THE PEARL OYSTER. 825

said to have dissolved and drank, was worth more than
£80,000. In Persia, pearls were formerly valued at their
weight in gold, and even lately immense sums have been
given for those of a large size.

“There is no spectacle the island affords,” says Mr.
Perceval, in his account of Ceylon, “ more striking to a
European than the Bay of Condatchy during the season of
the pearl-fishery. This desert and barren spot is, at that
time, converted into a scene which exceeds in novelty almost
anything I ever witnessed ; several thousands of people, of
different colours, countries, castes, and occupations, con-
tinually passing and repassing, in a busy crowd: the vast
numbers of small tents and huts, erected on the shore, with
the bazaar or market-place before each; the multitude of
boats returning in the afternoon from the pearl-banks, some
of them laden with riches; the anxious, expecting coun-
tenances of the boat-owners while the boats are approach-
ing the shore, and the eagerness and avidity with which
they run to them when arrived, in hopes of a rich cargo;
the vast number of jewellers, brokers, merchants of all
colours and all descriptions, both natives and foreigners,
who are occupied in some way or other with the pearls,
some separating and assorting them, others weighing and