THE MUSEUM. 



71 



■'from necessity, partly from their ultra 

 conservatism. The aborigines are the 

 most conservative people in the world. 

 They make their fire by rubbing two 

 sticks together, and what is more, 

 they will keep to the sticks even 

 though you present them with some of 

 the latest kind of matches. 



"When we got there we coasted 

 down to Cooktown, where we dis- 

 charged our boats and made our ship- 

 ments to America. We then went by 

 way of Sidney to New Caledonia, the 

 French convict island. Prisoners are 

 kept in barracks near the city of Nou- 

 mea, but some of them escape and get 

 into the interior where there is now a 

 population of free convicts, so to 

 speak. 



"We ne.xt went to the Fiji islands, 

 where we spent about two weeks col- 

 lecting more corals. Thence we went 

 to Samoa, an island governed by Eng- 

 land, Germany and the United States. 

 These islands are largely covered with 

 cocoanut trees. As you sail around 

 you see millions of trees and each tree 

 has about fifty nuts. The natives dry 

 the fruit and send it to Europe. Co- 

 coanut and palm oils are used largely 

 in making our best soaps. From Sa- 

 moa we sailed to the Friendly islands, 

 and thence to New Zealand. 



"New Zealand is a much more pro- 

 gressive country than Australia. It is 

 rnore like the American countries, 

 brom New Zealand we went back to 

 Samoa again, and thence to San Fran- 

 cisco by way of the Sandwich islands. 

 Since then I have been going through 

 the Southern states and then came 

 along home 



"When I arrived in Rochester I 

 found that I had traveled over 30,000 

 miles in my journey of ten and one- 

 half months. I sent to Rochester 125 

 boxes of material collected in Europe, 

 Egypt, India and the other countries. 

 It's a very simple thing to travel now- 

 adays. It is just a question of days 

 and dollars. I think, however, that I 

 shall stay in Rochester for a while, 

 now that I am home. There is no 

 place like home, after all. 



Pearls in America. 



THE FISHERIES TO BE INijUIRED INTO 

 OFFICIALLY. 



The United States Fish Commission 

 has employed George F. Kunz, the fa- 

 mous e.xpert in gems, to inspect the 

 fresh water pearl fisheries of the Unit- 

 ed States says the Fishing Gazette. 

 These fisheries are by no means pros- 

 pering, having produced only $160,000 

 worth of pearls within the last twenty 

 years, and it is hoped that some meth- 

 od will be developed for renewing the 

 output which was in former times 

 •enormous. The mollusks which yield 

 the water-horn "gems" are large mus- 

 sels called "unios, " and they would 

 an annual profit of many millions of 

 dollars under proper conditions. Un- 

 fortunately the beds, which occur in 

 streams, have been ruthlessly destroy- 

 ed by pearl-seekers. 



Thus it comes about that few fresh- 

 water pearls are now found east of the 

 Ohio. In this State this sort of fish- 

 ery was prosecuted in pre-Columbian 

 times on a great scale, and the aborig- 

 inal residents of the Miami and Scioto 

 valleys possessed the largest and fin- 

 est collection of pearls ever known. 

 The streams in those days were full of 

 pearl-bearing mussels, and some of 

 the pearls obtained from them were 

 as large as English walnuts. Big 

 chiefs owned astonishing quantities of 

 them, wearing them sewn by thous- 

 ands on their clothing. A warrior of 

 distinction was adorned with an as- 

 semblage of pearls that would e.xcite 

 the envy of the wealthiest modern 

 monarch. Often the biggest pearls 

 were set in bears' teeth for ornaments. 

 The pearls were usually pierced by 

 means of red-hot copper wire, and 

 alas! it was considered necessary to 

 bury all such jewels with their pos- 

 sessions. 



The main point of the Government's 

 investigation lies in the fact, that the 

 pearl-bearing mussels can be propa- 

 gated artificially without difficulty. 

 Everybody knows what wonderful suc- 

 cess has attended efforts in the culture 



