NAUTILUS. 71 



specimens to the factories at Waterbury, Conn., and after consider- 

 able experimenting one concern there determined that with some 

 changes in their machinery the shell of the strange mussel from the 

 ' Father of Waters " would make a button to compete with the best 

 of those from other parts, of the world. 



First one concern and then another began to use the Mississippi 

 shell, until the foreign one was almost abandoned. In the beginning 

 the shells were shipped east in the rough and prepared for use after 

 their arrival there, but the freight rates were so high that one enter- 

 prising firm soon shipped that part of its machinery which makes the 

 "blanks" out to Muscatine, and, what generally results when some 

 pioneer leads the way to a good thing, others soon profited by the 

 example and came also. The industry has spread both up and down 

 the river, until almost every town of any importance, from St. Paul, 

 Minn., to Alton, 111., is now engaged in some form of the industry. 



The manner of catching the mussels is interesting. A fisherman 

 equips himself with what is known to the clan as a " John boat." 

 This is a flatboat on the order of a scow, about 20 feet long and 3 

 feet wide. Upon the inside of the boat are placed eight uprights, 

 which are between three and four feet high and have crotched tops. 

 Four of the uprights are placed on each side of the boat, at just 

 enough distance apart to accommodate the four 10-foot pieces of inch 

 gaspipe that rest upon them. To each of the gaspipes are attached 

 20 four-foot stagons, similar to those used on an ordinary trout line, 

 and each stagon has four hooks, with four prongs. 



The fisherman goes out in his "John boat " with as much con- 

 fidence as if it were the finest craft afloat. Once in the stream, be 

 casts his gas-pipes, one by one. As the hooks drag along the bottom 

 of the river they come in contact with the open shells of the mussels, 

 which immediately close up on them. Thus attached, they are 

 brought to the surface and taken off. The distance the hooks are 

 dragged each time depends altogether on the thickness of the bed, 

 and varies from three boat-lengths to an eighth of a mile. 



The rivers of Arkansas are said to be so thick with mussel beds 

 that they crop out of the water when it is low. The men put on 

 rubber boots and shovel the shells into the boats. In the Upper 

 Mississippi district, shells are quoted in car-lots, ranging from 15 to 

 30 tons in weight, but the Arkansas dealers have astounded every- 

 body in the business by sending out quotations on 500-ton lots and 



