Читать книгу The Book of the Pearl. The history, art, science, and industry of the queen of gems онлайн

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The greatest pearl-producer in the family of pearl-oysters is the Margaritifera vulgaris of the Gulf of Manaar and the Persian Gulf, and to a much less extent of the Red Sea. It occurs in various other inshore waters of the Indian Ocean, and about the Malay Archipelago and the coast of Australia and New Guinea, although it is not the principal pearl-oyster of those waters. An interesting account of its immigration into the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal was given by Vassel in 1896.^[81]

This species is quite small, averaging two and a half inches in diameter in Ceylon waters, and somewhat more in the Persian Gulf, whence large quantities of the shell are exported under the name of “Lingah shell.” The Ceylon variety has the nacreous lining almost uniformly white over the entire surface, only the lip having a slightly pinkish ground color. The exterior is marked by seven or eight reddish brown radial bands on a pale yellow ground. In addition to its greater size, the Persian variety is darker, and the lip of the shell has a reddish tinge.