they do, the outer contour of the shell is raised by a series of low steps from the edge to the umbo. These plates appear to have been superimposed one upon the other. On the contrary, they are added on the under side. Starting from the umbo, which is the oldest part, the shell is enlarged by the addition of a succession of plates from beneath, each series extending a little beyond its predecessor, the rough conchiolin fringe at their extremities forming the outer covering of the shell. Following the growth of the epidermis, the shell and the lining are also extended and built up, so that the entire shell is constantly pushed to dimensions necessary for the proper and commodious housing of its growing tenant.

Under the thin coat of epidermis on the Unio nigger-head, is a stratum of prism plates similar to the outer plates of the Venezuelan oyster. The prism faces are however smaller and the organic intersections are thicker and darker. Immediately under and abutting, is another series of plates which penetrate the shell almost horizontally at the lip end, to the lining; diagonally at the thick part of the shell near the umbo to another series of the same kind. Here, owing to their diagonal set, upon peeling off the epidermis and the epidermis plates, the edges appear as a series of fine lines curving about and spreading out from the umbo. The plates set outward, away from the umbo, from the lower or inner edge.

The effect is similar to that made by a pack of cards set diagonally so as to spread the edges sufficiently to show the merest trifle of the faces of the cards between the edges. The arrangement of these plates, not only produces a series of fine lines curving about the umbo, but, as the edges are slightly irregular, another series of fine lines cross the others at right angles, radiating from the umbo. This doubly striated surface, by interference, produces an iridescence more full of color than the mother-of-pearl of any but the thin-shelled varieties.

Though similar in construction, these plates differ from those of the epidermis. In some respects they suggest a transitional stage between the outer and inner shell. A plate, as it separates from the series and which appears as one line in the striated surface of plate edges, is in reality a number of very thin plates, or waves, so welded together that they cannot easily be separated. In this and the presence of fine surface lines marking the wave edges, they resemble the nacreous plates.

The composite plate is opaque, but when split so that light can penetrate there appears on the face, markings similar to the unexposed portions of the Venezuelan epidermis plates only the hexagonal faces are very much smaller and less distinct. So also the edge of the composite plate appears as series of prisms crossing it from face to face on the plate, in sets which show plainly, lines marking the juncture of the individual plates or waves. Although the individual plates or waves, can only be separated with great difficulty, together, as composite plates, they can be flaked off from the shell very easily, and they crumble and break into fragments under slight pressure. The component plates or waves are very thin, and appear under the microscope as white and translucent planes marked by outlines of the prism faces.

The inner series of these plates as they near the nacreous lining become harder and more compact, and incline more and more to a horizontal position, so that at the point where they abut upon the nacre it is not easy to distinguish them from the nacreous plates. At the thinner end of the shell, about the edges, the plates are all of this nature. They grow more friable and chalky as they incline to the perpendicular, where the series are more numerous and are situated at the thicker part of the shell about the umbo.

Adjoining the inner edges of the middle shell plates is the nacreous lining. In this the calcium carbonate takes the same form as the mineral aragonite and is identical with it. As a mass however, the specific gravity is somewhat less, owing to the inclusion of organic matter with the mineral in the shell. This material is harder, finer, more compact, and contains less organic matter than that of which the middle and outer shell is composed.

The lining is constructed of thin waves of transparent calcium carbonate set in animal tissue of great tenuity. This is the mother-of-pearl, and the gem differs from it only in its more or less rounded and independent formation. The plates of which the lining is composed lie almost parallel to the plates of the epidermis. They are bent a little toward the interior at the inner surface of the shell, but the general sectional structure of a shell, cutting from the umbo to the lip, is fairly represented by that stem of the letter X which extends from the right upper to the left lower, the diagonal line representing the middle shell; the horizontal lines at the extremities show the general trend of the epidermis and the nacreous lining. The diagonal trend downward is from the epidermis toward the boss-end of the shell.

The nacreous plates, or mother-of-pearl, unlike those of the middle shell of the nigger-head, cannot be easily separated. On cutting them across the grain they appear as distinct and separate strata and show dividing lines, yet the mass is compact to a great degree. Upon being broken, these strata separate only at the edges, so that the entire set usually breaks diagonally, showing a small strip of the surface of each plate along the broken edge and forming a series of ragged edge steps.

These plates or strata are composed of a great many very thin waves following one upon the other, and thereby producing series of fine, irregular lines upon the surface which, though trending generally in straight lines, curve and twist about as do the edges of water waves, when they run up on the sands of the sea-shore. It is the lapping of these thin transparent waves, and the minute undulations of the layer edges reflecting through the transparent plates, which produce the soft luster peculiar to the linings of the shells and the surface of pearls, and which is known as "pearly."

The wave edges do not usually produce iridescence, but if the waves are very thin and transparent the undulating lines of many under waves following close upon each other appear on the surface, under the microscope, as dark lines when the light is passed through the skin, or silvery lines if the light be thrown upon it from above; to the naked eye this becomes the tempered brilliancy of the pearl's orient. Under the microscope these waves appear to be constructed of minute hexagonal plates or prisms set in animal membrane.

A set of waves forming a plate, when broken at right angles to the trend of the wave, shows under the microscope a rough irregular edge, and the small plates of which they are composed sometimes appear separated individually from the mass though more often they are dislodged in clusters or strips. Broken with the trend of the wave edges, the plate breaks diagonally in steps with undulating edges, which correspond in appearance with the successive underlying waves as they are seen through the surface under the microscope.

Although distinct dividing lines between the plates appear when a sectional cut is made across the grain, there is no indication of a division between the waves which make up the plates, and there is no apparent difference in the structure or compactness at the junction of the plates though a clean division can only be made there. It would appear, therefore, that the plates mark intervals in the process of construction and that the animal tissue is somewhat thicker between the plates than between the waves of which they are composed, where the formative process has been continuous.

In all parts of the shell, the calcium carbonate takes the hexagonal form: in the nacre, as thin waves composed of hexagonal faces, and in the middle shell and epidermis, as plates of hexagonal particles grouped as hexagonal prisms whose terminations form the front and back of a plate. All the parts show a similar plan of construction, i.e., separable plates composed of thinner plates more compacted together, and these in turn of infinitesimal hexagons of calcium carbonate; full plates, component plates, and particles, all alike surrounded by animal tissue.

The shell is built up of secretions from the water in which the oyster lives, made by the mantle, a membraneous covering of the fish. The function of this mantle, in part, is to obtain from the water the elements required and exude it at different parts of its folds in the various forms required for the several parts of the shell. The necessary lime exists in the surrounding water and is supplied sometimes by the calcareous beds upon which the oysters grow, and in other cases by surrounding vegetation.

In all mother-of-pearl oysters and the fresh-water mussel unio, the lining is usually quite thick, but in some pearl-bearing species having small, frail shells, it is, though beautiful, too thin to be of use. In the meleagrina, this nacreous lining lies in the interior of the shell like a congealed pearl wave, the smooth even rim following the curve of the shell about an inch to an inch and a half within the jagged edge of the epidermis, as shown in the Manilla shell illustrated herewith, in which the lip, usually trimmed off for commercial purposes, is preserved. The lining of the meleagrina is not as iridescent as that of the thin shell varieties.

Thus the shell is being constantly enlarged at the edge, by a deposit of the exudations of the mantle; conchiolin for the epidermis outside, lime for the prisms and inner layers of transparent plates, until the shell has attained its full growth in size, after which some varieties continue to lay on nacre only.

MANILA PEARL-SHELL WITH THE LIP CONSERVED

The linings of some have a black rim, extending from the hinge on one side, around the edge to the hinge on the other side. Viewed from the edge this dark band appears to be a sixteenth to half an inch wide (widest at the lip), fading out as it becomes lost under the thicker white nacre of the interior, but turn the shell up and look at it squarely from the front and it is black only around the extreme edge where it joins the epidermis. This kind of shell is found in the Pacific about the islands of Polynesia and is called the black shell. In others the nacre is white to the edge. The iridescence of the white shell generally shows more play of color than that of the black. The white shell is usually somewhat flatter and broader than the black, and the epidermis is light yellowish-brown. This variety is found in great abundance on the northern and western coasts of Australia. The yellow, greenish and grayish shells (these colors refer to the edge of the lining), are similar in every way, but inferior, the yellow being the best of the three.

The shell lining of a common form of the unio, or fresh-water mussel pictured at page 146, like that of the meleagrina, shows little iridescence except at the edges outside the pallial lines, where the nacre is comparatively thin, and at the striated surface of the scar or bed of the adductor muscle. In quality of color and luster it is inferior to the nacre of the sea fish, the white being more chalky in appearance and the luster less pearly. The material of which the shell is composed and its construction are however almost identical with that of the salt-water mollusk. In fact all shells are made of the same ingredients and are constructed on the same general principles by the animals inhabiting them.

MISSISSIPPI NIGGER-HEAD PEARL MUSSEL

This description of pearl shells has been given here because a knowledge of the shell enables one to understand the formation and characteristics of a true pearl, and the differences which exist between the gem and other similar formations formed in pearl and other oysters, mussels, and univalves. Many such formations are found, having the elements and constructed like one or both of the outer parts of the shell, and some, in part like the lining, but these are not true pearls; the gem has neither the material nor construction of the middle and outer shell. Except that the pearl, because of its form, is rarely iridescent even to a slight degree, whereas the nacreous lining of some pearl-bearing shells is brilliantly so, the pearl and the nacre of the shell in which it grows, are essentially the same. Pearls are more or less spherical and independent formations, made by the fish on the same plan and from the same secretions with which it lines the shell, misdirected by abnormal conditions. Those constructed like any other part of the shell are not true pearls.

The normal instinctive action of the mollusk is self-protective and adaptive. By the secretive action of its mantle it gathers from the water in which it lives, material to build a shell with a rough and rugged exterior for its enemies, and adapted to resist the chemical activities by which it is surrounded, and a perfectly smooth lining suitable as an interposition for its own delicate organism.

Barring accidents, the building functions of the animal are employed only in the extension of the shell to meet the needs of its own growth and protection. But should a particle of secretion intended for the shell, harden within the folds of the oyster's mantle, or some parasite or other intruder present itself within the nacre-forming sphere, the instinctive action which lines the rougher part of the shell is also directed toward the foreigner, and it is at once covered with a like deposit. This is the birth of a pearl, and it grows layer by layer as long as it remains within the scope of the nacre building instinct. These layers, or skins as they are called, are seldom iridescent. Occasionally a pearl of that character is found, but it is generally from a fresh-water mussel, and the nacreous plates are of unusual tenuity.

Although the pearl like the lining of the mollusk's shell is composed of carbonate of lime in series of thin waves lapping each other, each series constituting a plate or separable layer, there is a distinct difference in construction.

Whereas the lining is a series of horizontal layers, the pearl is made up of concentric layers, each addition enveloping those preceding it. These skins however are not always absolutely distinct and separate. Instead of being like a succession of globular skins, each completely covered by its successor, the growth is often spiral and the construction is as if the nucleus had been rolled one, two, or three complete revolutions in a continuous plate of nacre, and the spiral envelope then finally merged into another plate and the process repeated. That which to a casual glance, therefore, appears to be six rings of nacre in a sectional cut, is in reality, several spirals of two or three turns each.

It is also noticeable that whereas the wave edges, with all their eccentricities, trend generally in one direction in the shell nacre, in the pearl, the lines twist and curl with a concentric tendency, as though the waves had been laid on by turning or rolling the pearl in the material of which it is composed.

A white pearl on being cut in half shows a number of faint dark rings one within the other, from the surface to the nucleus in the centre; usually these rings occur at almost regular intervals. Upon close examination under the microscope, it will be seen that the inner part of these intervals is white, and that the color gradually changes to a yellowish tint which deepens until it culminates in that which appears as a dark line against the succeeding outer formation, the material of which is also white in the beginning. Although this change of color is very slight, a section between two rings will often show three distinct bands; the inner white, the centre one faintly yellow and the outer one of a deeper tint. In some cases the dark concentric rings succeed each other very closely, in which case no abrupt changes of color between them are noticeable. The material occupying the space between the rings is the sectional appearance of the skin of pearl. Upon applying a weak acid to the surface of an entire section of a pearl, it effervesces, and the inner colorless parts of the bands are at once attacked. After several hours the white inner part of the skins will show depressions where the calcium carbonate has been dissolved, and the outer parts of the skins will be marked by coarse black rings of undissolved animal tissue, similar in appearance to the epidermis of the shell. Now as these skins are made up of many very thin waves of calcium carbonate lapping each other and set in animal tissue, it would appear, therefore, that in the beginning these waves of transparent calcium carbonate are set in animal tissue of extreme tenuity and that the proportion of animal tissue increases with the growth of the skin until it reaches a stage provocative of a new skin, which begins with purer layers of the smoother crystallized mineral like its predecessor, and identical with the nacre of the shell. If this be so, it would account for the various tints of color and degrees of luster in white pearls and for the fact that the outer skins of very lustrous pearls are usually very thin also. Similar conditions exist in colored pearls, though the presence of a pigment makes them less noticeable. The skins of the haliotis pearl, which separate easily, usually show remarkable luster on the inner surface.

Sometimes the nucleus is surrounded by a confused mass without apparent concentric markings, as though it had been enveloped in nacre which had solidified while stationary, or the first deposit shows the concentric skin arrangement at one segment of the circle only; followed by layers which appear in the depressions of the mass and are continued until they finally include the whole pearl. These layers are usually very thin, and the partial or segmentary layer formation is quite common in the early stages of the pearl's growth. At that period the concentric lines are also irregular, and in many cases where the curve is true, they extend about one quarter of the circumference only, another concentric skin being lapped on the ends, as though the globular skin had been formed in sections.

As before stated, it often happens that the skin division lines are spiral, as though the nucleus had been rolled one way in the nacreous material. In all cases the first deposits of a skin, that is the first of the nacreous waves of which a skin is composed, appear to be most transparent and lustrous. The component waves of nacre then gradually become more impregnated with animal tissue until they apparently reach a stage which induces either a rest on the part of the fish, to gather nacreous material, or a new deposit of less impure nacre, to protect itself from the increasing impurity of the pearl's skin.

The skins undoubtedly mark certain stages in the formation of the pearl, though the skin and the nacreous waves of which it is composed are often confounded. In the skinning of pearls an entire skin is seldom peeled off. The surface is scraped, a number of the component waves being taken off, until the luster is improved and it is then supposed that the entire outer skin has been removed. A close examination however, will show, by breakages in the surface of the waves, that the under skin with its peculiar and systematic arrangement of surface wave edges, has not been reached.

A sectional view as seen in a half pearl would lead one to infer that a free pearl in the beginning lies stationary in the oyster; is turned or partially rolled as it grows larger; and finally, on attaining about a one grain size, is kept in constant motion with a concentric rolling in the nacreous exudations of the mantle which are deposited upon it.

The nuclei of pearls were long thought to be grains of sand, but late and careful research has shown that in the majority of cases they are minute parasitic or domiciliary worms.

Professor Herdman and James Hornell, after three consecutive inspections of the oyster banks in the Gulf of Manaar in 1902-3, stated in a paper contributed to the British Association for the advancement of science, that after examining many hundreds of oysters and decalcifying a large number of pearls, they had come to the conclusion, that grains of sand and other inorganic particles formed the nuclei of pearls only under exceptional circumstances, as for instance, when the shell was injured by the breaking of the ears, which would enable sand to get into the interior.

Pearls, or pearly excrescences on the interior of the shell, were due to the intrusion of leucodore, clione and other borers. Pearls found in the mussels, especially at the levator and pallial insertions, were formed around calcospherules, minute calcareous concretions produced in the tissues. But most of the fine pearls found free in the body of the Ceylon oyster, contained the remains of platyhelminthian parasites. These observations agree with the opinions formed, after careful study, by several eminent conchologists.

The action of the mollusk results differently as the object to be covered is free within the folds of the creature's mantle or, rising above the surface of the nacreous lining, presses upon it. If free, the intruder is enveloped by the animal's exudations and the deposits become concentric instead of level, or nearly so, as in the construction of the shell. It is said that the foreign substance acts as an irritant, causing the fish to exude its secretions abnormally in order to protect itself, and thereby creating a diseased condition; but from the fact that the process continues after the intruder has been enveloped and rendered as non-irritant as the natural lining of the shell, it would appear that the introduction of a foreign element simply draws upon it the normal impulse of the fish to cover with nacre anything with which it comes in contact, and that the method of doing it is similar to the instinctive rolling action of the tongue when some insoluble globule is put in the mouth, for not only do free pearls grow spherically, but a nucleus fast to the shell is not covered simply but it grows to a pearl, round and domelike, as nearly spherical as its juncture with the shell will permit.

Not only is the composition of a pearl identical with the lining of the shell where it is formed, but in a general way its appearance and characteristics are the same, except that free pearls are sometimes colored when the nacre of the shell is white.

Button pearls, warts and baroques, grown fast to the shell, are usually like the surrounding nacre in every respect.

Salt-water pearls are characterized by the soft velvety luster of the oriental mother-of-pearl, and fresh-waters, like the lining of the unio, have a somewhat thinner looking and more chalky texture.

Abalone pearls have the irregular surface and coloring of the haliotis. Conch pearls resemble the delicate pink china-like lining of the shell, and clam pearls have the glazed earthenware appearance of the inside of a clam shell. The one material difference between a pearl and the lining of the shell in which it grows is, that in the one case the fish deposits the nacre over an even surface, and in the other wraps it around a central point with delicate precision in successive filmy layers.

Dissection shows that a pearl during growth is liable to many mishaps. As with the human creature, a promising youth may end in a wretched maturity. It is also possible that an ugly period may be redeemed by later happenings, and the thing that was worthless in its early existence, be found in its age worthy of a place among the great gems. Pearls found with a dull, chalky exterior sometimes have lustrous skins beneath. Sometimes a bony-looking formation will be found, on breaking it, to have a variety of skins in the interior, some of which are very lustrous, others white and chalky, like the middle shell of the mollusk.

Many of these dead pearls are formed throughout of this material. Others, perfectly spherical, are simply successive layers of prism groups like the conchiolin plates of the shell. Upon cutting these through the centre the skins are shown by the concentric rings marking their divisions and the prismatic formation appears as glistening lines radiating from the nucleus to the surface. Under the microscope these layers, which are thicker than the nacreous skins of true pearls, appear identical with the epidermis plates, except that they are concentric instead of flat, and are free from the coarse, rough, conchiolin deposit which forms the extreme outer coating of the shells. This deposit is also found, however, in some pearl formations, as many of the abalone baroques, especially when they are somewhat flat in shape, are like two pearl blisters joined, with the shell-building process reversed, the rough, black conchiolin being inside, and the nacre outside. Undoubtedly pearls containing hidden qualities which made them once gems are thrown away as valueless, while others found just as nature had covered their earlier coarseness with a coat of beauty, are worn and excite much admiration for their skin-deep beauty.