In Baden and in Hesse are small pearl fisheries. In 1760, Elector Maximilian III sent to Mannheim, then in the Palatinate, eight hundred living pearl-mussels from the Bavarian forests, and again in 1769, he sent four hundred mussels from Deggendorf on the Danube, so that they might be established in the Palatinate. The mussels were placed in the Steinbach not far from Heidelberg, where they thrived so well that fishing was instituted in 1783. Soon, however, most of the mussels became buried in the sand, and the remainder were transplanted into a quieter portion of the Steinbach, between Kreutzsteinach and Schönau, about five miles northeast of Heidelberg. Here they seem to have been forgotten, and were left undisturbed until, about 1820, a fine pearl valued at two louis d’or was found near Schönau. This discovery soon led to such reckless exploitation that the government reserved the fishery as a state monopoly. The mussels were examined and sorted, and a portion of the brook was specially prepared for their reception. However, the cost of supervision was greater than the proceeds of the fishery, and the business was rented to private parties for a very small amount. This was paid as late as 1840 by the Natural History Society of Mannheim, the annual rate then being ten florins. An effort was made nearly two hundred years ago to develop the pearl fisheries in Hesse. In 1717, Landgrave Prince William requested his cousin, Duke Moritz of Saxony, to send a pearl fisherman “to examine some streams in his territory where mussels have been found and to determine whether they are fitted for pearl fishing and whether fisheries can be established.”[218] In the following year, a member of the famous Schmerler family from the Saxon fisheries was sent to Cassel, but with what result is unknown. When the pearling excitement developed at Schönau about 1820, Landrath Welker, of Hirschhorn on the Neckar, requested the grand duke of Hesse to place him in charge of the fishery, and when the proposition was declined, he formed a small company for pearl-culture. In 1828 his company had 558 mussels, 88 of which showed pearl formations; in 1833, out of 651, 98 contained such objects, and in 1851, 117 mussels were found with pearl formations out of 867 examined.[219] Owing to the policy of the company in selling the pearls only among the members thereof, the profits were altogether insufficient to cover the expenses, and gradually the fishery dwindled down until it was prosecuted only as a pastime. Pearls are found in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, which formerly belonged to Denmark, but since 1866 has been a part of the kingdom of Prussia. Möbius relates that the Bavarian soldiers in 1864 collected large quantities of pearls from the streams of this province and sold many of them to jewelers in Hamburg.[220] Most of them were of good form and luster; milky white was the prevailing tint, but some were pink and others were rose-tinted.