THE MUSEUM. 



addinp that they are also used for pav- 

 ing garden walks and burned for lime. 

 This latter use for lime is referred to 

 also by three Tennessee papers as act- 

 ual or possible, and one says that they 

 might be "ground to cement, " and one 

 Wisconsin writer notes that some are 

 ground up for the poultry. 



As .\ Product for F"ooo. 



There would seem to be a strong 

 presumption that the ancient people 

 of the United States, must have 

 used the Unios quite largly for food. 

 as we know that the later Indian tribes 

 did, as will be referred to later on. 

 They naturally were thus led to the 

 finding of pearls and accumulated large 

 stores of them in the course of time. 

 The ancient tribes of Brazil have left 

 shell heaps along rivers tributary to 

 the Amazon, composed of fresh-water 

 shells of that region i Hyria and Castal- 

 ia), and though no such stores of pearls 

 have been found, yet the shells them- 

 selves have been much employed as 

 ornaments among these people. 



\\'hen it is remembered that the 

 tribes of both North and South Amer- 

 ica made large use of the river mussels 

 as an article of food, it seems extraor- 

 dinary that only one instance of any 

 attempt so to utilize them should ap- 

 pear in these accounts : although Can- 

 adian lumbermen catch them by allow- 

 ing bushes to drag after their rafts in 

 shallow streams, using the mollusk for 

 food. They could perhaps often save 

 life, if explorers or hunters knew of 

 their existence, while the shells so cap- 

 able of being wrought and polished into 

 an immense variety of beautiful objects 

 or ornamental art should command a 

 remunerative price instead of being 

 thrown away and wasted. 

 Utii.iz.ation ok Unio Shells i-or 



Buttons. 

 Several references from time to time 

 have been made to the valuable possi- 

 bilities of the abundant shells of the 

 Unios, for various purposes of manu- 

 facture, and some few instances noted 

 of their being polished as ornaments 



or cut into buttons. It is highly inter- 

 esting to learn that this latter use has 

 at last attracted attention and is devel- 

 oping into an important industry. A 

 correspondent of the "St. Paul (Minn.; 

 Dispatch," under date of November 13, 

 1897, gives an extended account of the 

 shell button manufacture at Muscatine, 

 Iowa, where already a number of fac- 

 tories are in operation. No dates are 

 specified, but the statement is made 

 that it was begun within a few years 

 past by Mr. Bepples, a Farmer, who 

 recognized the possibilities of such an 

 industry, and established a factory at 

 Muscatine, soon employing two hun- 

 dred operatives, besides a number of 

 outside people, gathering shells from 

 the Mississippi River at that point. 

 The enterprise proved profitable even 

 under an unfavorable tariff, and sever- 

 al other factories were established, but 

 since the recent protective legislation 

 has gone into effect the business is in- 

 creasing largely, eleven or twelve 

 factories are now in operation, run- 

 ning 300 saws and employing 1,500 

 people. One of these was working 

 on double time to fill orders for 20,000 

 gross of buttons for the "holiday 

 trade" of 1897. The business is al- 

 ready 'an important element in the 

 prosperity of the town, and as the 

 supply of shells is enormous it is ex- 

 pected to increase in extent. Other 

 works exist also in Iowa, at Daven- 

 port and Saluba and at Cedar Rapids 

 on the Cedar River. There are also 

 Eastern factories referred to that cut 

 the shells into "blanks," i. e. unfin- 

 ished discs, and send them to Musca- 

 tine to be polished and perforated. 



The shells have been gathered by 

 men and boys wading in the shallow 

 water and working from boats in the 

 deeper parts with rakes provided with 

 a wire net or basket. Now, however, 

 steam dredging is to be employed. 

 One such boat has been built, and an- 

 other is under construction. The 

 dredge will take up a ton of shells in 

 an hour— a process now slowly con- 

 ducted in small furnaces. As the 



