In his paper above noted, Godron recites several orders issued from 1616 to 1619 by the Duke of Lorraine, who then had jurisdiction over the present department of Vosges, showing that a high value was attached to these pearls and that the resources were well looked after. Writing in 1699, Dr. Martin Lister alluded to the many pearls taken from the rivers about Lorraine and Sedan. A Paris merchant showed him a fresh-water pearl of 23 grains, valued at £400, and assured him that he had seen some weighing 60 grains each.[207] In 1779 Durival gave an extensive account[208] of the Vologne fishery. He records that for sixty years pearls had been abundant, but at the time he wrote they were very scarce. Puton states that, in 1806, when taking the baths at Plombières in the Vosges, Empress Josephine formed a great liking for the Vologne pearls, and at her request some of the mussels were sent to stock the ponds at Malmaison. It does not appear that any favorable result followed this transplanting. Owing to the extensive fisheries, the mussels became so scarce that in 1826, when the Duchesse d’Angoulême was visiting in the Vosges, it was impossible to secure enough pearls to form a bracelet for her. This scarcity has continued up to the present time; and yet in the aggregate many pearls have been secured, so that there are few prominent families in the neighborhood who do not possess some of them. They are especially prized as bridal presents to Vosges maidens. While the Vologne pearls are of good form and of much beauty, they do not equal oriental pearls in luster. The color is commonly milky white, but some of them have a pink, yellow, red, or greenish tint. In size they rarely exceed 4 grains. The Nancy museum of natural history possesses one which weighs 5¼ grains and measures 6½ mm. in diameter. In western France, according to Bonnemere,[209] the pearl-mussel is widely diffused, and in the aggregate many pearls are secured therefrom. They are somewhat numerous in the river Ille near its union with the Vilaine at Rennes; though small, these are commonly of good color and luster. In the department of Morbihan and that of Finistère, many pearls have been secured, especially in the Steir, the Odet, and in the Stang-Alla near Quimper. Small pearls, frequently of some value, are found in the Menech near the town of Lesneven, a few miles northeast of Brest, the great naval port of France. [Illustration: GREAT CAMEO PEARL, ACTUAL SIZE 22 INCHES Sold at auction in Amsterdam in 1776 for 180,000 florins. Note great baroque pearl forming body of the swan at the base, diameter 1.37 inches ]