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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
EARLY HISTORY OF UNIO PEARLS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
The history of Unio pearls in North America may be reviewed briefly as follows, 
from the dim, prehistoric past, through the period of discovery and exploration, and 
finally in recent and present developments: 
Examinations of some of the mounds of the Mississippi Yalley, especially at cer- 
tain points in Ohio, have revealed the fact that the forgotten race that erected these 
remarkable structures gathered and used the fresh-water pearls to an extent that is to 
us astonishing. On the hearths of some of these mounds in Ohio the pearls have 
been found, not by hundreds, but by thousands, and even by bushels, now of course, 
damaged and half-decomposed by centuries of burial and by the heat of sacrificial fires. 
How such enormous stores of them were obtained is a problem not easy to solve, for 
all the pearls that have been gathered in the recent years of search and excitement 
would not approach in number those found in any one of several such mounds. 
There would seem to be a strong presumption that these ancient people must have 
used the Unios largely for food, as we know that the later Indian tribes did. They 
naturally were thus led to the finding of pearls, 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 ( Hyria and 
Gastalia ); and though no such stores of pearls have been found, yet the shells them- 
selves have been much employed as ornaments among these people. 
Passing on to the period of European discovery and exploration, we find in the 
early records interesting accounts of the possession of pearls by the Indian tribes of 
this country, which they had evidently obtained, largely, if not wholly, from the 
fresh- water shells of our rivers and lakes. The Spanish explorers who accompanied 
DeSoto in his memorable expedition from Florida to the Mississippi, in 1540, give 
many remarkable accounts of the pearl treasures seen and procured among the 
natives with whom they came in contact in their extensive wanderings through the 
region of the Gulf States, and a hundred years later some of the English colonists 
made references of a similar kind in their accounts of the more northern tribes. 
The whole subject of Unio pearls, however, remained almost untouched by the 
white settlers and colonists until the middle of the present century. In 1857 the 
first important pearl discovery was made, near Paterson, N. J. ; and since then, at 
intervals of some years, valuable discoveries have been made in other parts of the 
country, followed in each case by a widespread popular excitement, or “ pearl fever,” 
which has resulted in the almost complete destruction of the shells over considerable 
areas. When the streams have been “ cleaned out,” and a good many fine pearls 
procured and sold, and no more are attainable, the excitement subsides, and the shells 
are again enabled to grow undisturbed, and in some degree replenish the streams. But 
of late years the pearl-hunting has extended more widely, and the shells are being 
rapidly reduced ; and unless improved methods are adopted for their protection the 
fresh- water pearls of North America will, ere long, become a thing of the past. 
Taking up the several historical aspects more in detail, we may review, first, the 
evidence as to prehistoric use of North American fresh- water pearls and pearl shells, 
illustrating it by some references to the habits of modern tribes in other regions. 
