European Pearls.
Many of the rivers of the Continent are the home of .the Pearl-mussel. It is found
widely distributed in the streams of Northern Europe, being especially
abundant în Norway, Sweden, Finland, Saxony, and Bohemia ; and even as
far south as Bavaria.
The
attention of scientific men in this country-was called to the
River-Pearls of Norway as far back as the year 1673; in a letter from
Hamburgh, " By the learned Christopher Sandius," translated in the "
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' for 1674. We are
there told that "The Pearl-shells in Norway do breed in sweet waters :
their shells are like mussels, but larger." The writer then asserts
that it sometimes happens that the eggs of the mollusc instead of being
voided adhere to the
