Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1912-08-31
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange

- ~
We see that in shakespeare's time men had
peculiar notions about the wonders wrought by
the animals of the Again in Moore's poem,
'tPeri and the Pearl" we find;
And precious the tear as that rain from the sky
Which turns into pearls It falls in the sea.
Aelian thought that pearls were produced by
lightning flashing into the open shells.
Turning from these fantastic. though interest
ing, theories let glance at the modern ex-
plantations of the formation Of these beautiful
products OF nature.
You have, no doubt, often seen shells of
moiuscs lined with smooth anr irldescent coat
ing. which is called uacre or mother-of-pearl.
This coating, like the rest Of the shell, is pro-
duced by the animal. and is made up mostly of
carbonate of lime and an organic matrix which
usually presents laminated texture. You must
have noticed that the color and brilliancy of this
layer differ in various species Of shells. For
instance In the ordinary oyster II Is of lustre-
less white, and in kind OF shell called abalone
or ear shell (FIaliotis), the nacre is OF green
ish blue tinge, changing to purple as you turn 1t
in your hand In another kind, known as the
blacklipped-shell, CMargartifera), the mother-of-
pearl is of a greenish black color In the shells
OF the true pearloysters the nacre is Of clear,
delicate white, which has the sheen OF floss silk
family tinted with azure, exhibiting beautiful
play of color-a quality which makes these shells
of great value in commerce.
such as sand grains microscopic organisms Of
various kinds, parasitic worms, crabs, or some
times even small fishes become introduced by ac-
cIdent or otherwise inside the shell or into the
tissues OF the mollusc's soft body. In such cases,
the animal sometimes begins to deposit part Of
the material which goes to form the nacreous
layer Of the shell around these foreign
objects and as new material is added year after
year In the form Of layers these cOncretons
which may at first be very tiny grow to be Of
a considerable size. And when this takes place
in a shell with specially beautiful nacre such as
that Of the pearl-oysteT, the result may be OBJ
iect of great beauty priced from ancient times as
priceless jewel In this strange way pearls,
the handsomest products OF nature are produced.
Such being their origin, pearls may be formed
insany kind of molIusc bibalved spiral. And
INIT as the nacre OF different kinds Of shells diff
-fen so the pearls themselves vary according to
the she'll, which produces them. Thus the pearls
OF the common oyster. the scallop and the giant
clam, are milky white and not very bright, whilo
those of tho sea mussel are usually black
Perhaps you have noticed that pearls are OF
many different shapes, some round, some pear
shaped, some egg-shaped and some Of all manner
OF fantastic shapes The round, pear-shaped and
egg-shaped ones are known oriental virgin
pearls, while those of irregular shapes are called
baroque pearls. These are sometimes found in
the shapes OF fishes, birds wings, or creeping
worms. The. seed pearls, which are generally
use for medicinal purposes by the Chinese. are
lways very small and usually found together
= numbers.