396 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad; thence the excitement spread all up and 
down the valley of White Eiver and its tributaries, passing into (2) the northeast 
portion of the State, along Black River, Cache River, and the great lake-like expanse 
of the St. Francis; (3) along the valley of the Arkansas and its tributaries from 
Little Rock eastward, and especially westward, to and into the Indian Territory, 
including mountain streams in Crawford County to the north and the valley of the 
Fourche to the south; (4) in the southern part of the State, along the Ouachita, 
Saline, and Dorcheat rivers. Without entering into minute details, these may be 
regarded as the chief pearl districts, but in various other parts operations were carried 
on to a greater or less degree. 
In one respect these Arkansas discoveries were novel and peculiar. A large pro- 
portion of the best pearls were found not by opening the shells, but lying in the mud 
of the shores or at the bottom of shallow waters. Often, indeed, they were found in 
or upon the soil at some distance from streams or lakes. This peculiar occurrence is 
partly explained by the wide extension of the waters in flood times over the low regions 
of the State and by the shifting of streams and isolation of “ cut-offs”; but the facts 
indicate further that under some circumstances, probably of agitation by floods and 
freshets, the loose pearls are lost or shaken out from the Uuios. A local impression 
prevails that the mussels “ shed” them at certain seasons. The fact that the pearls 
thus found were generally round and well formed; the aggregation in repeated 
instances of several or many near or together, and the non-occurrence of shells with 
them at these places — all point to the washing out of loose pearls from the Unios and 
their distribution by floods and freshets. So marked a feature, moreover, is their 
occurrence in the mud of the lakes and bayous, that it is even proposed to employ 
steam dredges to take up the mud and pass it through sieves or other similar devices 
in the expectation of finding therein the pearl product of many generations of shells. 
Some of the more striking incidents of this mode of occurrence may be noted as 
follows: One of the latest announcements, in October, was that Mr. J. W. McIntosh, 
of Lonoke County, while digging post-holes in the bed of Cypress Bayou, 3 miles 
south of the town of Beebe, White County, found a number of pearls, some as large 
as a “.44-caliber Winchester ball,” at a depth of feet below the surface. The pearls 
were lying together, but with no shells. Mr. McIntosh had refused a handsome otter 
for them, and was at last accounts still at work on his land. Another instance is that 
of a fisherman picking up a dozen pearls in a very short time by simply reaching over 
the edge of his boat as it lay by the shore of Walker Lake and taking them up from 
the bottom. Mr. T. J. Sharum, of Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, which was the 
central trade-point for the pearl-hunting along Black and Cache rivers, emphasizes 
the fact that the pearls taken from the mussels were chiefly from young shells; hence 
it is believed that the old ones lose or “ shed” them, and some propose to use a road- 
scraper next season to take up the mud and obtain the pearls that have accumulated 
in it. Many other accounts are given of pearls found on or in the soil, or in the mud, 
from the first main discovery in White County to various parts of the State. 
Arkansas pearls were by no means unknown before, but they had not attracted 
any attention. On the contrary, they had been picked up for years by the country 
people and used merely as playthings and “luck-stones” among the children, with no 
idea of their value. Some, indeed, had been gathered and recognized, but the discov- 
erers had kept quiet about them to avoid creating a “rush.” Some twenty years ago 
