River Pearls ; British and Foreign. 247
account
of this discovery, and that he bore a Pearl in his coat of arms : but
both these assertions are false, though Professor Fabricius conjectures
that the first may be true." What was taken for a Pearl, in the arms of
Linnaeus, was really an egg— a symbol of Nature.
Pearl-mussels
are found in considerable numbers in some of the rivers of Saxony and
Bohemia. The principal, or perhaps we should rather say, the only
Bohemian locality in which the Pearl-fishery has of late years been
conducted, is the Horazdiowitz district, in the beautiful valley of the
river Wotawa, between Pilsen and Budweis. Much more important,
however, are the fisheries in certain rivers in Saxony.
The
Pearl-fisheries of Saxony are chiefly located in the basin of the White
Elster and its tributary streams, in the Saxon Voigtland. The industry,
from very ancient times, has been under the control of the State. In
1621, Duke Johann Georg I., appointed Moritz Schmirler as Conservator
of the Crown Pearl-fisheries, and the successive incumbents of the
office have been—with only a single exception— direct descendants of
Abraham Schmirler, who succeeded his brother Moritz in 1643. We read
that in 1649, this Abraham obtained 93 clear Pearls, of
