Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Author:Jules Verne [Jules Verne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: none
Published: 2012-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

"Would master," Conseil said to me, "give us some background on

pearl fishing?"

"On the fishing itself?" I asked. "Or on the occupational hazards

that—"

"On the fishing," the Canadian replied. "Before we tackle the

terrain, it helps to be familiar with it."

"All right, sit down, my friends, and I'll teach you everything I

myself have just been taught by the Englishman H. C. Sirr!"

Ned and Conseil took seats on a couch, and right off the Canadian

said to me:

"Sir, just what is a pearl exactly?"

"My gallant Ned," I replied, "for poets a pearl is a tear from the sea; for Orientals it's a drop of solidified dew; for the ladies it's a jewel they can wear on their fingers, necks, and ears that's oblong in shape, glassy in luster, and formed from mother–of–pearl; for chemists it's a mixture of calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate with a little gelatin protein; and finally, for naturalists it's a simple festering secretion from the organ that produces mother–of–pearl in certain bivalves."

"Branch Mollusca," Conseil said, "class Acephala , order Testacea ."

"Correct, my scholarly Conseil. Now then, those Testacea capable of producing pearls include rainbow abalone, turbo snails, giant clams, and saltwater scallops—briefly, all those that secrete mother– of–pearl, in other words, that blue, azure, violet, or white substance lining the insides of their valves."

"Are mussels included too?" the Canadian asked.

"Yes! The mussels of certain streams in Scotland, Wales, Ireland,

Saxony, Bohemia, and France."

"Good!" the Canadian replied. "From now on we'll pay closer

attention to 'em."

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.