66 PEARLS AND PEARLING 



ing water has no terror for him and he can be found in 

 all kinds of weather gathering shells and hunting for 

 pearls. 



Laws are very helpful to other industries, and the time 

 has arrived when the pearl hunting business, like other 

 great industries, needs protection. In making laws for 

 the benefit of this industry, it is to be hoped that the 

 legislators will not think it is necessary for a person to 

 purchase a license before entering upon this work. Xo 

 man should have to buy the right to make an honest 

 living. The pearl hunters have plenty of expenses with- 

 out requiring the payment of ready cash for a license. 



The sewage of the cities which is emptied into rivers 

 is a very common cause of destruction to both mussels 

 and fishes. The damage to aquatic life in the IMinois 

 River, near Chicago, is an example of this great evil. 



It is necessary for the cities to dispose of the sewage, 

 but on account of the great damage done the cities should 

 be required to pay a large license annually for the privi- 

 lege of emptying the sewage and this revenue should be 

 used by the States for the purpose of perpetuating the 

 supply of mussels and fishes in other localities. 



Laws should be enacted prohibiting factories from 

 emptying refuse into the streams near them. Nearly all 

 kinds of factories, from a small cider mill to a large 

 chemical laboratory, when located near a river, find it 

 convenient to empty refuse, acids and all kinds of filth 

 into the water. As this pollution is the cause of death to 

 mussels and fishes, the companies should be required to 

 stop befouling the water or be made to pay fines, and the 



