Riv€f Pearls ; British and Foreign. 249 



If any are detected, they cut the muscles which 

 hold the two valves together, and extract the Pearls ; 

 but if none are found, the creature is restored un- 

 injured to the water. The Pearls are put into a 

 bottle of water on the spot, and afterwards dried 

 and sorted in the house. Sometimes a mussel will 

 be found with small Pearls in it, which give promise 

 of better growth. Such shells are marked wath the 

 point of the iron and put back. Sometimes excel- 

 lent Pearls have been obtained from mussels which 

 have been so treated." 



In Bavaria the principal rivers which yield 

 Pearl-bearing mussels are those of the Bayrische 

 Wald, or Bavarian Forest, between Regensburg 

 (Ratisbon), and Passau, and some others which take 

 their rise further north, in the Fichtelgebirge. The 

 most celebrated rivers are the Ilz and the Regen. 

 At the Nuremberg Exhibition of Bavarian Products 

 in 1882, there was displayed a large collection of 

 the shells and Pearls, together with examples of the 

 artificial production of Pearls by causing the mol- 

 lusc to deposit nacre on small moulds of fanciful 

 shapes, after the Chinese method, which will be 

 explained below. The Bavarian Pearls have been 

 carefully studied by Dr. Theodor Von Hessling, who 

 has written an elaborate monograph on the subject. 



River-Pearls are also found occasionally in the 



