NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
327 
and accumulated large stores of them in the course of time. The ancient tribes of 
Brazil have left shell heaps along rivers tributary to the Amazon, composed of fresh- 
water shells of that region (Syria and Castalia); and though no such stores of pearls 
have been found, yet the shells themselves have been much employed as ornaments 
among these people; so they also were in the United States. 
When it is remembered that the native tribes of both North aud South America 
made large use of the river mussels as an article of food, it seems extraordinary that 
only one instance of any attempt so to utilize them should appear in these accounts ; 
although Canadian lumbermen catch them by allowing bushes to drag after their 
rafts in shallow streams, using the mollusk for food. They could, perhaps, often save 
life, if explorers or hunters knew of their existence; while the shells, which are so 
capable of being wrought and polished into an immense variety of beautiful objects of 
ornamental art, should command a remunerative price, instead of being thrown away 
and wasted. The small ones are often as brilliant as an opal in color. 
UTILIZATION OF UNIO SHELLS FOR BUTTONS. 
Several references, from time to time, have been made to the valuable possibilities' 
of the abundant shells of the Unios for various purposes of manufacture, and some 
few instances noted of their being polished as ornaments or cut into buttons. It is 
highly interesting to learn that this latter use has at last attracted attention and is 
developing into an important industry. A correspondent of the St. Paul (Minn.) 
Dispatch, under date of November 13, 1897, gives an extended account of the shell- 
button manufacture at Muscatine, Iowa, where already a number of factories are in 
operation. No dates are specified; but the statement is made that it was begun 
within a few years past by Mr. Boepple, a German, who recognized the possibilities of 
such an industry and established a factory at Muscatine, soon employing 200 opera- 
tives, besides a number of outside people gathering shells from the Mississippi River 
at that point. The enterprise proved profitable, even under an unfavorable tariff, and 
several other factories were established ; but since the recent protective legislation 
has gone into effect the business is increasing largely. Eleven or twelve factories are 
now in operation, running 300 saws and employing 1,500 people. One of these was 
working on double time to fill orders for 20,000 gross of buttons for the u holiday 
trade ” of 1897. The business is already an important element in the prosperity of 
the town ; aud as the supply of shells is enormous, it is expected to increase in 
extent. Other works exist also in Iowa. There are also eastern factories referred to 
that cut the shells into “ blanks,” i. e., unfinished disks, and send them to Muscatine 
to be polished and perforated. 
The shells have been gathered by men and boys wading in the shallow water and 
working from boats in the deeper parts with rakes provided with a wire net or basket. 
Now, however, steam dredging is to be employed. One such boat has been built and 
another is under construction. The dredge will take up a ton of shells in an hour, 
and the steam will be used to cook the animals and clean the shells — a process now 
slowly conducted in small furnaces. As the gathering can not be carried on in winter, 
when the river is frozen, prices rise in autumn. Several species are capable of being 
used, of which two are particularly mentioned; these are “nigger-head” shells, which 
have risen with the approach of winter from 35 cents per 100 to 70 cents, and u sand” 
shells have advanced correspondingly from $1 to $2 per 100. 
