Collection of Remarkable Facts (1895) - Page 26

PLINY	AMMIANUS	SOLINUS
From this, a cloudy color is drawn, or, according to the morning clarity, a serene one.	For the drops of morning dew infused into them make the stones clear and rounded, while evening drops make them twisted, reddish, and sometimes spotted.	Finally, as often as they receive the seed of the morning air, the pearl becomes clearer; as often as they receive it in the evening, it becomes darker.
If they are sated in time, they grow in size and offspring.	They are shaped as minimum or maximum according to the quality of the intake in varied instances.	And the more it has consumed, the more the size of the stones progresses.
If it lightens, the shells are compressed and diminished according to the mode of fasting; if it even thunders, the terrified and suddenly compressed shells create what are called "physemata" bubbles or inflations, inflated in empty appearance without a body; these are the abortions of the shells.	When closed, they very often grow empty from the fear of lightning, or bring forth weak ones, or at least dissolve due to abortive defects.	If a flash of lightning suddenly occurs, they are compressed by untimely fear, and being closed by sudden terror, they contract abortive defects; for they either become very small grains or empty ones.
After other matters:		After other matters:
The shell itself, when it sees a hand, compresses itself... the greater part is found among the rocks; in the deep, they also accompany dogfish.	Their capture, however, is difficult... that reason brings it about because, avoiding the shores accustomed to being frequented on account of the snares of fishermen, as some conjecture, they hide around remote rocks and the lairs of dogfish.	Shells fear the snares of fishermen: hence it is that they hide for the most part either among rocks or among dogfish.
After other matters:		After other matters:
In Britain, it is certain that they are born small and discolored.	We are not ignorant that this kind of gem is also born and gathered in the recesses of the British sea, although of inferior quality.	India gives pearls, and the British shore also gives them.

The wonders related by both authors regarding the Nile (Amm. 22, 15, 3—13; Solin. 32, 1—16) will likewise reveal, to one who compares them, that both depend on Pliny. However, Ammianus includes details omitted by Solinus, such as the mention of the Etesian winds (Amm. § 7 = Pl. 5, 54), the names of the seven mouths of the Nile (Amm. § 10 = Pl. 5, 64), and finally, in Ammianus § 9, he repeats the words of Pliny § 54, that the Nile does not flow but rushes, whereas in Solinus § 7, the Nile is said to rush rather than flow. See also Amm. § 12, Pl. § 57, Sol. § 12. 13. Such agreement between Ammianus and Solinus is not rare, even in matters that Pliny does not have or relates differently.