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THE PEARL
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have
developed among their white successors until the finding in 1857 of a
large pearl weighing ninety-three grains at Notch Brook near Paterson,
N. J. It was afterwards sold to the Empress Eugenie of France for
$2500. This became noised abroad and immediately multitudes began to
search for pearls.
Mussels
were gathered and destroyed by the million, few pearls being found. The
excitement subsided as the searchers learned how few got adequate
reward for their time and labor. They soon began to realize that the
finding of a pearl of value is usually preceded by the opening of
hundreds or thousands of shells containing none, and that in the
aggregate, the shells thrown away were worth more than the few pearls
found.
Another
pearl hunt developed along the Little Miami River in Ohio from the
finding of several fine pearls near Waynesville in 1876. This reached
its height in 1878. In 1880, pearls began to come into the New York
market from the West and South. Immense beds have been fished in the
White, Wabash and Ohio Rivers in Indiana. In the summer of 1889 a number
258
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