72 



THE MUSEUM. 



of the oyster. There is no reason 

 why corresponding results should not 

 be achieved with unios, though the 

 problem would be different in some 

 respects. In Saxony, says Mr. Kunz, 

 a family named Schmeler has had a 

 monoply of "pearl-raising" since 1646, 

 and a record has been kept of every 

 pearl obtained. The system adopted 

 consists simply in giving encourage- 

 ment to the natural multiplication of 

 the unios, which when taken out of 

 the water are presently returned to 

 their native element. Thus the ani- 

 mals are preserved, instead of being 

 exterminated, as by the ordinary plan. 

 To discover whether the individual 

 mollusk contains a pearl, sharp-point- 

 ed pliers are inserted between the two 

 valves and the handles are slowly 

 pressed together, opening the shell. 

 If a pearl is found, it is easily removed. 



It seems not at all unlikely that a 

 method will be found by which the 

 fresh water mussels may be made to 

 yield pearls as a regular crop. Under 

 ordinary circumstances ninety-nine out 

 of a hundred are barren, but the pro- 

 cess of pearl formation is so well un- 

 derstood that it can be started by a 

 simple treatment of the moUusks in- 

 dividually. The Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion has in its great conchologica col- 

 lection a mussel that contains a Ipearl 

 as large as a pigeon's egg. The pearl 

 is button-shaped and in color a beau- 

 tiful rose-pink. It has for a core a 

 morsel of beeswax, which was intro- 

 duced into the shell of the living ani- 

 mal purposely. To avoid irritation 

 by the obtrusive article, the mollusk 

 covered it with layer on layer of its 

 own nacre. That is the way in which 

 pearls are alwa\s formed — about a 

 small foreign body, not uncommonly 

 a grain of sand. When they are round 

 they have been so formea by being re- 

 volved continually by the animal. 



The (juantities of pearls collected 

 and owned by the pre-Columbian In- 

 dians were in truth astonishing. In 

 one series of mounds excavated not 

 long ago, near Chilicothe, Ohio, hun- 



dreds of thousands of pearls were 

 found, some of them as big as large 

 hickory nuts, and fit for crown jewels. 

 They were discovered, together with 

 human skeletons, which wore copper 

 masks — a freak by the way, unheard 

 of hitherto by archaeologists. With 

 two skeletons were obtained enough 

 pearls to fill a gallon measure, vary- 

 ing in size from a millet seed to two- 

 thirds of an inch in diameter. Ex- 

 plorers in Georgia and elsewhere have 

 got pearls by quarts, literally, from 

 aboriginal mounds. More than half a 

 bushel were dug out of one ancient 

 tumulus in the Little Miami Valley, 

 and two bushels of pears secured 

 from a prehistoric altar in the same 

 neighborhood are preserved in the Pea- 

 body Museum of Archaeology at Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. The mounds of yet an- 

 other group yielded 500,000 pearls — 

 enough to fill fifteen good-sized boxes. 

 If the pearls thus recovered were in 

 their pristine condition, they would be 

 valued at several million of dollars, 

 but, unfortunately, they are worthless, 

 except as curiosities. Many of them 

 are blackened and spoiled by fire, tiav- 

 ing been thrown apparently into the 

 fiames of altars. Others are rotted 

 by long burial and cemented into 

 masses by water filtering through the 

 soil. Unlike piecious stones, pearls, 

 being an animal product, easily de- 

 cay. The pearls which adorned the 

 necks and hair of lair women thous- 

 ands of years ago, have all passed out 

 of existence: their lustrous beauty is 

 naught but dust. For this reason the 

 water-born "gems" are not very satis- 

 factory property; only great care can 

 keep them in good condition, and the 

 colored ones are apt to fade. Never- 

 theless an occasional pearl of size 

 from the Indian mounds is still found 

 to have lustre and some value when 

 the outer layers are removed by the 

 process known as "peeling." The 

 process is otherwise known as "fak- 

 ing" a pearl. The pearl is formed of 

 a series of concentric layers, and the 

 removal of an imperfect outer coat 



