MUSSELS OF BIG BUFFALO FOEK OF WHITE RIVEK. 9 



Station 13. — July 30. About one-lialf mile below this last bed was 

 a much larger one. A boy and a man were here hunting pearls, but 

 they would give no information on the subject. There were on the 

 shore at this place about 4 or 5 bushels of recently opened shells, by 

 far the greatest number so far observed in one place. 



Shells taken at station 13: Red niggerhead, Quadrula tubeixulata^ 

 abundant ; white niggerhead, Q. coccinea, scarce ; Unio gihhosus; sand 

 mussel, Symphynota costata; Lampsilis ozarkens-is, scarce; red mug- 

 get, green mugget, grass mucket, L. ligamentimis. 



Station 11^. — August 1. A short distance above camp J, which was 

 near tjie railroad station at Gilbert, was a small mussel bed ; no speci- 

 mens taken. About one-half mile below Gilbert is a fairly large bed 

 lying on coarse gravel with larger fragments of rock and some sand. 

 The depth of the water was about 2 feet. Three men, hunting pearls, 

 were sitting on the bottom and digging the shells up with their hands. 

 Each shell was opened at once, and if no pearl was found it was 

 dropped and another one taken, every portion of the bed being ex- 

 amined. These men insisted they could take all they could find, and 

 the next year as many more could as easily be found. The nature 

 of the bottom was such that tongs or other devices could not be used 

 profitably, for there were too many fragments of rock much larger 

 than the shells and many about the size of the shells. Many of the 

 shells were embedded beside the larger fragments and in some cases 

 partly under them. 'VVliere the water was deeper the shells were 

 collected in a bag and taken to the shore and opened. At this bed 

 there was less than a bushel of shells on shore, while three or four 

 times that amount were strewn over the bottom where the men were 

 working. 



Shells found at station 14: Red niggerhead, Quadrula tuherculata^ 

 abundant; cob shell, rabbit's foot, Q. cylindHca, common; Unio gih- 

 hosus^ scarce; sand mussel, Symphynota costata^ abundant; Stro- 

 pliitus edentiilus,' fantail, Tritogonia tuherculata^ common; red shell, 

 Lampsilis purpuratus., scarce; spectacle case, L. rectus^ common; 

 green mugget, red mugget, grass mucket, L. ligamentimis.^ abundant. 



Station 15. — August 1. Below Gilbert, for about 2 miles, the cur- 

 rent was quite rajDid and the bottom very rocky. About 3| miles 

 below Gilbert was a considerable stretch of deeper water^ bordered 

 near the shallow water with sand and gravel bars. Mr. Cookson, a 

 professional pearl hunter, had been working here for nearly a week. 

 He had w^orked over the shallow places, and when we met him he 

 was collecting in water about 5 feet deep. So many shells, he said, 

 were between and under the edges of the larger rocks that tongs could 

 not be used. His method was to have his sack for shells weighted 

 down; by holding it with one hand he could draw himself under 

 water and search for shells as long as he could hold his breath, after 



