NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
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around and spreads to other parts of the country; a fresli campaign of ignorant 
extermination is carried on for several summers, then the yield is exhausted, and there 
is nothing more but to leave nature to recuperate, if possible, and slowly to restore, 
in limited amount, the abundant life that has been destroyed. 
During the season of 1897 the pearl fever has broken out in various parts of the 
country, the particular scene of discovery and excitement being the hitherto undis- 
turbed streams and bayous of Arkansas. These waters teem with Unios, and pearls 
have at times been found by the rural population for years past; but there has been, 
usually, no knowledge of their nature or their value. They have been simply regarded 
as “pretty stones,” and used as playthings by the children — like the first South African 
diamond, that attracted the notice of a trader in 1866 as he saw it in the hands of the 
children of his Boer host at the Vaal River. 
Several valuable pearls, however, were this year found by persons from St. Louis 
and Memphis, who at once sent them to those cities and ascertained their reality and 
value. The same parties then searched for more, and took steps to lease the laud 
where pearls were found abundant. Ere long the facts became known, and a wild 
excitement set in and spread through large portions of Arkansas, extending into 
Missouri, Kansas, and the territory of the Choctaw Ration. The first important dis- 
coveries were on small lakes or bayous, formed by affluents of the White River, in 
White County. The subsequent activities prevailed along the general valley of 
White River and its branches, then on the Arkansas, the Ouachita, and the Black, 
Cache, and St. Francis rivers, thus affecting almost all sections of the State. In one 
district an entire lake was leased, guarded, and fenced for its pearl contents alone. 
The newspapers took up the subject and published highly sensational accounts 
of the treasures to be had in what was largely proclaimed as “the Arkansas Klon- 
dike.” These articles were copied all over the country, and led to a great amount of 
pearl-hunting in many States, both east and west. Iowa, Tennessee, Georgia, New 
York, and Connecticut were all more or less stirred up to activity. The former pearl 
region of Tennessee was less affected than a new section in the eastern part of the 
State, along Clinch River, where great crowds have been searching for pearls, and 
large quantities were obtained. The Georgia interest has been chiefly along the 
Oostenaula, near and above Rome. The New York activity has been in the north- 
western angle of the State, along Grass River, in St. Lawrence County. Connecticut 
has yielded some good results to the searchers on the Mystic and the Shepang 
rivers, at almost opposite ends of the State. 
REASON FOR THE PEARL INVESTIGATION. 
In view of the great interest and possible importance of discoveries from time to 
time made in various parts of the United States, particularly in the Mississippi Val- 
ley, of pearls yielded by the fresh water bivalve shells ( TJnionidce) so abundant in 
many of our inland waters, I was invited, in 1894, to undertake a systematic inquiry, 
for the United States Commission of Fish aud Fisheries, to ascertain, as far as pos- 
sible, the facts relating to the occurrence and distribution of the pearl-bearing species, 
and the extent and conduct of the pearl industry as thus far developed. The value 
and elegance of many of the pearls, especially as shown in exhibits made at the 
Columbian Exposition in 1893; the popular excitements or “pearl fevers” at times 
arising in districts where a few pearls have been found, and characterized by whole- 
