A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GATHERING OF FRESH-WATER PEARLS IN 



THE UNITED STATES. 



BY GEORGE F. KUNZ. 



The gathering of pearls from the fresh-water shells of North America, although 

 a matter of comparatively recent date among the present inhabitants, really goes 

 back very far into the unrecorded past, and early attracted notice among the h'rst 

 European explorers. In the prehistoric period the mound builders of the Mississippi 

 Valley gathered immense quantities of these pearls, as is amply shown by the stores 

 of them found on the "hearths" of a number of mounds, especially in Ohio, by the 

 recent explorations of Prof. F. W. Putnam and Mr. W. K. Moorehead. By age, burial, 

 and in some cases funeral or sacrificial fires, these pearls have lost their luster and 

 beauty; but they were evidently highly prized by these ancient people and gathered 

 by the hundred thousand. The finding of two bushels in a single series of mounds is 

 an evidence of their abundance. 



The first explorers who traveled among the Indian tribes speak frequently of 

 the number and beauty of the pearls in possession of the natives. Especially marked 

 are these accounts in connection with the great expedition of De Soto, from Florida 

 through the present Gulf States to Mississippi, in 1540-41. Garcilasso de la Vega 

 and other narrators give minute accounts of pearls as worn by the Indians; and from 

 the accounts given by them to De Soto at various times, and as taken by the Spaniards 

 from burial-places of native chieftains, it is quite evident that perhaps all of these 

 referred to were not marine, but fresh- water pearls. De Soto's narratives, which 

 undoubtedly referred to the latter, seem exaggerated, but the recent finds substan- 

 tiate them. The process is described, moreover, of gathering the shells and opening 

 them by heat, which was shown to De Soto, at his request, by a friendly chief. In 

 the same way several early English travelers, from New England to Florida, refer to 

 the Indians as having pearls, undoubtedly from the fresh-water Unionidie. 



No particular attention, however, was given to the subject until about forty years 

 ago. The natives had been dispossessed, and the white race, occupied with other 

 interests and necessities, took little note of the hosts of fresh-water shells inhabiting 

 the streams and lakes, and did not suspect their power of producing pearls. In the 

 rivers of Saxony and Bohemia, indeed, and those of Scotland and Ireland and the 

 lakes of Finland, such pearls have long been known and valued, although Unio life 

 is far less abundant there than in our great river systems of America; but not until the 

 middle of the present century was a search begun or any important discovery made. 



NOTE. This article is chiefly an abstract of a more comprehensive report on pearls by the same 

 writer, which will appear hereafter iu this volume. The present paper was prepared for the Fishery 

 Congress by special request, for the purpose of calling the attention of delegates to the latent resources, 

 in many parts of the country, in pearls and pearl-bearing shells. 



321 

 F. C. B. 189721 



