28 
end is inserted into the shell. The handle is then turned 
90 degrees and the shell is opened without injury to the 
animal. Another instrument is 
a pair of plers with sharp-point- 
ed jaws, and a screw between 
the arms, which isturned by the 
hand until the valves of the 
shell are sufficiently distended 
to see whether it contains a 
pearl. If it does not, the ani- 
mal is returned to its former 
haunts, perhaps to propagate 
more valuable progeny. In 
gathering the shells, only those - 
that are full-grown, old and dis- 
torted by disease should be tak- 
~ en, and these only opened and 
ta ake ore | mot destroyed, 60, bhaiaiiesiee 
at: ee eries may be preserved; and 
the shells should be opened as soon as taken from the 
water, and not allowed to open by decay, for this discolors 
the pearls; and particularly, they must never be opened 
by boiling water, as this dims the lustre and lessens the 
value of the pearl. Many lakes and rivers, among them 
the Olentang at Delaware, Ohio, and a number of streams 
near Columbus, have been completely raked and scraped, 
often in a reckless manner, and consequently with very 
little result. The general method of collecting shells was 
for a number of boys and men to wade into the mill-race 
or into the river to their necks, feeling for the sharp ends 
of the Unios, which always project. When one was dis- 
covered in this manner, the finder would either dive after 
it or lift it with his feet. It was the custom at that time 
to open the shells in the water, and once during the pro- 
cess a pearl, the size of a pigeon’s egg,is said to have been 
dropped into the water and never recovered. 







