422 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
FRAUDULENT AND ACCIDENTAL INTERMIXTURES WITH PEARLS. 
In the small lots and packages of pearls that are sent to commercial centers for 
purchase or valuation, quite a variety of foreign objects are found, some of which 
have evidently been introduced with fraudulent intent, while others have got among 
the pearls accidentally, and were evidently mistaken for pearls. 
Among the former are regular artificial pearls, i. e., hollow beads of thin glass 
filled with wax or other composition; also ground pieces of pearly shell or attached 
pearls that have been cut from the valve and rounded and polished on the defective 
side — occasionally rounded and cut entirely out of the shell itself, and of no value. 
Frequently the round, hard lens of a fish’s eye is found in parcels of pearls. 
In the second class may be mentioned natural growths found in the shell resem- 
bling brown pearls; translucent, but consisting not of nacre, but of conchioline — the 
material of the hinge and ligament. These are sometimes handsome and lustrous, and 
occasionally iridescent, but, of course, are not pearls and have no commercial value. 
A third class of doubtful character consists of metallic objects that sometimes 
strongly resemble pearls, and may have been introduced either by intention or by 
accident. Such are small shot and steel spheres from ball-bearings; these, when 
bright, look much like the darker and lighter gray pearls, respectively, and are quite 
frequently encountered. 
USE OF UNIOS AS FOOD. 
Indications point to the use of Unios as an important article of food by the Indian 
tribes at the time of the discovery of the country, and occasionally by the white 
explorers. This practice probably prevailed for ages, in both North and South 
America, back to the time of the Mound-builders. It seems, however, remarkable 
that so little use has been made of these abundant shellfish by the whites; and the 
question is worthy of attention, whether we have not here a ready and valuable 
source of food supply throughout large areas of the country remote from the sea and 
its products. There seems no reason why these mollusks should not be palatable 
and nutritious, and such is the testimony of the few who have tried them. 
While sailing down Canadian rivers on their rafts, lumbermen collect Unios for 
food by fastening bushes to the rear of the raft so that, when they pass through the 
mussel shoals where the rivers are shallow, the bushes touch, the shells close on the 
leaves and thin branches, holding to them securely, and at intervals the bushes are 
taken out and the Unios removed. In the same way we have the fact, referred to 
by Professor Eau, that the Unios of the Tennessee Kiver were sometimes cooked and 
eaten, as a change of diet, by the soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland during the 
civil war, as stated by Dr. Brinton. They might even serve an important purpose in 
preserving life, in the case of exploring parties or travelers becoming lost in a region 
where other food was not procurable. 
