Pearls Story

The formation, valued qualities, and locations of pearls, as well as the art of gathering Pearls

pearl is an animal product secreted by certain shell mollusca, of which one kind live in the sea, and the others in fresh water. Pearls are quite common, but those which have considerable dimensions, joined to a regular form and beautiful reflections, are rare and of high price.

Formed almost exclusively of lime and of an organic matter, the pearl is very easily acted on; as regards resistance, it has nothing in common with precious stones, even those most easily destroyed.

The pearl was dedicated to Venus. It is sacred to love and beauty. In the "marriage of Cupid and Psyche"-a fine engraving upon sardonyx, wherein the figures are enveloped in transparent veils, a work of great difficulty in engraving upon stone-the lovers are united by a string of pearls-emblem of conjugal bonds-by aid of which the god Hymen, bearing a torch, conducts them to the nuptial couch (Fig. 83).

A number of opinions have been expressed upon the origin of the pearl. The ancients poetically ascribed it to a drop of dew falling at morning or evening into the opened shell.

"Brighter the offspring of the morning dew,

The evening yields a duskier birth to view."

It was once a common belief that the pearl was a morbid production of the animal. Above all, it has been thought that it originated in some foreign substance, such as a grain of sand, or an animal parasite, introduced accidentally into the shell. This substance, it was supposed, tortured the animal, which, to free itself from the irritation, covered it with a pearly secretion. Acting on these ideas, the Chinese are said to have obtained pearls artificially, by piercing the shell, and slightly wounding the animal.

There is probably some truth in these hypotheses; but an examination of the pearl under the microscope proves that such modes of formation are not the only ones employed; and even that they do not necessarily enter into the formation of these beautiful productions. Indeed certain pearls show in their interior spherical cavities perfectly empty; and others, which are completely solid to the centre, display in all their parts a regular and continuous texture, without the least trace of any foreign matter.

A pearl of the first quality should possess, above all things, a fine orient, or water. By this expression is meant a pure whiteness, joined to a lively lustre that sparkles in the light. There are pearls, too, which, with a white colour, show a delicate reflection of azure. These are the most highly esteemed.

The second quality of a fine pearl is, that it should be perfectly spherical, or regularly pearshaped.

There are a great number of pearls whose colour has a yellowish tinge. This alone is a mark of inferior quality.

It is very probable that pearls possessing this yellowish shade exist normally in the shell. Tavernier, however, thinks that all pearls are white, and that the yellow tint is induced by putrefied products, resulting from the treatment of the shells in their places of production; the pearl-shells being left in the open air that they may open of themselves after the death of the animal. The work is thus accomplished without any expense, and without risk of breaking the pearls, an accident that occurs very frequently if the shells are opened artificially. In support of his theory Tavernier states a fact, which, if established, would be conclusive; which is, that yellow pearls are never found in shells that have preserved their water.

The shells in which pearls are found belong to several families of the large class of mollusca; but the most important of all is the--

Avicula margaritifera, Bruguiere; Pentadina margaritifera, Lamarck. This species not only produces the pearl, but furnishes to commerce vast quantities of mother-of-pearl of the kind most valued.

There is a prevailing idea that mother-of-pearl and the pearl are of the same nature; and, in consequence of this notion, numberless attempts have been made to obtain artificial pearls by means of little spheres more or less regularly cut out of mother-of-pearl.

The experiment has never been successful. A little serious examination of the subject proves that there is nothing to hope from this method. Even admitting that mother-of-pearl and pearl are the same in composition, which has not been scientifically proved, it is certain that they are not of the same constitution. Mother-of-pearl is much harder, and offers infinitely more resistance to the tools of the lapidary than the pearl. But that which is most important to be remarked is, that in the pearl the constituent layers are concentric, while in the pearls cut out of mother-of-pearl, the layers are more or less parallel.

Figs. 84 and 85 establish perfectly to the eye the complete difference presented in this respect by mother-of-pearl and the pearl.

They show, at the same time, how the light must necessarily undergo very different modifications in the two cases, and why cut mother-of-pearl can never have the same optical effects as the pearl.

Although pearl molluscs exist in all parts of the world, there are but few places where their gathering has become an industry. One of these places was formerly the Red Sea, which, in the time of the Ptolemies, produced an abundance of pearls. But the beds are probably exhausted; at any rate they are no longer worked. The two regions which for a long time have produced the most beautiful pearls are the Persian Gulf, and the Straits of Manaar which separate Ceylon from the peninsula of India.

More recently great quantities of pearl-oysters have been discovered in America, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, upon the coasts of California, and in the vicinity of Panama.

There have been experiments made to determine the time necessary to the development of a pearl. No very certain results have been obtained; but it has been proved that at least two or three years are necessary for the formation of a pearl of any value.

Hitherto the pearl shells have been gathered by divers, who, practising the pursuit from their earliest years, end by being able to stay nearly six minutes without breathing at the bottom of the sea. The prodigious efforts which they are obliged to make, and the considerable pressure to which they are subjected, result in a number of very grave accidents. The bodies, too, of the unhappy beings who devote themselves to this frightful trade, are very quickly covered with sores; and very seldom does a pearl-diver arrive at old age.

The remarkable appliances which render it possible to stay under the water for a long time without much inconvenience have been introduced into the localities where there are pearl fisheries, and will no doubt diminish wonderfully the sad consequences so long inseparable from this deadly trade.