Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/546

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542
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
A Portion of the Red Abalone Shell with Four Blister-pearls and Two Free Pearls.

of good green shells, there is a growing tendency to use the centers of the red shells for jewelry.

When the shells are cut into ornaments, as many as fifteen pieces, including one scimitar-shaped paper-knife made from the lip, or rim, may be produced from one shell of about twenty-two inches in circumference. At an average retail price of fifty cents for each of these pieces the products of the shell would realize seven dollars and fifty -cents.

The blister-pearls are more or less extended elevations of the inner,

Shell of Red Abalone Opened to show a Razor-clam Shell Forming a Blister-pearl Nucleus.