On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
The “Panama Star” says that the largest pearl in the world is in the possession of Victor Plise, Esq., of Panama. The pearl is much the shape of an egg, without a single flaw in its entire formation ; in color it is what judges consider perfection, and it weighs one hundred and fifty-six grains. It is valued at fi ve thousand dollars, and if a match could be procured for it, the pair would be considered almost invaluable. Mr. Plise has a large assortment of beautiful pearls, all of which he has collected at his fisheries on the Pearl Islands. The plate in the cabin of the steamer Victoria, wrecked near Howth, on the coast of Ireland, has been recovered by a diver ; but the man protests that nothing in the world would induce him to go down a second time, as the scene in the cabin Was the most horrible he ever witnessed. He thought he had entered a wax-work exhibition, the corpses never having moved from their positions since the vessel went down. There were some eighteen or twenty persons in the cabin, one and all of whom seemed to be holding conversation with each other, and the general appearance of the whole scene was so life-like that he was almost inclined to believe some were yet living. Mr. Walter, the architect, it is said, has been authorized by President Pierce to repair, embellish, and procure furniture for the White House under the late appropriation. Louis Napoleon recently bought for the Empress a piano, exhibited at the London Exhibition, for forty thousand francs. A firm in Cincinnati has contracted to build one hundred and fifty wagons for a company of English Mormons, who are now on their way from Great Britain to the Salt Lake.— They will land at New Orleans, ascena the Mississippi, and cross the plains to their destination. It is said that the English Ivy can be successfully cultivated with us. Washington Irving has a vine brought from Melrose Abbey, Scotland, which covers his house, at Sunny Side. Mr. Breckenridge, the successor of the late A. J. Downing, in the employment, of the Government, on the Capitol Grounds, informs a correspondent of the " Waterbury American," that it can be cultivated with success in Connecticut. The ivy is found to preserve the building it grows on. Bermnda papers say there have been imported into that island 16,000 bushels of potatoes from this country, for seeding the present crop, which bids fair to be twice as large as any hitherto. Seven hundred hands are at work, raising and widening the levee at Cairo, at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, for the protection of the city against inundation. These levees will be raised twelve feet above the point reached by the flood in 1844, and eighty feet wide on the tops. Some enterprising manufacturers of New Jersey and New York have purchased a large estate in New Jersey, opposite Bedlow's Island, having a water front of about a mile. The intention is to lay out and build up a new city for manufacturing purposes. Already two large manufacturing establishments are projected. In Paris, in 1852, the oyster eaters consumed 1,678,926 francs' worth of those animals, the average price was 2J Irancs the hundred, and the total number devoured was 70,000,-000. The Peninsular and Oriental Company have only about a year's stock of coals in the India and China seas. There is the greatest difficulty in keeping up a stock of coals at these stations, in consequence of the colliers getting no return freights. Sailing ships in India and China are being rapidly superseded by steamers in everything but the conveyance of coal.
