Other editions of book History and Mystery of Common Things

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ <title> History And Mystery Of Common Things<author> C. W. Allen<publisher> J. B. Alden, 1885<subjects> Reference; Questions & Answers; Questions and answers; Reference / Questions & Answers

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ...pearls are generally considered jewels; they belong tc the animal, and not to the mineral kingdom. These are round bodies, white and shining, with a peculiar and beautiful lustre, for which we have no other adjective than pearly. They are supposed to be the effect of disease in the fish inside whose shells they are found, as they are not by any means found in all the shells. Various shell-fish yield pearls, but the finest, and by far the most frequent, are those produced by a peculiai kind of oyster, called from this circumstance, the pearl-oyster. The most abundant fisheries are near Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, and on the coasts of Ceylon, though they are obtained in many other parts of the east, and indeed of the world. How are they fished up? Expert divers go out in pairs or threes in boats or rafts tt the fishing ground, and then they cast anchor, and ore of Qu party, having fastened to his body a heavy stone to servr ballast, a net to contain his oysters, and a rope by whic i ta be hauled up again, goes overboard, and sometimes divei to the depth of sixty feet. He immediately commences gathering the oysters, which often adhere firmly to the rocks; when his net is full, or he can no longer hold his breath, he pulls the rope, and his comrades above haul him up again; sometimes, alas, this is not done in sufficient time to save him from the sharks and other voracious creatures which haunt these pearl beds, and he loses life or limb in his perilous undertaking! When the oysters are taken on shore they are heaped into shallow pits, and covered with sand; they soon open and die, the fish rots away, and the pearls fall out. They are then cleansed and sifted, and are valued according to their size; large round or perfectly pear-shaped pearls...

This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.

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