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Ch. 6:Other Gems

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406                      A POPULAR TREATISE ON GEMS.
found in the Elster river, in the kingdom of Saxony, from its source at the borders of Bohemia to Elsterberg, where the fishery has been carried on since 1621, with some ad­vantage to the sovereign; some pearls found there were valued at fifty Prussian dollars each. In the river Watawa, in Bohemia, and in the Moldau river, from Kruman to Frauenburg, pearls are found of great beauty; so much so as to equal in price the Oriental pearls. Also, at Rosenberg, pearls are sometimes found superior to the Oriental in lustre; and at Oelsnitz, a considerable pearl fishery is car­ried on. Most of the rivers in Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Poland, Norway, Jutland, Silesia, and other places, contain pearls, but they are not collected.
It is a "fact that the pearl is equally hard throughout all its concretional layers, for by putting the pearl in a weak acid, the outside layer becomes gelatinous, and the suc­ceeding layers are found to be equally hard and uniform. It is almost impossible, therefore, that the story told of Cleopatra having swallowed a pearl after being dissolved in vinegar, should be true; besides, if the pearl had been dissolved as quickly as reported, it would not have made a very disagreeable beverage. Pearls were known, and were very much esteemed by the Greeks and Romans, and when they became acquainted with the Indies, by com­mercial intercourse and conquest, they preferred the pearls of the East to those that were obtained from the rivers of Europe, or even from the Mediterranean.
With the ancients the wearing of this species of curiosity became a passion and even a folly. Necklaces, bracelets, and ear-rings were then worn in profusion; dresses, head and foot ornaments were manufactured with pearls. Mil­lions of sfisterces (a Roman coin of two hundred francs value), were expended and lavished for the best and most extraordinary pearls. The two pearls of Cleopatra cost
Ch. 6:Other Gems Page of 515 Ch. 6:Other Gems
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