140 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug. 19, 1893. 



AMID THE PEAKS OF IDAHO. 



Shotgun Creek, Idalio, July 27. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Y oui- whilom correspondent of Medicine Brook 

 desires to record her experiences once more in a far 

 strange country. After a journey of about 2,000 miles by 

 rail from Indiana to Beaver, Idaho, behold us on a moun- 

 tain plateau 6,000ft. above the sea. By "us," is meant 

 the Chief of the Medicine Brook expedition, M. of the 

 same, and the Matron. 



The roUing plains, gray-green with sage brush, is in- 

 closed on three sides by mountains of various altitudes. 

 To the northeast they rise sharply in rocky peaks, and to 

 the west gradually declme to foothills, covered with 

 sombre pines; all are beautiful with trailing shadows and 

 sunshine, and above their summits, clouds rest in soft 

 fullness. To the northwest can be seen three ranges, sink- 

 ing away in deepest violet near, to palest opaline blue 

 against the sky; and before the swelling hills in the south- 

 west, runs through many shades of green, clear as crystal, 

 and cold as clear, welMng up from snow fed springs- 

 Shotgun Creek. But it is at sunset that the mountains 

 are most beautiful. If as is often the case, there are 

 clouds above, their gray lights up with an inner crimson, 

 rimmed with silver, or hquid gold, magnificent to behold. 

 And over all burns, to the very zenith, a deep golden 

 glow, with the evening star trembUng through, and last- 

 ing long after day has passed. On the opposite side is a 

 curious refraction, often sending up streams of pale light 

 not unlike an aurora. Since coming here, we have wit- 

 nessed an auroral display also, with a perfect arch and 

 dancing streamers. In a feAv nights more now, the full 

 moon will pour broad and bright over silent plains and 

 solemn mountains, and touch with silver the wandering 

 streams. 



It is almost a iifty-mile ride from Beaver Cafion to this 

 place. We came in a wagon with the "plunder" neces- 

 sary for making a camp, and found considerable difficulty 

 in locating. Four or five miles away are wooded hills, 

 through which winds a beautiful wide stream- Snake 

 River— free from fallen timber, and with its trap rock 

 banks often fallen in picturesque confusion, as lovely a 

 spot as could be found for camping. But we were told by 

 the natives that mosquitoes filled the land in legions, and 

 after seeing for ourselves, decided to return and camp in 

 the open plain, near a fine spring boiling up in a small ra- 

 vine near, and from which ran a considerable stream. 

 There, on a windy knoll among odorous sage brush, we 

 startled the "picket pins," as gophers are called here, by 

 lifting our tents, and bestowing our housebold gods. It 

 did not require long to discover that we were in a curious 

 coimtry, very different from any we had ever seen before 

 " in our goings to and fro on the earth." We are prettj' 

 far north, and the great altitude added to this, gives a 

 long, long day, with direct rays from a blazing sun, 

 almost tropical in intensity. With the heat began boister- 

 ous wind, which flapped everything loose, and unless they 

 were securely fastened, sent many of our possessions flying 

 over the pla,tn. Indeed, it was sometimes as much as we 

 could do ourselves to avoid being blown from a foothold. 



The Chief fotmd pleasure, however, in whipping Snake 

 River for trout, and daily brought back a creel fiUed with 

 fish, each of several pounds weight. We all looked envi- 

 ously at the sage hens, with which the plains are alive, 

 but recently a game law has been passed prohibiting the 

 slaughter of nearly everything but fish, to continue until 

 Aug. 15. Curlews and plover, called here jacksnipe, how- 

 ever, were exempted, and as they make a good soup, or 

 stew, we were not without game. During our evening 

 strolls over the plain or beside the streams we have been 

 astonished by the quantities of birds. Flocks of sage hens, 

 which are as large when full grown as young turkeys two- 

 thirds grown, and others with numerous broods, half size, 

 constantly flew up or ran before us, and on the water we 

 saw wild ducks swimming with their young ones, seem- 

 ingly with very little fear. At every few steps plover, 

 quite a large bird, curlews and killdees rose with startling 

 whirr and scream. I have twice seen antelopes, and once 

 small red deer, on the plains, and am told that deer are on 

 the mountains. As yet the game has not been destroyed 

 by hunters who plume themselves on the number of lives 

 taken rather than legitimate sport, and it is to be hoped 

 the game law is in time to forestall such vandalism, much 

 as it and its ofiicers are hated. 



There has been almost no rain here this summer, and 

 the_ wild grass and flowers, of which there is a great 

 variety — often very pretty though invariably scentless — 

 are almost dried up. Natives say the season is excep- 

 tional, and showers fall in summer frequently, usually. 

 On May 23 last, two feet of snow remained on the 

 ground, and snowshoes and toboggans (a kind of dog sled) 

 were in order, I have several mornings seen white frost, 

 and once ice crystals in the water bucket. It is patent 

 that farming can never succeed, owing to tlie very short 

 growing season and white frosts at night — save, perhaps, 

 as a grazing countiy — but there is no doubt that notwith- 

 standing its fierce winds and sunshine it is at present a 

 paradise for hunters. 



Besides sun and winds, there is yet another drawback to 

 perfect enjoyment on the plains. As soon as the chill of 

 morning begins to dissipate, swarms of buffalo flies— enor- 

 mous green-headed things like gad flies— assail tents and 

 awnings with a venomous buzz and roar, and their bite is 

 as keen as a bee sting. In the shacks and ranches they 

 blacken ceilings and windows to such an extent that, 1 

 have been told by a native, a cup f lill can be killed in a 

 short time. These pests last from about July 1 \mtil 

 August wanes, I have been informed, and mosquitoes also 

 make life a burden, mornings and evenings, for the same 

 length of time. But the nights are delightful, and two 

 or three double blankets only ai-e needed to insm-e sweet 

 sleep and pleasant dreams. 



To sum up. For men accustomed to roughing it, who 

 desire plenty of game and sport, with a minimum of labor, 

 there are left in our rapidly filhng country few places 

 as wild. Women I would counsel to go elsewhere, xinless 

 cabins can be secured. Wind and sun blister the skin as 

 by fire, and other discomforts from these causes are very 

 great. Michigan or Wisconsin, the Adirondacks, Maine, 

 or Tennessee and Carolina mountains all afford much 

 pleasanter places for an outing, and as the variations in 

 temperature are fax less trying, they are infinitely better 

 for nervous or feeble women. Mrs. M. E. Banta, 



PEARLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



A paper read by George Frederic Kunz before the American FisliPries 

 Society, Chicago, 1893. 



[Concluded from page US.} 



At the Intel-national Fisheries Exhibition held in Berlin 

 during 1880 there were shown results of experiments un- 

 dertaken in Germany toward the production of artificial 

 pearls from TJnios, in a manner similar to that practiced 

 by the Chinese. Flat tin figures, usually of fish, were in- 

 troduced between the mantle and the shell. Similar ex- 

 periments were conducted in the Royal Saxon pearl fish- 

 eries. Either small foreign bodies were introduced into 

 the mantle, in order to furnish the nucleus for the free 

 pearl formation, or the Chinese method of inserting such 

 bodies between the mantle and the shell was followed. 

 From the second method successful results were shown. 

 The foreign bodies that had been introduced were poor 

 pearls from other mussels, pieces of grain, or china but- 

 tons, and were entirely covered with nacreous substance. 

 The shape of these objects makes it unpossible for the 

 mantle to fit closely around them, and hence the nacre 

 covers them so irregularly that little or no use can be 

 made of them, and ornamental devices coated with a 

 beautiful nacre would probobly find ready purchasers at a 

 fair price. From specimens exhibited, it was shown that 

 German oysters could be made to cover a plain reUef with 

 nacre, as well as those of China. Tlie cultivation of such 

 forms in this country might lead to considerable income, 

 and the brooks coifld be as easily protected as trout brooks 

 or ponds are. 



Efforts to make the river peai'l mussel available in an- 

 other way met with no better success, and are worthy 



A ST. AUGUSTINE PET HUMMINGBIRD, 



Photographtu from life. 



o f consideration in the United States, and may lead to 

 a new industry. In 1850 Moritz Schmerler conceived 

 the idea of making small fancy articles of the shells 

 themselves, and succeeded so well that the German 

 Government allowed him to take from the royal beds 

 the shells needed for his manufacturing business. Large 

 numbers of pearl shell pocket books and hand satchels 

 have been made since then. The almost faultless white 

 and reddish-tinted "rose-pearl mussels" are specially 

 prized for this purpose, as the material may be cut so thin 

 that a photograph pasted on the inside can be seen through 

 the shell, conveying the appearance of being produced on 

 the shell itself. Other manufacturers engaged in the 

 business a:; soon as its success became api^arent, and many 

 hundred thousands of pearl mussels are now annually 

 used at Aldorf , where the business is chiefly carried on. 

 The principal sources of supply are brooks in Bavaria 

 and Bohemia that are owned by private persons. Why 

 not Tennessee, AVisconsin and Texas? 



Pearls are usually found either by farmers, who devote 

 their spare time to this industry, and, if no result is ob- 

 tained, suffer no loss, or by persons in country villages 

 who are without regular occupations, but are ever seek- 

 ing means for rapid increase of fortune. Many shells 

 that do not contain pearls are destroyed. In order to 

 obviate this wholesale destruction, it would be well to 

 give the industries a legal protection, making it punish- 

 able by fine to kill a Unio, and requiring all pearl fishers 

 to use instruments Uke those that are employed in Saxony 

 and Bavai-ia.* 



In the former country a thin flat iron tool with a bent 

 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 pliers with 

 sharp-pointed jaws, and a screw between the arms, which 

 is turned by the hand until the valves of the shell are 

 sufliciently distended to see whether it contains a pearl. 

 If it does not, the animal is returned to its former haunts, 

 perhaps to propagate more valuable progeny. In gather- 

 ing the shells, only those that are full grown, old and dis- 

 torted by disease should be taken, and these only opened 

 and not destroyed, so that the fisheries 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 discoloi-s 

 the pearls; and particularly they must never be opened 

 by boiling water, as this dims the lusti-e 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 



*See illustration "Gems and Precious Stones pf Forth Ajmerica " 

 New York, 1898. Figs. 10 and 11, page 238. 



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 theu- necks, feehng for the sharp ends 

 of the Unio, 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 egg is said to have been 

 dropped into the water and never recovered. 



The wholesale destruction, together with the depreda- 

 tions of hogs, which have exterminated whole shoals of 

 Unios, when the water in the brooks was low, and the 

 substances introduced into the water by manufacturing 

 industries, besides sewerage and refuse from factories, are 

 rapidly causing the disappearance of animal life from 

 many of ou^' water courses. 



It is probable that the existence of carbonate of lime in 

 excess, where mussels abound, influences the secretion 

 that causes the growth of the pearls. In limestone 

 regions, if the waters are polluted by products of decom- 

 position that are acid, these unite with the lime and form 

 other compounds, which are either precipitated or carried 

 away with the impurities of the water. There can be no 

 doubt that this cause would tend to decrease the 

 amount of lime which the shell would receive, thus not 

 only retarding the growth of the pearls, but often event- 

 ually leading to the extermination of the Unios them- 

 selves. At nearly all the marine pearl fisheries coral- 

 banks abound; branches of coral frequently forming on 

 the shells themselves, sometimes three or four species on 

 a single shell; and it may be that these have more or less 

 influence on the development of the pearl in the shell. 

 In Vermont, New Jersey and Ohio, where pearls were 

 formerly found, a fine one is now rarely obtained. 



A unique method of collecting Unios is that practiced 

 by the kimbermen, who. while sailing down the Canadian 

 rivers on their rafts, collect Unios for food, by fastening 

 bushes to the rear of the raft, so that when they pass 

 through mussel shoals, where the rivers are shallow, the 

 bushes touch, the unios close on the leaves and thin 

 branches, holding them securely; and at intervals the 

 bushes are taken out and the Unios removed. 



In regard to these pearl excitements which appear from 

 time to time, and as to where best to search for pearls, it 

 may be well to state that it is advisable to search every 

 creek and river where limestone is the country rock, since 

 in nearly all instances the Unios secrete pearls when this 

 favorable condition exists. 



The great qiiantities of Unio pearls that existed in pre- 

 historic times is evidenced by the Little Miami Valley, 

 explored by Prof. Frederick W. Putnam and JVIr. Charles 

 L. Metz, and more recently by Warren K. Moorehead, 

 who carried on operations for Prof. Putnam. The former 

 procured over 60,000 pearls, nearly two bushels, drilled, 

 undoubtedly of Unio origin, all of them, however decayed 

 or much altered, and of no commercial value. In 1884, 

 the former scientists examined the Marriott Mound, 

 where they foimd nearly 100 Unio shells, and among 

 other objects of special interest six canine teeth of bears, 

 that were perforated by a lateral hole near the edge at the 

 point of the greatest curvature of the root, and by passing 

 a cord through this the tooth could be fastened to any ob- 

 ject or worn as an ornament. Two of these teeth had a 

 hole bored through near the end of the root on the side 

 opposite the lateral perforation, and the whole counter- 

 sunk in order to receive a large spherical pearl about fin. 

 in diameter. When the teeth were fotmd the pearls were 

 in place although chalky from decay. Upward of 250 

 jjearl beads were found, concerning which they say: "The 

 pearl beads found in the several positions mentioned are 

 natural pearl, probably obtained from the several species 

 of Unios in the Ohio River. In size they vary from -^in, 

 to ^in. in diameter, and many are spherical. They are 

 neatly drilled, and the larger from opposite sides. These 

 pearls are now chalky and crumble on handling, but when 

 fresh they would have formed brilliant necklaces and 

 pendants." The find of Mr. Moorehead is exhibited in 

 the Anthropology Buildings of the World's Fail-, and be- 

 longs to the collection that is to be made the permanent 

 one of the city of Chicago to be shown ultimately in the 

 Fine Arts Building, Jackson Park. 



Among marine shells of the United States the common 

 clam (Venus mercenaria) secretes pure white pearls, 

 scarcely distinguishable from ivory Ijuttons, as well as 

 others faintly tinted with a purplish blue, passing at times 

 to a reddish purple and purplish black. The white pearls 

 are worthless, the tinted ones arc of little value, but those 

 of a dai'ker color are often from 4- to fin. in diameter, and 

 the finest ones bring from $20 to $100. The supply is lim- 

 ited and there is very little demand, for unless the color is 

 exceptionally good they possess httle beauty, lacking the 

 lustre peculiar to other pearls; still, when mounted with 

 diamonds, the appearance of darker ones is much im- 

 proved. 



The making of wampum from these shells and from 

 the conch has been carried on by a family of Campbells, 

 at Pascack, New Jersey, from 1770 to the present time. 

 The last four brothers were over 80 years old in 1889. 

 (See "Gems and Precious Stones of North America," pages 

 233-234.) 



The common oysters (Ostrea borealis and Ostrea vir- 

 ginica) occasionally secrete one or more pearly bodies, al- 

 ways dead- white in color. The reflections produced by 

 their fibrous, radiated structure are similar to those ob- 

 served in the common conch. The "skin" of these pearls 

 is never smooth or lustrous, and consequently they have 

 no value. 



Conch pearls — ^the concretions found in the common 

 conch of the West Indies (Strombus gigas) are not nacre- 

 ous, and therefore cannot be considered true pearls. 

 They are usually a little elongated or oblong in form, 

 rarely round, and most of them are very beautiful, owing 

 to the reflections produced by the fibrous stellated struc- 

 ture causing the light to play over the sui-face, but giving 

 a different effect from the cat's-eye or that of satin-spar. 

 They are almost pink in color and the fine ones are won- 

 derfully lustrous. 



The Abalone (Haliotis or ear-shell), the principal species 

 of which are HaUotis splendens and Haliotis mfescens 

 (called ormer in the Channel Island, fuh-yu in China, 

 awabi in Japan, and abalone in California) also secretes 

 pearls. The nacreous portion of the shell itself is used 

 for ornamental purposes, such as buttons, etc. , and sur- 

 face ornamentation in lacquer work, papier-mache, etc. 

 The mollusk itself, called "mutton-fish" by the New Zea- 

 landers, has long been knovm to the Indians of the 

 Pacific Coast as a valuable article of food, and it is much 



