In the essay, the author tells in a fascinating way how sailors, in their free time from trawling, searched for bivalve mollusks - pearl mussels - gray unattractive pancakes lying at the bottom of blue lagoons in which pearls are born - the tears of a sea nymph or the dew of the sea, like it was called by the Greeks and Romans in ancient times, as well as the history and description of the most famous pearls, the beauty of which was admired by the entire fair half of humanity.