It is not unusual to employ the vertebrae of this species of whale as stools; and it is said, there are many houses in the village of Tain, ten leagues from Siraff, in which the lintels of the doors are made of whale ribs. An eye-witness told me that he went to see a whale which had been cast ashore, near Siraff, and found the people mounting on its back by means of ladders; that they dug pits in different parts of his body, and when the sun had melted the grease into oil, they collected this, and sold it to the masters of ships, who mixed it up with some other matter, used by seamen for the purpose of serving the bottoms of their vessels, and securing the seams of the planks, to prevent or to stop leaks. This whale-oil sells for a great deal of money; and the bones of the whale are sold by the druggists of Bagdat and Bassora. The pearl oyster is at first a small thin tender substance, resembling the leaves of the plant called _Anjedana_, and swims on the surface of the sea, where it sticks to the sides of ships under water. It there hardens, grows larger, and becomes covered by a shell; after which, it becomes heavy, and falls to the bottom of the sea, where it subsists, and grows in a way of which we are ignorant. The included animal resembles a piece of red flesh, or like the tongue of an animal towards the root, having no bones, veins, or sinews. One opinion of the production of pearls in this shell-fish is, that the oyster rises to the surface when it rains, and, by gaping, catches the drops of rain, which harden into pearls. The more likely opinion is, that the pearls are generated within the body of the oyster, for most of them are fixed, and not moveable. Such as are loose are called _seed_ pearls. An Arab came once to Bassora with a pearl of great value, which he shewed to a merchant, and was astonished when he got so large a sum for it as an hundred drams of silver; with which he purchased corn to carry back to his own country. But the merchant carried his acquisition to Bagdad, where he sold it for a large sum of money, by which he was afterwards enabled to extend his dealings to a great amount. The Arab gave the following account of the way in which he had found this large pearl: Going one day along the shore, near Saman, in the district of Bahrein[21], he saw a fox lying dead, with something hanging at his muzzle, which held him fast, which he discovered to be a white lucid shell, in which he found this pearl. He concluded that the oyster had been thrown ashore by a tempest, and lay with its shell open on the beach, when the fox, attracted by the smell, had thrust in his muzzle to get at the meat, on which the oyster closed its shell, and held him fast till he died: for it is a property of the oyster never to let go its hold, except forcibly opened, by thrusting in an iron instrument between the shells, carefully guarding its included pearl, as a mother preserves her child.