three legs, and whose upper surface is pierced with circular holes of various diameter, fitted to receive the pearls according to their size, with a few drills. Their drill is merely a short, sharp needle, inserted in a stick, which is made circular at the top, and is set in motion by a bow, like those used by our watch-makers. Sitting on the ground cross-legged, they keep the block of wood between their knees, and apply the drill perpendicularly to the pearl, which they are said to pierce with extraordinary rapidity and accuracy.

Pearls of an inferior description are formed in a fresh-water bivalve.* Some of these were exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, which were obtained from the deepest parts of the River Strule,near Omagh. Similar pearls were also shown from the River Ythan, Aberdeenshire. It is probable that pearls from this source, collected by the ancient Britons, may have given rise to the statement by Tacitus in his "Life of Agricola," of pearls, "not very orient, but pale and wan," being among the indigenous products of Great Britain. Pearls of the same kind have also been procured from Conway, in Wales, as well as from Sweden and Norway.

The smaller kind of pearl called "seed-pearl," is procured at Kurrachee, on the Bombay coast. They are of little value, except to the Persians and some of the Hakeems of India, who esteem them as medicine. The oysters producing "seed-pearls" are washed up

* Unio margaritifera.

by the surf-waves to high-water mark, and are left there as the tide falls. They are gathered by Coolies employed for the occasion, put into boats, and landed at Keamaree point. There the shells are broken and the pearls extracted, under the superintendence of the contractors, who pay the Julpore government forty thousand rupees per annum for the pearl contract. Even the gleaners who come after them pay for the right of sifting the broken shells in search of any pearls that

may remain. A little orphan boy about twelve years of age, while fishing on the banks of the Tenessee, in the United States, picked up a large pearl which he found lying among the shells. Returning home, he accidentally exhibited it while rummaging his pockets, filled with fish-lines, bait, corks, shells, and coppers, when a gentleman standing by, observing the costly treasure, asked him how much he should give him for it? The boy, unconscious of its value, asked in return only one or two small coins. "No!" replied the gentleman, "you must not sell it for a trifle; it is worth a large sum. I will send it to Nashville to be sold, and the proceeds of it shall be applied to your education." "The pearl," says Elihu Burritt, was sent to a lapidary, who estimated its value at five hundred dollars! Let it glitter in the diadem of a crowned head, and that boy's mind be enriched with jewels whose lustre shall outlive and outshine the light of diamonds; and he will have parted with it for a pearl of greater price,"

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89

CHAPTER VII.

COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE SILVER-SHELL FAMILY.

MANUFACTURE OF

PEARL BUTTONS -OYSTERS A LUXURY OF THE ROMANS OYSTER-WOMEN OF FORMER DAYS -OYSTER-BEDS OF NORMANDY-GREEN-TINTED OYSTERS.

LET us now transport ourselves to one of the large manufactories of Birmingham. Ascending the stairs, and entering a room, we see some shells washed in water, and we follow a basket of them to witness the operations of another department. A man stands here at a strongly-formed lathe, which, revolving, puts in motion a hollow spindle, having at one end some saw-] -like teeth; it is, in fact, a tubular saw, and while his foot keeps the lathe in motion his left hand presses a shell against the teeth, that they may work their way into the shell, and his right hand is employed in moving the tube along until the shell is cut through.

In this way flat circular pieces are cut out of the shell, the size being dependent on the tube; the diameter of which varies from a huge disc not quite so large as a soup-plate, to one which some persons can only see with a pair of spectacles. A slight rasping is all that these discs receive till they are successively placed in

the chuck-the revolving part of another lathe, that the turner may give the side that is before him the desired flatness, convexity, or indentation. Many of these discs now go to the engraver, that they may have impressed upon them some beautiful design. Others have shanks inserted in them by a very curious process, for glue cannot be used, nor any solder, and yet they are made to adhere with the greatest firmness.

Thus, then, it is that "pearl buttons" are made. They are polished with brushes, soap, and rottenstone by women, who, by means of a lathe, drill in them two, three, four, or as many more holes as may be required, and that with surprising dexterity. A button, for example, is seen fixed in a chuck, when the ear instantly catches the sounds twit, twit twit, twit twit twit, according to the number of holes, and the button drops infallibly pierced with those required, the distances being almost perfectly equal. In a similar manner some buttons are adorned with rings, stars, and other decorations, according to the fancy or taste of the manufacturer; and, finally, they have their edges corded or milled. Such engravings as racehorses, foxes, greyhounds, are always added by the ordinary process.

Of what substance, then, are "pearl buttons," made in millions absolutely confounding in a very limited period of manufacture? It is the hard, silvery, brilliant, internal layer of several kinds of shells, particu

One

larly oysters'. The large oysters of the Indian seas alone secrete this rainbow-like material of sufficient thickness to render their shells available for such purposes. genus of these mollusks is found in the greatest perfection round the coasts of Ceylon, near Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, and among some of the Australian seas. The shells used for buttons are bought of the merchants by the ton, which exceeds in value a hundred and twenty pounds sterling. They are taken just in the state in which they arrive in the docks to Birmingham; and lie in the store-rooms of its manufactories in vast heaps, as they would have done had a band of Titans left them there after regaling themselves with an oyster

supper.

Not many years ago the dark-coloured portions of the shells were considered worthless, and were consequently thrown away. But the happy thought occurred to some one that purchasers might be found for darkcoloured buttons. The experiment was made, and with signal success. Not only did the dark-coloured buttons sell, but the black parts of the shells, and even the dark shells from the South Seas, became more valuable than the white ones.

Even the shell-dust-the sweepings and scrapings of the manufactories has been employed beneficially for manure. Nature is full of astounding metamorphoses, and assuredly that may be classed among