986 
FOREST AND STREAM 
These Are the Fellows Who Have the Best Chances to Find Prizes, But Canoeists Are Generally Too Busy to Think of Such Things. 
FRESH WATER PEARL HUNTING 
HOW MANY FORTUNES HAVE YOU TRAMPED UNDER FOOT ON FISHING 
EXCURSIONS? A FASCINATING PURSUIT WITH PROSPECT OF RICH REWARD 
S TEP into your jeweler’s, ask the price of a 
marble-sized fresh-water pearl, free from 
flaws, and you will come to realize the treas¬ 
ure trove that is beneath the surface of almost 
every stream east of the Rocky Mountains. 
Although we have gathered almost the very 
last unit of fur, fin and feather, combed the 
mountain and the bowels of the earth for metals 
and jewels, and exhausted other horns of plenty, 
we have, figuratively speaking, traveled a path 
of pearl to a goal of jade. 
The fresh-water pearl is a mystery. Some 
authorities claim it originates from a grain of 
sand, or other foreign matter, becoming fast in 
the mantle—a thin strip of meat lightly fastened 
to the inside outer edge of each half clam-shell— 
but this is very doubtful. 
The streams of America harbor five hundred 
varieties of clams, or mussels, and nearly all 
produce pearl to some extent. 
In some parts of our country, notably along the 
Mississippi and its tributaries, pearling has long 
been an industry of importance, but the treasure 
beds yet to be prospected are the shallow streams 
that are too small for the professional pearler, 
for in these it is impossible to use boats to take 
the cleaned shells to market. 
The shells bring as high as thirty dollars per 
ton for certain kinds, but it is not the easiest 
thing in the world to collect them along small 
streams, on account of the numerous fences, poor 
roadways and hostile landlords. 
The writer has hunted pearls off and on for 
thirty years, both as a pastime and for the re¬ 
muneration it is sure to bring to anyone sup¬ 
plied with an average amount of luck, determina¬ 
tion and elbow grease. 
Let us suppose we are going into a fairly 
shallow stream to search. We will suppose a 
stream of several feet in depth winds across the 
meadows and fields and is paved with mollusks, 
commonly called clams. 
We must dress for the occasion. As it is June, 
By John Bernard O’Sullivan. 
July or August, slip on an old pair of overalls, 
a has-been shirt, a pair of all-in shoes and a 
thousand-mile hat. 
In your pockets you should have a small cloth 
or leather pouch to put your finds in, a jack 
knife and a dozen rabbits’ feet—if you believe 
in them. 
Now go out to the buggy-shed, get the garden 
rake and we are all ready for the stroll to the 
creek. Roll your trouser legs up and ply the 
rake to and fro on the deep side of the stream. 
Unless you’re in a rock-bottomed creek, the rake 
will jump and ring when you pass over a clam, 
as the majority of them are buried deep in the 
sand, little showing but the tip of one end. 
When you find a shell, toss it to the shallow 
side; then, just before you begin to open them, 
gather them into a pile and sit on the bank while 
reaping your harvest. 
Insert the knife blade in each end of every 
shell and thus sever the muscles that hold them 
closed. Now, pull the big, hard, center meat 
out and look for gems in the thick ends of the 
inch-wide strips of animal matter you will find 
on the inside outer edge of every half shell. 
Very simple, is it not? Your very first mussel- 
shell may yield a gem worth a king’s salary; 
but it is not uncommon for pearl fishers to find 
nothing of value in a whole summer’s toil. 
It seems to be a fact that small rivers and 
creeks turn out more pearls per ton than the 
same grade of shell yields from the great 
streams; and, right here is a chance for thou¬ 
sands of men and boys to make money during the 
hot season, when trapping is a thing impossible 
and many of us have time to throw at the wilds. 
In all the world there is no more fascinating 
work than pearl hunting, not even gold mining 
offers the fascination and profit that comes to 
those who look for the queen of gems. When 
the White River of Arkansas was found to be 
full of beautiful and valuable pearls in 1879, the 
people for miles around turned out en masse to 
look for the mystic gems. 
About $400,000 worth of them were taken out 
and turned to cash that very summer. 
In deep waters, clams are brought to the sur¬ 
face by dragging a dozen or more 3-pronged hooks 
on the bed of the stream from a boat that is 
drifted down stream crosswise of the current. 
When clams feed, they open toward the up cur¬ 
rent and stand on end, being only partly buried 
in the sand or mud. 
When a prong of a barbless hook enters a shell 
it closes thereon like a vise, as you’ll readily 
agree should you ever be so unfortunate as to 
have one hug one of your digits. 
Dozens of pearls are found every summer that 
bring $500 each, while the number that bring 
$50 each will probably run into the thousands. 
The perfect pearl should be perfectly round, 
free from pits, knobs, discolored spots and dull 
sheen. The only thing I can compare a fresh 
water pearl to is the moon, when it is full, and 
rides in the cobalt heavens, like a bubble from 
a fairy child’s meerschaum. 
No one but an expert can tell whether your 
find has value or not. When pearls attain a 
certain size they die, rot and crumble. It some¬ 
times happens that a fisherman will get hold of 
one that is just beginning to die, then his hopes 
of a valuable find receive a trip-hammer caress 
amidships. 
For the sportsman in poor health, pearl hunt¬ 
ing offers recreation, health and wealth, and 
when we learn that the half million dollars’ 
worth of gems taken from American rivers, 
creeks and lakes can easily be made to reach ten 
times that figure, we can see the possibilities for 
revenue that are almost in our back yard. 
Why, a friend of mine banked eleven hundred 
dollars made from pearls he found last sum¬ 
mer ! 
And this in his leisure time. Others there are 
that found nothing; it is like everything else—a 
dash of work, a caddy of elbow grease, and a 
thousand tons of luck! 
