422 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



pearls on that coast, on condition that one-fifth of the 

 amount was to be delivered to the Government. There 

 seems to be an abundance of pearls of very good quality, 

 and the owner of the schooner was quite content with the 

 trial ; 35 ounces, valued at ;^20 an ounce, were shipped 

 from there in 1871. 



Perforated pearls, destined to serve as beads, often form 

 a part of the contents of ancient North American mounds. 

 Squier and Davis found them on the hearths of five distinct 

 groups of mounds in Ohio, and sometimes in such abun- 

 dance that they could be gathered by the hundred. Most 

 of them had greatly suffered by the action of fire, being in 

 many cases so calcined that they crumbled when handled ; 

 yet several hundreds were found sufficiently well preserved 

 to permit of their being strung. The pearls in question 

 are generally of irregular form, mostly pear-shaped, though 

 perfectly round ones are also amongst them. The smaller 

 specimens measure about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, 

 but the largest has a diameter of no less than three-fourths 

 of an inch. According to Squier and Davis, pearl-bearing 

 shells occur in the rivers of the region whose antiquities 

 they describe, but not in such abundance that they could 

 have furnished the amount discovered in the tumuli ; and 

 the pearls of the fluviatile shells, moreover, are said to 

 be far inferior in size to those recovered from the altars. 

 The latter, they think, were derived from the Atlantic coast 

 and from that of the Mexican Gulf. It is a fact that the 

 Indians, who inhabited the present Southern States of the 

 Union, made an extensive use of pearls for ornamental pur- 

 poses. This is attested by. the earliest accounts, and more 

 especially by the chroniclers of De Soto's expedition (the 

 anonymous Portuguese gentleman and Garcilasso de la 

 Vega), who speak of almost fabulous quantities of pearls 



