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THE PEARL
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He
was about to examine his last small heap when a man standing by offered
him fifty cents for the lot. The offer was accepted. From the first
shell opened, the buyer extracted a ball pearl which was afterwards
sold for one thouÂsand dollars. Two of the finest pearls taken one
season from the same section were obtained from a heel-splitter,
carelessly dug out of the sand by a man wading in the shallows of the
river. The heel-splitter is a large thin-shelled variety, so named by
the natives because of the sharp, cutting quality of the shell which
protrudes from the sand of the river. They rarely contain pearls, but
when they do, the pearls are usually fine.
The
largest proportion of fine pearls to the yield of any section since
discoveries have been recorded, came from Wisconsin, and many of the
best of these, especially of the fancy colored ones, were taken from
Sugar river. Many of these were exceptionally beautiful in both color
and luster and a good proportion of them were also round.
Much is written and told of the marvellous pearls found in our streams worth large sums
264
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