In many of the pearling regions of the Mississippi Valley, inquiry of almost any fisherman will result in his bringing forth from an inside pocket a small box padded with raw cotton and containing an assortment of pearls and slugs. Most of the slugs he will sell at prices ranging from fifty cents to $5 per ounce, for several of the small pearls he will likely ask from $2 to $20 each, and one or two of the largest he may value at $50 or more. At very rare intervals, a choice pearl will be found, for which he may expect anywhere from $200 to $5000.

While the highest prices are not received by the fishermen, there are many who have been so fortunate as to obtain $1000 or more for a single pearl, and several have received double that amount. Probably the highest figure obtained by the original finder was $3800, notwithstanding exaggerated stories of enormous five-figure prices. Recently the press credited a lad sixteen years of age with securing $20,000 for a pearl he had found.

A particularly striking yarn relative to a so-called “Queen Mary” pearl went the rounds of the press some time ago. According to the newspaper report, this pearl was found by the wife of a fisherman who was a cripple or something equally pathetic, and, fortunately, when the family resources were at the lowest. With tears of joy, the fisherman embraced his wife and told her it was her very own and she should wear it. However, by means of a check for $17,500, he was induced to part with it, but only on condition that it be named Queen Mary in honor of the hard-working wife. The report continues that the original buyer sold it for $25,000, and at last accounts it was held by a Chicago dealer who had “refused $40,000 and probably would not accept $50,000 for it.” The facts seem to be that this pearl, which was found near Prairie du Chien in 1901 and weighed 103 grains, was originally sold for $250, and the local buyer sold it in Chicago for $550, where for many months it was offered at $1000.

All sorts of stories of valuable finds are told in the pearling regions: stories of mortgages that have been released, of homes bought, of college educations secured from the proceeds of a single gem; but these tales are offset by the untold stories of the undermining of fine, strong character in awaiting the turn of fortune which never comes. The public is quickly apprised of the valuable finds, but it does not hear of the time and labor lost by the hundreds who are unsuccessful. Pearling excitement has many of the features of a mining craze. While a few are benefited, hundreds are made poorer, and in many instances reduced to absolute want. Persons have given up their established business to devote their time to pearling, staking all on the aleatory profits, and have squandered days and months in the hope that one great, immense, all-rewarding find will be made. The monotony of continued disappointment is occasionally brightened by the news that some one—possibly a near neighbor—has made a lucky find, and then the work is continued with renewed enthusiasm. A spirit akin to that which dominates the gambler takes possession of the fisherman, and the days go on and the seasons go by while the gem that is to bring the fortune still eludes him. In many localities the pursuit yields far less profit than pleasure, and many a man who spends a summer in pearling is in a fair way to spend the winter at the expense of some one else.

The pearls are collected for the trade by a score or more of buyers, who visit the fisheries at intervals and purchase of the individual fishermen by personal dickering and bargaining. The buyers endeavor to keep informed of all choice pearls discovered, and when an especially valuable find is reported each one endeavors to have the first chance to secure it. The principal local centers of the pearling industry and marketing are Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; McGregor, Clinton, and Muscatine, Iowa; Newport, Black Rock, and Bald Knob, Arkansas; Clinton, Carthage, and Smithville, Tennessee; St. Francisville, Illinois; and Vincennes and Leavenworth, Indiana.

However, a large number of the pearls from American rivers are consigned by the finders to well-known gem dealers, the owners depending for fair treatment on the integrity and high standing of these experts. An interesting story is told of the pearl and the accompanying shell in which it was found, which was sent to a New York dealer by a poor woman. The price she received pleased her immensely; and in writing her appreciation, she added that she was especially gratified at receiving so good a price because it enabled her to send her boy to school. The dealer sent another check as a gift, and a few days before the next Thanksgiving Day a thirty-five-pound turkey was received by the four-score-year-old jeweler as an evidence of the mother’s gratitude.

The outbreak of pearl hunting in various parts of the country is frequently chronicled by the newspapers. These despatches are much alike, usually telling how some fisherman discovered a beautiful pearl which he sold to some responsible jeweler for an amount varying from $100 to $2000. The despatches generally state further that the effect of the find has been remarkable; the whole region is seized with the fever, and into the rivers and creeks swarm the hunters of both sexes, of all ages, and from all classes of the community. Factory-men leave their mills, farmers their crops, and merchants their stores, and with the members of their families join in searching for the gems. The mussels are secured by whatever means is most convenient. If valuable finds continue, thousands and thousands of mollusks are destroyed in the search, and when the efforts begin to prove futile the excitement subsides almost as quickly as it began. In very many localities the industry has run the whole gamut of the feverish excitement of its beginning, the humor and romance of its existence, and the pathos of its ending.

If disturbed labor conditions at the height of the excitement were the only disagreeable attendant, these pearling furors could be viewed more favorably. But, unfortunately, in many localities, especially in shoal waters of restricted area, the fishery has been prosecuted so vigorously that it appears probable the resources will be very materially impoverished if not ruined in a few years, unless prompt and decisive protective measures are adopted. In some waters the crowds engaged in the search have removed practically every mussel without regard not only to protecting the immature mussels, but even to the necessity for preserving breeding mollusks. Many ponds and small river basins have been so denuded that not for many years, if ever, can they recover their former wealth of pearl-bearers.

This state of affairs has not come about without opposition on the part of those interested in the industry and the general welfare of the localities. Intelligent and well-directed efforts have been made to provide a system of regulations for protecting the mussels so that the maximum yield of pearls may be secured. But this is a very difficult problem to deal with. It involves not only the methods of fishery, but the question of sewage disposal by the cities and the large factories, through which great quantities of mussels have been destroyed.

Undoubtedly it will be difficult to devise regulations that will be satisfactory alike to the fishermen, the button manufacturers and the farmers. The great desideratum in the pearl fisheries—of the seas as well as in the fresh-water streams—is a restriction of the gathering to such mollusks and to such seasons and periods of years as produce the largest results with the least injury to the permanency of the resources.

It is generally agreed that the young or immature mollusks should be protected; but it is not easy to determine what is an immature Unio, as some species never grow large. Likewise, the beds should not be disturbed when the mollusks are loaded with young, but it is difficult to select particular months which would be better for close season than any others. The propositions which seem to be most actively advocated impose restrictions on the number and size of the mussels to be taken, a cessation of fishing from January 1 to May 31, closing certain areas when partly depleted, and prohibiting the use of especially injurious forms of apparatus. But whatever is done should be done without delay, before the pearl hunters and the button manufacturers kill the goose which for some years has been laying the golden eggs.^[323]

MISCELLANEOUS PEARL FISHERIES OF AMERICA

The beautiful pearls of the conch (Strombus gigas) are sought for in the West Indies and on the neighboring continental coasts. They are found most abundantly about the Bahamas, a group of more than four hundred islands off the Florida coast, where many of the fishermen devote a considerable portion of their time to collecting them. It is from this industry that the beach-combers of this group of islands, as well as those of the Florida reefs, have received the designation “Conchs.”

Near the shores, where they formerly abounded, a few conchs are yet picked up by wading fishermen. In waters of medium depth they are secured either by diving or by means of a long pole with a hook at the end. In great depths, the mollusks are located by means of a waterglass similar to the type employed in the Red Sea or among the South Sea Islands.

The animal is readily removed from the shell after crushing the tip end of the spire where the large muscle is attached. The flesh forms an important article of food to the fishermen and to the residents of the outlying islands. It is said that a “Conch” can make a visit to Nassau of a week or ten days, and subsist almost entirely on this dried meat, with which he fills his pockets on starting. A large demand exists for the beautiful shells for ornamenting flower-beds, garden-walks, etc. Many of them are burned into lime for building purposes. Formerly several hundred thousand shells were exported annually to England for use in porcelain manufacture.

The pearls are generally found embedded in the flesh of the mollusk; quite often they are in a sac or cyst with an external opening, from which they are sometimes dislodged by the muscular movement of the animal. The yield is small, a thousand shells in many cases yielding only a very small number of seed-pearls or perhaps none at all. Most of them are oval, commonly somewhat elongated. The usual size is about one grain in weight, but some of them weigh over twenty, and a very few exceed fifty grains each. These pearls are generally of a deep pink color, shading toward whitish pink at each end. While this is the usual color, yellow, white, red, and even brown conch pearls are occasionally obtained; these are not so highly prized as the pink ones. Conch pearls present a peculiar wavy appearance and a sheen somewhat like watered silk, a result of the reflections produced by the fibrous stellated structure. While many are beautifully lustrous, they are commonly deficient in orient, and the color is somewhat evanescent.

Most of the Bahama conch fishermen sell their catch of pearls at Nassau. According to the late Mr. Frederick E. Stearns, there are in Nassau four dealers who have an arrangement with Paris and London houses, to whom they can ship pearls in any number and draw against them with a bill of lading. In addition to these, there are a dozen dealers in Nassau who buy what pearls they can secure and offer them for sale.

The value of conch pearls is as variable as their form, color, and size, and they are sold by the fishermen at prices ranging from twenty-five cents to one dollar or more each. Those weighing from three to ten grains, and of good color and luster, but not quite regular in form, sell for about $10 per grain; those of exceptional perfection in color and form, and of about the same weights, sell for from $15 to $30 per grain. In other and exceptional cases, where the size is very large, the form perfect, and the color and luster choice, the value is enhanced to several hundred and even several thousand dollars each. A perfect conch pearl is among the most rare and most valuable of gems. An unusually choice one has sold in New York City for more than $5000. The yield fluctuates considerably, but perhaps averages about $85,000 in value annually. One of the finest conch pearls ever found is shown on the plate with the conch shell.

There are two important materials that have occasionally been sold and mistaken for the conch pearl. First, the pale Italian, Japanese, or West Indian coral, with a color very closely approaching that of the pearl. By means of a lens it can readily be seen that the coral is in layers, and does not possess the concentric structure of the pearl, or the peculiar interwoven structure, with its characteristic sheen, so frequent in conch pearls. Secondly, the pink conch shell in which the pearl itself is found; this is frequently cut to imitate the pearl and sold as such in the West Indies and elsewhere. This can also be detected by the fact that the layers are almost horizontal and the structure is not concentric or interwoven, as it is in the conch pearl, while the luster is more like that of the shell than that of the pearly nacre.

Streeter relates that many years ago an ingenious American turned out some bits of conch shell into the shape of pearls and placed them in the conch shells. A slight secretion formed over them, but it was not the true pearly secretion, and the layer was very thin, so that the deception was easily detected.

Not the least interesting of the American pearl fisheries is that which has the abalones (Haliotis) for its object. These occur in many inshore tropical and semi-tropical waters, and particularly in the marginal waters of the Pacific. They attach themselves to the rocks by means of their large muscular disk-shaped foot, which acts like a sucker or an exhaust-cup.

On the California coast the abalones are gathered in large quantities for the pearls, for the shells, and especially for the flesh, which is dried and used for food. The principal fishing grounds are at Point Lobos in Monterey County, and along the shores of Catalina and Santa Rosa islands in Santa Barbara County, with smaller quantities from Halfmoon Bay and from the rocks along the shores of Mendocino County. At low tide the fishermen wade out in shallow water, and, by means of a knife, separate the mollusk from its resting-place. Unless this is done quickly and before the mollusk has time to prepare itself for the attack, it closes down on the rock by means of its sucker-like foot, from which it cannot be removed without breaking the shell. A story is told at Santa Barbara of a Chinese fisherman having been drowned off one of the outer islands by having his hand caught underneath the shell of an abalone.

A few years ago, Japanese fishermen introduced the use of diving-suits in taking these mollusks in three fathoms of water; but in March, 1907, the California legislature interdicted this form of fishery. That legislature also interdicted the capture of black abalones measuring “less than twelve inches around the outer edge of the shell, or any other abalone, the shell of which shall measure less than fifteen inches around the outer edge.”

The animal is removed from the shell by thrusting a thin blade of soft steel between the flesh and the shell, and thus loosening the great muscle. The flesh is salted and boiled, and then strung on long rods to dry in the open air. When properly cured, the pieces are almost as hard and stiff as sole leather. Most of it is packed in sacks and exported to China, but large quantities are sold on the Pacific coast at from five to ten cents per pound. The catch is much less than it was forty years ago.

Many pearly masses are obtained from the abalones, and a few of these are of considerable beauty. Some are very large, measuring two inches in length and half an inch or more in width; but they are rarely of good form, and their value is commonly far less than that of choice Oriental pearls. Owing to their irregularity in form, they are scarcely suitable for necklaces. One of the best necklaces of these pearls ever brought together sold a few years ago for $2000; but individual specimens have exceeded $1000 in market value. While abalone pearls are not on the market in any great quantities, one resident of Santa Barbara has a collection of more than a thousand specimens, ranging in value from several hundred dollars to less than one dollar each. Most of the objects sold in curio and jewelry stores on the Pacific coast as abalone pearls are simply irregular knots or protuberances cut from the surface of the shell. The California fishermen are credited with having received $3000 for the abalone pearls in 1904; but it is safe to say that this represents only a small fraction of their final sale value.

In the river mussels of Canada, and especially in those from the Province of Quebec, and the Ungava Region, pearls are occasionally found. These are usually white and of good luster. They are not the object of systematic search, but in the aggregate many are secured by Indians and Eskimos, and some by the trappers and fishermen who operate from Quebec and Montreal. A number, weighing from one to sixty-five grains each, were shown at the Colonial Exhibition in London in 1886, and received favorable notice. Recently, two beautifully matched pink pearls, weighing about fourteen grains each, were obtained from one mussel. A single pearl found in Canada has sold for $1000, but as a general rule they are of relatively little value. The Hudson Bay traders are represented as having secured a fair share of these pearls.

During the last few years, many pearls have been found in the streams of Prince Edward Island and of New Brunswick Province, and also in those of Nova Scotia. Most of them are well formed, but their color is generally inferior and their luster deficient. Many of them are buff or brown in color, some are bright and fairly good, a few are rose-tinted, and others are slate-colored and even almost black. Toronto jewelers report that many Canadian pearls are in the possession of farmers and others in the lower provinces, held by them for higher prices than the jewelers are willing to pay. The Nova Scotia pearls are from a bivalve which has been identified as Alasmodon margaritifera. They are especially abundant in Annapolis and King counties.

Even in the streams of northern Labrador and of the Caniapuscaw watershed, pearls are obtained by the natives, and by the hunters and fishermen who resort to that desolate country. These closely resemble the pearls of Scotland in color, size, and luster. A story is told of a fisherman who by chance found in one shell two well-matched pearls, which he later sold for $150; so pleased was he with his success that he spent a fortnight in diligent search, but secured only half a dozen small ones, worth perhaps $3 for the lot. Most of these pearls are silvery white, but beautiful pink ones are not rare. An unusually choice 20–grain pearl from this region sold in 1905 for $1000.

On the coast of Ecuador, pearl fisheries of minor importance have been prosecuted from time to time. Dr. H. M. Saville, of the American Museum of Natural History, states that in his explorations in that country he frequently came across evidence of pearls and the information that fisheries had existed on the coast centuries ago.

An interesting letter from that world-wide traveler and interesting writer, William E. Curtis, states that formerly there was a pearl fishery on the coast of Ecuador at the little town known as Manta, in the Province of Manabi; but it had to be abandoned on account of a particularly voracious species of fish called el manti, which abounds in that locality and gives the place its name. Pearls are said to be even more abundant at Manta than in Panama Bay. It is reported that this is the place where the Incas obtained those splendid gems which the Spaniards found in the palaces and temples of Peru.

In the waters of Costa Rica, pearl-oysters are found, and at times the fishery has been of considerable local importance. Owing to fear of injury to the reefs, the use of diving machinery was interdicted there a few years ago; but in 1906 its employment was authorized under certain restrictions. Licenses good for six months were authorized for a maximum of thirty machines, which may work at a minimum depth of thirty-seven feet.

On the coast of Colombia, South America, scattered reefs of pearl-oysters occur. A lease of the pearl fisheries and those for corals and sponges was granted July 2, 1906, but it is unknown what results have followed. This lease lasts five years, beginning August 1, 1906.

There is almost an absolute paucity of information in regard to the occurrence of fresh-water pearls in other parts of South America. The only data we have obtained are from Prof. Eugene Hussak of the Mining School of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who writes us that some pearls have been obtained from one of the Bahia rivers. Possibly, when the resources of the interior of that continent are better known, many pearls may be found.