captain Sturmy was seized with a violent headach, which, after continuing four days, terminated in a fever, of which he died in a short time. See DERBYSHIRE.

PEAK OF TENERITTE. See TENERIFE.

PEAK'S HOLE, AND POOL'S HOLE, two remarkable horizontal springs under mountains; the one near Castletown, the other just by Buxton. They seem to have owed their origin to the springs which have their current through them; when the water had forced its way through the horizontal fissures of the strata, and had carried the loose earth away with it, the loose stones must fall down of course: and, where the strata had few or no fissures, they remained entire; and so formed these very irregular arches, which are now so much wondered at. The water which passes through Pool's Hole is impregnated with particles of lime-stone, and has incrusted the whole cavern in such a manner that it appears as one solid rock.

PEAKS, a range of mountains in New Hampshire, extending from Strafford to the White Mountains. 2500 feet high.

PEAKS OF OTTER, in Bedford county, Virginia; thirty miles west by north of Lynchburg. Lat. 37° 33' N. They are summits of the Blue Ridge, and are considered the most elevated points of land in Virginia. The altitude of the eastern peak is 3104 feet; that of the western 2946. According to another statement, the elevation is 3955 feet. The summits are composed of granite. PEAL, n. s. & v. a. Belg. belvi; Dan. bial. (The noise of bells.) A succession of loud noises; to assail with loud noise.

Ere to black Hecate's summons The shard-born beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note. Shakspeare. Macbeth.

The breach of faith cannot be so highly expressed, as in that shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon men. Bacon's Essays.

They were saluted by the way, with a fair peal of artillery from the tower. Hayward.

I myself

PEARCE (Dr. Zachary), bishop of Rochester, was the son of a distiller in High Holborn. He was born in 1690, and educated at Westminster, where he was distinguished by his merit, and elected one of the king's scholars. In 1710, when he was twenty years old, he was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge. During the first years of his residence at the university he wrote Essays, some of which are inserted in the Guardian and Spectator. In 1716 he published his edition of Cicero de Oratore, and dedicated it to lord chief justice Parker (afterwards earl of Macclesfield), to whom he was a stranger. This laid the foundation of his future fortune; for lord Parker recommended him to Dr. Bentley, master of Trinity, to be made one of the fellows. In 1717 Mr. Pearce was ordained, at the age of twenty-seven. In 1718 lord Parker was appointed chancellor, and invited Mr. Pearce to live with him as chaplain. In 1719 he was instituted rector of Stapleford Abbots, in Essex: in 1720 of St. Bartholomew, worth £400 per annum. In 1722 he was presented to St. Martin's in the Fields. In 1723 he married Miss Adams, the daughter of a distiller, with a considerable fortune; and in 1724 the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by archbishop Wake. The same year he dedicated to the earl of Macclesfield his edition of Longinus on the Sublime, with a new Latin version and notes. When the church of St. Martin's was rebuilt, Dr. Pearce

preached a sermon at the consecration, which he printed, and accompanied with an Essay on the Origin and Progress of Temples, traced from the rude stones which were first used for altars to the noble structure of Solomon, which he considers as the first temple completely covered. Dr. Pearce was appointed dean of Winchester in 1739; and in 1744 he was elected prolocutor of the lower house of convocation for Canterbury. He was consecrated bishop of Bangor, February 12th, 1748. Upon the death of bishop Wilcocks he was promoted to the see of Rochester and deanery of Westminster in 1756. In 1768 he resigned the deanery; in 1773 he lost his lady; and, after some months of lingering decay, he died at Little Ealing, June 29th, 1774, aged eighty-five. This eminent prelate distinguished himself in every part of his life by the virtues proper to his station. His literary abilities, and application to sacred and philological learning,

appear by his works; the principal of which are, 1. A Letter to the clergy of the Church of England, on occasion of the Bishop of Rochester's commitment to the Tower; second edition, 1722. 2. Miracles of Jesus Vindicated, 1727 and 1728. 3. A Review of the Text of Milton, 1733. 4. Two Letters against Dr. Middleton, occasioned by the Doctor's Letter to Waterland, on the publication of his treatise, entitled Scripture Vindicated; third edition, 1752. And, 5, since his death, A Commentary with Notes on the Four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles, with a new translation of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, with a paraphrase and notes, have been published, with his life prefixed, from original MSS. in 2 vols. 4to.

The

PEARCE (Nathaniel), a late African traveller, was born of respectable parents at East Acton, in Middlesex. At an early age he went to sea, and landed on the shore of the Red Sea; whence he found his way to Abyssinia, where he was much caressed. After residing there some years, he went to Cairo, with the intention of revisiting his native land. But having, at the latter end of May, 1820, taken charge of some antiquities for the British Museum, as well as for individuals, he proceeded to Alexandria, and was about to embark, when a bilious fever carried him off suddenly, on the 12th of August. He was buried the same evening in the Greek convent, his body being carried by six English sailors. He left all his manuscripts to his friend and patron Mr. Salt, our consul in Egypt. PEARCH, in ichthyology. See PERCA. pearch affords good sport for the angler. The best time for their biting is when the spring is over, and before the heats of summer come on. At this time they are very greedy; and the angler, with good management, may take at one standing all that are in a hole, be they ever so many. The proper baits are minnows or young frogs; but the worm called the brandling, well scoured, is also excellent at all times of the year. When the pearch bites, he should always have a great deal of time allowed him to swallow the bait. The pearch will bite all day if the weather be cloudy; but the best time is from eight to ten A. M., and from three to six P. M. The pearch is very abstemious in winter, and will seldom bite in this season: if he does at all, it is in the middle of the day; at which time indeed all fish bite best. If the bait be a minnow, which is the bait that affords most diversion to the angler, it must be fastened to the hook alive, by putting the hook through the upper lip or back-fin; it must be kept at about mid-water, and the float must be a quill and a cork, that the minnow alone may not be able to sink it. The line must be of silk, and strong; and the hook armed with a small and fine wire, that if a pike should take the bait, as is not unfrequently the case, he may be taken. The way to carry the minnows or small gudgeons alive for baits is this: a tin pot is to be provided, with holes in the lid, and filled with water; and, the fish being put in this, the water is to be changed once in a quarter of an hour by the holes, without taking off the lid at any time, except when the bait is to be taken out. A small casting net, made for

VOL. XVI.

A

these little fish, should be taken out with the pearch-tackle; and one or two casts of this will take baits enough for the day without any farther trouble. When the bait is a frog, the book is to be fastened to the upper part of the leg. The best place for the fishing for pearch is in the turn of the water near some gravelly scour. place of this kind being pitched upon, it should be baited over-night with lobworms chopped to pieces; and in the morning, on going to it, the depth is to be regularly plumbed, and then the hook is to be baited with the worm or other bait; and, as it drags along, the pearch will soon seize upon it.

PEARL, n. s. Fr. perle; Span. perla. Supposed by Salmasius to come from Lat. spherula; but there is an Arab para, loo loo (jewel of the sea).

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, sold all that he had and bought it. Matt. xiii. 45, 46.

Flow'rs purfled, blue and white, Like saphire, pearl, în rich embroidery Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee. Shakspeare.

Dropping liquid pearl,

Before the cruel queen, the lady and the girl
Upon their tender knees begged mercy. Drayton.
Which when she heard, full pearly floods
I in her eyes might view.

Id.

divine and moral philosophy meet; the rule of life; This (moderation) is the centre wherein all, both the governess of manners; the silken string, that runs through the pearl-chain of all virtues.

Bp. Hall. The water nymphs Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall.

Some in their pearly shells at ease, attend Moist nutriment.

Milton.

Id. Paradise Lost.

A pearl julep was made of a distilled milk.

Wiseman. Cataracts pearl coloured, and those of the colour of burnished iron, are esteemed proper to endure the needle. Sharp.

A PEARL, in natural history, is a hard, white, shining body, usually roundish, found in a testaceous fish resembling an oyster. See MYA. The fish in which these are usually produced is the East Indian pearl oyster. Besides this shell there are many others that are found to produce pearls; as the common oyster, the mussel, and several others, the pearls of which are often very good; but those of the true Indian berberi, or pearl oyster, are in general superior to all. The small or seed pearls, also called ounce pearls, from their being sold by the ounce and not by tale, are vastly the most numerous and common. We have Scotch pearls frequently as big as a little tare, some as big as a large pea, and some few of the size of a horse-bean; but these are usually of a bad shape, and of little value in proportion to their weight. Philip II. of Spain 2 Z

had a pearl perfect in its shape and color, and of the size of a pigeon's egg. Their color ought to be a pure white; and that not a dead and lifeless but a clear and brilliant one; they must be perfectly free from any foulness, spot, or stain; and their surfaces must be naturally smooth and glossy; for their natural polish art is not able to improve. All pearls are formed of the matter of the shell, and consist of a number of coats spread with perfect regularity one over another, in the manner of the several coats of an onion, or like the several strata of the stones found in the bladders or stomachs of animals, only much thinner.

Very little is known of the natural history of the pearl fish. The general belief is that the mussel is constantly stationary in a state of repose, and cannot transfer itself from place to place. This is a vulgar prejudice, and one of those facts that are mistaken for want of sufficient pains or opportunity to make more critical observations. Others, finding the first opinion a false one, and that they are endowed with power of changing place like other animals, have, upon the same foundation, gone into the contrary extreme, so far as to attribute swiftness to them, a property surely inconsistent with their being fixed to rocks. Mr. Bruce says that the mussels found in the salt springs of Nubia likewise travel far from home, and are sometimes surprised, by the ceasing of the rains, at a greater distance from their beds than they have strength and moisture to carry them. From the shells a judgment may be formed whether they contain pearls. Those which have a thick calcareous crust on them, to which serpula, tubuli marini, cristagalli, madrepores, millipores, spongice, and other zoophites, adhere, commonly contain the best pearls; the smooth ones either none or very small ones.

The colors of pearls are different according to the shells in which they are found. There are three kinds of bivalve shells chiefly sought after by the pearl fishers. The first is a kind of mussel chiefly found in the north end of the Red Sea. It produces pearls of a fine shape and excellent lustre, but seldom of that very fine color which enhances their price. The second kind, called pinna, is broad and semicircular at the top, and sharp at the hinge, the outside rough and red, the inside lined with mother of pearl. It produces pearls having the reddish cast of the inner shell of the pinna called mother of pearl; which confirms the opinion of Reaumur, that the pearls are formed from the glutinous fluid which makes the first rudiments of the shell; and this kind of pearl is found to be more red as it is formed nearer the broad part of the shell, which is redder than the other end. The third sort of shell resembles the oyster, and produces pearls of extreme whiteness. The value of these commodities depends upon their size, regularity of form, whether round or not, weight, smoothness, color, and the different shades of that color. The pearl fishers say that, when the shell is smooth and perfect, they never expect to find any pearls, but always do so when it has begun to be deformed and distorted. Hence M. Reaumur supposes that, as the fish becomes older, the vessels containing the juice for forming the shell, and keep

ing it in its vigor, grow weak and ruptured; and thence, from this juice accumulating in the fish, the pearl is formed, and the shell brought to decay.

He observes that pearls are formed like other stones in the animals; as those, e. gr. in the bladder, kidneys, &c., and that they are apparently the effects of a disease of the fish. In effect, they are all formed of a juice extravasated out of some broken vessels, and detained, and fixed among the membranes. To evince the possibility of this, M. Reaumur shows that the shells of sea-fish, as well as those of snails, &c., are wholly formed of a glutinous stony matter, oozing out of the body of the animal. Now it is no wonder that an animal which has vessels wherein circulates a sufficient quantity of stony juice to build, thicken, and extend a shell, should have enough to form stones also, in case the juice, destined for the growth of the shell, shall chance to overflow, and burst forth in any cavity of the body, or among the membranes.

To confirm this system, he observes, that the inner surface of the common pearl-mussel, found on the coasts of Provence, is of a pearl, or motherof-pearl color, from one part of its extent, which he determines, to another; after which it becomes reddish: now there are pearls of two colors found in the shell; and the colors of the pearls are precisely the same with those of the shell; nay, more, each kind of colored pearl is found in the corresponding colored part of the shell; which shows that, in the same place wherein the transpiration of a certain juice had formed, and would have continued to form a coat or layer of shell of a certain color; the vessels which conveyed that juice being broken, there is formed a little mass or collection of the juice, which, hardening, becomes a pearl of the same color with the part of the shell to which it corresponds.

Add to this, that the silver, or pearl-colored part of the shell, is formed of strata, or layers, over one another, like an onion; and the reddish, part of little cylindrical short fibres appliei against one another. The pearls of the two colors have also this difference of texture; not but they are both composed of concentric couches; but those of the reddish pearls are much less sensible; and, besides, they have threads, which, like radii, proceed from their centre to their circumference. These circumstances seem effectually to determine the formation of pearls.

The extravasations above-mentioned may be caused by heterogeneous bodies, such as sand coming in with the food, which the animal covers with its glutinous matter, to prevent disagreeabie friction, and which, as it is successively secreted, forms many regular lamella, in the manner of the coats of an onion, or like different strata of bezoars, only much thinner; this is probable, for if we cut through the centre of a pearl, we often find a foreign particle, which ought to be considered as the nucleus, or primary cause of its formation. The loose pearls may originally have been produced within the body, and on their increase may have separated and fallen into the cavity of the shell. Those compact ones, fivel to the shells, seem to be produced by similar ex

travasation, occasioned by the friction of some roughness on the inside of the shell. These and the pearl-like nodes have a different aspect from the pearls, and are of a darker and bluer color. The art of forcing shell-fish to produce pearls was known, in the first centuries of the Christian era, to the inhabitants of the coasts of the Red Sea, as we are told by the philosopher Apollonius (Philostrat. in Vita Apollon. lib. iii. c. 57, edit. Olearii, p. 139), who thought that circumstance worthy of particular notice. The process employed by the Chinese at present, to cause a certain kind of mussels to form pearls, seems to confirm the account given by Philostratus. In the beginning of the summer, at the time when the mussels repair to the surface of the water and open their shells, five or six small beads, made of mother-of-pearl, and strung on a thread, are thrown into each of them. At the end of two years when the mussels are drawn up and opened, the beads are found covered with a pearly crust, in such a manner that they have a perfect resemblance to real pearls. The truth of this information cannot be doubted, though some experiments made in Bohemia for the same purpose were not attended with success. It has been confirmed by various persons, and it is very probable, that some operations and secrets, without which the process would prove fruitless even in China, may be unknown to the Europeans. Professor Fabricius says, that he saw in the possession of Sir Joseph Bankes, in London, large chama, brought from China, in which there were several bits of iron wire, incrusted with a substance of a perfect pearly nature. These bits of wire, he said, had been sharp, and it appeared as if the mussels, to secure themselves against the points of the wire, had covered them with this substance, by which means they had been rendered blunt.

The celebrated Linné informed the king and council of Sweden, in the year 1761, that he had discovered an art by which mussels might be made to produce pearls, and he offered to disclose the method for the benefit of the kingdom. This however was not done, but he disposed of his secret to one Bagge, a merchant at Gottenburg, for the sum of 18,000 copper dollars, which make about 500 ducats.

The most complete account of the artificial formation of pearls with which we have met was furnished by a gentleman to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, and from which our limits will allow but a short extract.

Pearls, in general,' says our author, 'take the color of the shell in which they are formed, being nothing else than the substance of the shell disposed in concentric layers, and tending more or less to a spherical form. From the great number of small pearls which I have frequently collected from the small sea-mussel (Mytilus edulis) so common in the streets of London, I find that there is no part of the flesh of this animal in which pearls do not occur. The natural expenditure of the substance which forms the pearl is only for the purpose of producing the shell or testaceous covering of the shell-fish; but various causes producing wounds in the animal, or otherwise irritating it, will produce a secretion of the

shelly matter to defend the injured part; and however sharp or angular the offending substance may be, it by degrees assumes a round form, in proportion as it is covered by a greater number of coats. The assertion advanced by Linné, and repeated in some works, that the Chinese have a node of producing by art real pearls in the living shell-fish, though in general little credited, seemed to me so feasible, that I was led to attempt a similar experiment, which I tried upon the large mussel of our ponds (anodonta cygnea), being the only convenient shell-fish which I could command in the central parts of England. I procured, therefore, the largest of these, from five to six inches long, from the duke of Marlborough's water of Blenheim; but, although the vigor of the animals promised me success, several of them died. I shall only relate what happened in the surviving ones.

I drilled several holes in the most convex part of these shells, and introduced brass wires of two-thirds of a line in diameter. These wires had a sharp point, and were fixed in the shell in the way of cramps; some were disposed in strait lines, and others in such artificial forms as to show plainly that the pearls so produced, if the experiment should succeed, were the work of design, and not the unmolested operation of nature. One of these which, I believe, is still preserved in the Anatomical School at Christ Church in Oxford is an indisputable proof of this, the points forming the initial letters of my name. I let them down in a wooden box, perforated with holes, and loaded with a weight, into the River Isis; and, on examining them a few months after, I found some of them dead, and, it is probable, they died very soon after the operation, as the brass-points remained perfectly naked. I returned the living ones into the water, and took them up at the expiration of eighteen months from the operation. I then killed the animal, in order to examine the shell, and I found, in one instance, the points of the wires fairly covered with a calcareous substance, rather coarser than the inside of the shell, which circumstance was probably owing to the more hasty deposition of the earthy matter, which, therefore, wanted the compactness and the pearly color of the inner layer of the shell. Instead of points, the wires were now terminated by a round head, and the fish having survived is a proof that it was sufficiently defended from the injury which it must at first have received. On examining other shells, I found the points of the wires, which projected at least two lines within the shell, covered only with a mucous substance, which, however, preserved a rounded form; so that these, also, resembled the heads of large pins.

These

These experiments I made many years ago, and, more lately, I commenced others of a similar nature, but better planned, introducing, in place of pointed wires, round beads of different materials, through holes in the shell. beads were of glass, steel, &c., and, from their form, I supposed would produce less irritation, and afford a fairer surface for the adventitious earthy matter. What I here attempted by art is not unfrequently produced by nature herself. I have two scallop-shells (the flat shell), the inner

British Museum there is, or was, a fank pearl, of a respectable size, and of an Form: probably produced by one of the West India conchs. In the waters in Scotod between Perth and Auchtermuchty the ssels afford green pearls: the blue pearls from Montrose are also radiated in their texture, Dough extremely dense, so that the radii are invisible to the naked eye.

That pearls are calcareous is inferred from Cleopatra's having been able to dissolve hers in vinegar, and by these means to gain a wager from her lover, as we are told by Pliny and Macrobius. She must, however, have employed stronger vinegar than that which we use for our tables, as the pearls, on account of their hardness and their natural enamel, cannot be easily dissolved by a weak acid. Cleopatra, perhaps, broke and pounded the pearls; and it is probable that she afterwards diluted the vinegar with water, that she might be able to drink it; though fissolved calx destroys acids and renders them imperceptible to the tongue. We are told that the dissipated Clodius gave to each of his guests a pearl dissolved in vinegar to drink; ut experiretur in gloria palati,' says Pliny, 'quid saperent margarita; atque ut miré placuere, ne solus hoc sciret, singulos uniones convivis absorbendos dedit.' Horace says the same. The entertainment we should imagine to have been more costly than agreeable. Caligula, also, margaritas pretiossissimas aceto liquefactas sorbebat.' That pearls are soluble in vinegar is remarked by Pausanias and Vitruvius.

6

The oriental pearls are the finest, on account of their largeness, color, and beauty, being of a silver white; whereas the occidental pearls seldom exceed the color of milk. In Europe pearls

are sold by the carat-weight, the carat containing four grains. In Asia the weights used for pearls are different states. The value of pearls increases as the square of their weight.

PEARL FISHERIES. There are many rivers, great and small, in Eastern Tartary, considerab.e for pearl fishery; but these pearls, though much esteemed by the Tartars, would be little valued by Europeans, on account of their defects in shape and color. The emperor Kang-hi had several chaplets or strings of these pearls, each containing 100, which were very large, and exactly matched. There are many rivulets in Livonia which produce pearls almost equal in size and clearness to the oriental ones. There are

sereral fisheries both on the east and west coasts of Africa; the most considerable of which lie round some small islands near Sofala; but the people thus employed, instead of exposing the oysters to the warmth of the sun, which would induce them to open, lay them upon the embers; by which absurd method those pearls which they catch contract a dull kind of redness, which robs them of their natural lustre as well as of their value. In the sea of California also there are very rich pearl fisheries. The most esteemed pearls are those of Asia and the east coast of Africa. In Japan likwise there are found pearls of great price. Pearls are met with in all parts

of the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean, on the low part of the coast of Arabia Felix named Baharen, adjoining to the Persian Gulf. They are likewise found on the low coast about Gombroon east of the Persian Gulf; and many of the finest kind are met with on the coast of Ceylon. They are most plentiful in the Babaren, between the coast of Arabia Felix and Ormus, whence they are transported to Aleppo, then sent to Leghorn, and then circulated through Europe. In Scotland, especially to the northward, in all rivers running from lakes, there are found mussels that have pearls though seldom of large size.

In Ceylon the first business, previous to the commencement of the fishery, is to survey the different oyster banks, to ascertain the state of the oysters, and to make a report on the subject to government. If the quantity is found to be sufficient, and in a proper state of maturity, the particular banks to be fished that year are put up for sale to the highest bidder, and are usually purchased by a black merchant. Sometimes the government deems it more advantageous to fish the banks on its own account, and to dispose of the pearls afterwards to the merchants. When this plan is adopted, boats are hired for the season on account of government from different quarters, at a variable price, but usually from 500 to 800 pagodas for each boat. As it would not be expedient to fish the whole of the banks in one year, they are divided into three or four different portions, one portion of which is fished annually in succession. By this contrivance a sufficient interval is allowed for the oysters to attain their proper growth; and as the portion first used generally recovers its maturity by the time the last portion has been fished, the fishery becomes almost regularly annual. The oysters are supposed to attain their highest state of maturity in seven years; for, if they be left too