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 first 
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 Unionuhe. 
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 IJnio 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 in this A r olume. 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. 
F. C. B. 1897—2] 
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