have been obtained from a single stone.

_Expeditiously_, with celerity or dispatch.

_Economically_, with economy; with frugality.

You describe Pearls as being ranked among the number of Gems, although
they are not Stones; what kind of substance are they?

Pearls are excrescences found in the shells of a large species of
oyster, which are supposed to be produced by a disease of the fish.
The best pearls are generally taken from the most fleshy part of the
oyster, near the hinge of the shell, but inferior kinds are found in
all parts of the fish, and adhering to the shells. Pearls, from many
allusions made to them in the Old Testament, were not only known to
the ancients, but were regarded by them as costly and precious gems.

How do they get the Oysters which contain them?

By diving under water and picking the oysters from the large beds at
the bottom of the sea; or the rocks to which they adhere. The divers
cast all the oysters they take into their boats, and carry them
ashore, where they deposit them in heaps; they are then left till they
become putrid, this being necessary in order to remove the pearls
easily from the rough matter by which they are surrounded.

What sea produces the best and greatest number of Pearls?

The finest and greatest quantities are obtained off the coast of
Ceylon; the pearl oyster is also found in the seas of the East Indies;
in those of America, and in some parts of the European seas; but these
last are much inferior. The Oriental pearls are the finest on account
of their size, color, and beauty, being of a silvery white; while the
Occidental pearls are smaller, and frequently tinged with a yellow or
blackish hue.

_Tinged_, slightly colored.

Does not the Pearl Oyster produce a substance called Mother-of-Pearl?

No; the beautiful substance so much used for inlaying boxes, and for
ornamental knife-handles, &c., is produced from the shell, not of the
pearl oyster, but of another sea-fish of the oyster kind.

What is Inlaying?

The art of ornamenting a plain surface of wood, or other material,
with thin slices or leaves of a finer wood, of a different kind; as
mahogany inlaid with ebony, &c., or with ivory, and other substances.
There are two kinds of inlaying; one, of the more ordinary sort, which
consists only of compartments of different kinds of wood, inlaid with
one another; the other, requiring greater skill, represents flowers,
birds, and o