The Elbert County tribune., 1912-08-31
( But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.

Into something rich and strange.
We see that in Shakespeare's time had
peculiar notions about the wonders wrought by
the animals of the Again. in Moore's poem.
peri and the Pearl" fnd
And precious the tear as tina. rain from the sky
Which turns into pearls as 1t falls in the sea.
Aelian thought that pearls produced by
lightning flashing into the open shells.
Turning from these fantastic. though interest
Ing theories let glance at the modern
plantations of the formation of these beautiful
products of nature
You have doubt, often seen shells of
molluscs lined with smooth anr iridescent coat
ing which is called nacre mother-ofpearl.
This coating like the rest of the SHE'LL is pro-
duced by the animal. and is made up mostly Of
carbonate of lime and organic matrix which
usually presents laminated texture You
have noticed that the color and brilliancy of this
layer differ in various species of Shells For
instance in the ordinary oyster 1t is of ustre-
less white. and In kind of shell called abalone
shell (Haotis). the nacre is of green
ish blue tinge. changing to purple you turn 1t
in your hand. In another kind. known the
blacklipped-shell (Margaritifera), the mother-of-
pearl is of greensh black color. In the shells
of the true pearl-oysters the nacre is of clear.
delicate white. which has the sheen of floss silk
family tinted with azure exhibiting "a beautiful
play of coor-a quality which makes these shells
of great value in commerce
Now 1t often happens that foreign substances.
such sand grains. microscopic organisms of
various kinds. parasitic worms, crabs some
times small fishes become introduced by
cideni otherwise inside the shell into the
tissues of the moluscs 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 material is added year after
year In the form OF layers these concretions
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 such
that of the pearloyster the result may be OBJ
ject OF great beauty, priced from ancient times as
a priceless Jewel. In this strange way. pearls
the handsomest products of nature produced.
Such being their origin pearls may be formed
in any kind of mollusc, bibalved spiral And
Just as the nacre of different kinds of shells DIFF
fers the pearls themselves vary according to
the shell. which produces them. Thus the pearls
of the common oyster. the scallop and the giant
clam, milky white and not very bright while
those OF the musse usually black.
Perhaps you have noticed that pearls are OF
many different shapes, round some pear
shaped. eggshaped and some of all manner
of fantastic shapes. The round. pear-shaped and
egg-shaped known oriental or virgin
pearls while those OF irregular shapes are called
baroque pearls. These 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
always very small and usually found together
In numbers