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BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
pearls. Specimens symmetrical in shape, as large as pepper-corns, and not wanting 
in beauty, have been observed by Col. Charles C. Jones, who says: 
Some were quite big enough to have been perforated in the rude fashion practiced by the Indians. 
They were, however, of a milky color and opaque. Neither in size nor quality did they answer the 
description spoken of in the Spanish narratives. 1 
The fluviatile mussels coutributed more freely than any others to the treasures of 
these early people. At various points along the southern rivers relic beds are found, 
composed of the fresh water shells native to the streams. 
Kjoekkenmoeddings on the St. Johns Eiver, Florida, consisting of river shells, 
were examined and described by Prof. Jeffries Wyman. He saw similar accumula- 
tions on the banks of the Concord Eiver in Massachusetts, and was informed by eye- 
witnesses that they are numerous in California . 2 The inland lakes of Florida, also, 
and even some ponds in middle Georgia and Alabama, exhibit along their banks 
similar ancient refuse piles where lacustrine shells abound. These heaps are common 
in the South, and several of them on the banks of the Savannah Eiver, above 
Augusta, are fully described by Charles C. Jones . 3 He says : 
In these relic beds no two parts of the same shell are, as a general rule, found in juxtaposition. 
The hinge is broken, and the valves of the shell, after having been artificially torn asunder, seem to 
have been carelessly cast aside and allowed to accumulate. 
In order to ascertain the precise varieties of shells from which the southern 
Indians obtained their pearls, Mr. Jones invited an expression of opinion from the 
following scientists, whose pursuits rendered them familiar with the conchology ot 
the United States. They throw considerable light upon this inquiry. 
Dr. William Stimpson, of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, considered the state- 
ments of the early Spanish historians with regard to the size of the pearls (as large 
as filberts) exaggerated. He says : 
The pearls of the Avicula, our only margaritiferous marine genus, are very small, and those of 
the oyster valueless. The Indians must have obtained their pearls from the fresh-water bivalves 
tUnio and Anodon ) which abound in the rivers of Georgia, etc. These are usually small, but in very 
rare instances examples have occurred reaching in diameter one-third of an inch. 
Prof. Joseph LeConte writes: 
Most of the fresh- water mussels contain small pearls now and then. By far the best and largest 
number I have seen were taken from the Anodon gibbosa (Lea), a large and beautiful shell abundant 
in the swamps of Liberty County, Ga., at least in Bulltown and Altamaha swamps. Some of the 
pearls taken from this species are as large as swan shot. Of the salt-water shells, I know not if any 
produce pearls except the oyster ( Ostrea virginica). Pearls of small size are sometimes found in them. 
Prof. William S. Jones, of the University of Georgia, says that he has seen small 
pearls in many of the Unios found in southern Georgia. 
Prof. Jeffries Wyman, after a careful and extensive series of excavations in the 
shell-heaps of Florida, failed to find a single pearl. He remarks: 
It is hardly probable that the Spaniards could have been mistaken as to the fact of the ornaments 
of the Indians being pearls; but in view of their frequent exaggerations I am almost compelled to the 
belief that there was some mistake, and possibly they may not have distinguished between the pearls 
and the shell beads, some of which would correspond with the size and shape of the pearls mentioned 
by the Spaniards. 
'Antiquities of the Southern Indians (New York, 1873), p. 481. 
2 Cf. Fresh-Water Shell Heaps of the St. Johns Eiver, East Florida (Salem, Mass., 1868), p. 6. 
3 Antiquities of the Southern Indians (New York, 1873), p. 483; also Monumental Remains of 
Georgia (Savannah, 1861), p. 14. 
