Now, on what do sponges feed? Dear sakes, as if they fed on anything! Yet they do. Although they branch and bunch out in the forms described, yet they do not roam about, but only float or swim out as far as they can stretch themselves while firmly fastened to a rock. Here they take in specks or particles that float through the water; they pass through the open pores of the body, and answer for food. The water constantly passing through them serves to refresh and keep them round and healthy.
Here we come to a perfect thicket of sponges, and see the fishes playing "tag" all around and about them. There! that sly little fish, like a salt water pickerel, nipped the tail of that great clumsy porpoise—porpus—so hard, I heard the big fish grunt. The teeth of a pickerel are fearfully long and sharp.
Oh! Oh! What is that most beautiful thing we see shining with a faint, sweet glow, down at the bottom of the sea? It is in plain sight, nestled in the heart of a conch-shell. It is round, has a milk-like murkiness, yet pinky, changing lights like tiny stars, that glint and gleam as you look upon it.
Now believe me! Of all the treasures of the sea I have told you of or shown you, this is far and away the most precious.
It is a pearl. Only once in a great while will so perfect and so valuable a gem be found near my deep water home. And although we are not so very far east, yet it would be called an "Orient," or an "Eastern pearl."
Perhaps it has floated in its polished pink bed from a far eastern sea. I told you a little while ago that I must explain what an oyster had to do with Folks that sported too many jewels, and why it might be amused at the sight.
Did you know that inside of an oyster-shell grew the lovely, costly pearls that Folks will give a great deal of money for? Why, Queen Victoria of England had a Scotch pearl that cost two hundred dollars. Queens and princes, rich Folks, jewellers, and dealers in precious stones, will give great sums of money for necklaces, brooches, or rings that have in them the precious Oriental pearls.
I had to listen very hard to find out what I did about pearls. But I found that they have been known, talked of, and written about, almost ever since the beginning of the world.
Oyster-beds are generally much nearer the shore than most kinds of shells. It is said to be when an oyster gets restless or uneasy that a strange substance enters the edge of the shell, and after a time a pearl is formed. And while many pearls are found in oyster-shells, they also are often found fastened to the pink bosom of a conch-shell.
There are black pearls of much value, but though rare, they are never half as beautiful as a white or pink one. Some pink pearls are very lovely, and when large-sized, are also very expensive.