PEARLS AND PEARL FISHERIES. 
385 
In an altar or “hearth” of the Effigy mound were found a number of bears’ teeth 
and several quarts of pearls, many of which had several successive layers flaked off. 
Some of these pearls measured two-thirds of an inch in diameter. In this remarkable 
altar were found hundreds of obsidian knives and spears of exquisite workmanship, 
measuring from a few inches up to 8 inches in length. With these were several 
hundred earrings made of native copper coated with meteoric iron. 
From their manner of occurrence in connection with the skeletons, the archaeologist 
is led to see that the use of pearls, although so many are found, was confined to a few 
individuals. A remarkable fact in this connection is that pearls have never been 
found in isolated mounds nor out of the great mound groups. The hill mounds, the 
villages of the small streams, and the tumuli of northern Ohio have yielded none. 
They seem to have been used by the more cultured tribes, and are an evidence of 
extensive trade and barter. 
It is of interest to archmologists to note, further, that pearls are not found in any 
quantity outside of the Miami and Scioto valleys, and that they were deposited with 
the remains of persons held in especial distinction, while the enormous numbers 
found indicate that the yield of Unio pearls must have been far greater in the 
remote past than it has been at any time since the whites have occupied the country. 
From Taylor’s mound, Oregonia, Warren County, Ohio, there were four Unio shells 
in which a hole two-thirds of an inch in diameter had been drilled, either for the 
purpose of extracting a piece of the shell to make a bead from, or else to allow the 
shell to be used as an ornament. From this same mound were shown decorated disks 
made of Unio shells and a long Unio from which the corner nearest the lip had been 
ground down or cut oft", to adapt it for use as a scraper or a tool of some kind. 
The South American exhibits at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago presented 
many interesting uses of pearly shells, both for inlaying and in various forms of 
personal adornment. Both these modes of application seem to have been carried 
very far among some of the native tribes of this continent. 
In the Amazon Basin the Unio family is well developed, but is largely represented 
by two genera not found elsewhere — Gastalia and Syria. These are characteristic 
South American types, differing from the Unios and Anodons of North America and 
the Old World, but equally suitable for ornamental uses from their pearly character. 
Probably many of the objects here described were made from these shells. 
In the Paraguay collection were a number of necklaces made of oblong squares 
of Unio shell, and connected by means of a fiber drawn through two drilled holes at 
the upper end, while the lower ends are decorated with three small circular drillings 
which do not entirely perforate the shell. Another necklace consisted of small joints 
of hollow reed or bamboo, about an inch in length, between which were blue glass 
beads, and pendent from each of these a small brilliant Unio shell, pure white, with a 
slight iridescence, and remarkably beautiful. Still another necklace was made 
entirely of Unio shells, not very iridescent, with the dark-brown epidermis remaining 
on the exterior. Internally the drilling was either near one of the ends or toward the 
center of the shell. These were strung by thin vegetable fiber, so as to hang pendent 
about 3 inches from the fiber necklace, and were evidently intended to serve for a 
rattle or noise-producing ornament. In the same exhibit were a number of pendants, 
consisting of small pieces or large sections of Unio shells, beautifully iridescent, 
varying from oval to disk shape, and from 1 to 4 inches long. In another necklace 
Unios were strung indiscriminately with hoofs of some small animal. 
F. C. B. 1897 25 
