Pearl Fisheries of Tennessee 21 



looking for pearls and soon hundreds were making good money in 

 the then unworked mussel beds of that section. 



I show you herewith a lantern slide showing the stretch of Caney 

 Fork River where the first pearl was found. This beautiful stretch 

 of river is the worthy setting for the birthplace of Tennessee pearl 

 industry. 



I will first give you some lantern slides which will show you the 

 way pearlers gathered mussels when the industry first began. These 

 slides are historic, from the fact they are from photos made at that 

 beginning period. They show, not only the method of gathering 

 and opening the mussels, but, if you will carefully study the men 

 shown engaged in the work, you will see all classes are represented. 

 In this group at work pearling you will find bankers, merchants, 

 lawyers, doctors and fishermen. Not that these men gave up their or- 

 dinary vocations and went pearling for a livelihood, but every one 

 was excited and every one took a try at it in idle moments. One of 

 the men in this group later went to New York, where he became one 

 of the large pearl dealers of the world. You will see, they waded 

 out into the shallow waters and either grabbled up the mussels with 

 their hands, or spaded them up with the heavy iron forks shown 

 herewith. At this time no attempt was made to gather in water over 

 a man's head. In fact none of the pearlers knew mussels existed in 

 deep waters. I also present slides showing how the mussels are gath- 

 ered at the present time. At the present time all the mussels have 

 been gathered from the shallow waters, and the pearler gathers 

 them by drags or dredges from deep waters. The drag is composed 

 of an iron bar, about five feet long, to which short pieces of cord 

 with wire prongs are attached. This is dragged along the bottom 

 and when one of the cords or wire prongs touches the open mussel, 

 the mussel instantly closes, for self-protection as he hopes, on the 

 cord and, thus clinging, is brought to the surface and taken off by 

 the pearler. 



The dredge is a heavy apparatus armed with huge teeth in front 

 and a heavy bag behind. The dredge is drawn along the bottom by 

 gasoline launches. The spike-like teeth are driven into the bottom 

 and drag out and bag the mussel. 



At the beginning of the pearl industry no one dreamed the shells 

 had any value. But later there came to this country a big, tall, raw- 

 boned, bespectacled German named Boeple. He, with German thor- 

 oughness, made a personal investigation of many of our pearl rivers. 



