586 Pearls and Pearl Fisheries, [June 
it contains 177 pearls from the Elster, and is valued at about 
$7000. The finest pearls found since 1819 were nine in number, 
weighing thirty-five karats, and valued at eighty-five thalers each. 
In 1802 the Royal Museum sold 7000 thalers’ worth of pearls, 
and with the proceeds bought the Racknitz collection of minerals. 
In 1826 forty-three particularly fine pearls were made into an 
ornament for the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The value of the 
pearls obtained in 1879 was about $750. At present the pearls 
come under the control of the ministry of finance. 
Attempts have been made from very early times to induce arti- 
ficially the formation of pearls by the fresh-water pearl mussel: 
To an invention of this kind the celebrated Linnzus, “ father of 
natural history,” owed his order of knighthood, conferred by the 
King of Sweden in 1757. The plan, though successful in pro- 
ducing pearls, was soon given up on account of the expense in- 
volved. Attempts have been made more lately in Saxony to 
obtain pearls in two ways: Ist. By introducing some foreign sub- 
stance (such as a small pearl or a little pellet of porcelain) into 
the mantle in imitation of the process by which the finest natural 
pearls are developed; 2d. By inserting these bodies between the 
mantle and the shell, as the Buddhist monks of China do with 
their little tin Buddhas. The first process has not proved satis- 
` factory ; in the second the substances used are generally covered 
with a coating of nacre which may become quite thick but 1s 
generally so irregular, and even angular, in shape as to make the 
result of little value. In 1850 Herr Schmerler began the g 
facture of nick-nacks, such as portmonnaies and little boxes © 
the polished valves of the mussels. These no doubt most of you 
have seen. They appear at Niagara, at Coney Island, 1 wel 
Yosemite and at Saratoga, wherever the travele , 
mementos are likely to be in demand. The manufacture ye 
authorized by the Saxon government and already greatly eri 
in value and importance the pearl fishery of which it was ongi 
ally a mere incident. The latest improvement reported is that 
polishing the shell until it is so thin that it becomes hee? ee 
and a photograph can be seen through it, or the poran ae 
have his own portrait photographed upon the reverse side 
shell itself, and present it 
“ Smiling through gates of pearl”? 
to the lady of his choice. 
