THE FRESH WATER PEARL 15 



portant place among the gems of the world since ancient 

 times. They were used as articles of trade and barter 

 with the Romans, and it is said that Caesar undertook his 

 British expedition partly for the purpose of finding 

 pearls, and Pliny reports his bringing home a shield of 

 British pearls, which he dedicated to Venus Genetrix, 

 and hung up in her temple. An account of the pearl 

 fisheries of Ireland was published describing the way the 

 mussels lived in the swift rivers there. The men would 

 find about one good pearl in 10,600 mussels. 



Between 1761 and 1764 the Conway River, in Scotland, 

 supplied the London market with about $50,000.00 worth 

 of pearls. The rivers of Cumberland, Conway and Tay, 

 in Scotland, have in the past yielded fine pearls, and these 

 gems are still found there. 



Ireland still places pearls on the European market. 

 These are from the Armagh River, in County Tyrone, 

 and the Slavey River, in County Wexford. Some small 

 pearls are found in the lakes in Finland. These are 

 bluish white in color and resemble the Scotch pearls. 

 Many beautiful pearls have been found in the rivers of 

 France, Germany, Austria, Bavaria and many other coun- 

 tries. 



In the United States fresh-water pearls were found 

 several hundred years previous to the visit of Columbus. 

 In the prehistoric times the Mound Builders who used to 

 inhabit this country used these gems as ornaments, and 

 archaeologists have unearthened large collections of pearls 

 from the mounds in Ohio. 



These pearls, however, were of no value because they 



