sold
locally or retained as souvenirs of the hunt. At the low price of
pearls existing then, this figure would mean possibly ten times as much
at present, or $150,000.
The
active search soon depleted the resources of the little stream, so that
in the following year the reported value of the yield was only a few
thousand dollars. The decrease continued until in a few years
practically every mussel was removed, and at present scarcely a single
Unio is to be found in these waters.
The
interest in pearling extended far from the place of the original find;
and in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and even as far away as Texas, search was
made in the streams. In the Colorado and its tributaries, about 20,000
were found in a short while. Most of these were small and unattractive,
but a considerable nurriber were reported "as large as pepper-corns"
and a few "the size of a small rifle ball," the number decreasing with
the increase in size. A correspondent in the "Neue Zeit" wrote :
Sometimes
they are round, sometimes cylindrical, elliptical, hemispherical, or of
an altogether irregular shape. The finest have a milk-white, silvery
sheen; many, however, are reddish yellow, bluish brown, or quite black;
the last naturally have no value whatever. As to their value, there is
considerable uncertainty, and it can easily be understood that those
who have a great number of them in their possession greatly
overestimate them. So far they are found principally in the Llano and
the San Saba.1
After
the resources in northern New Jersey were depleted and the excitement
had died out, little was heard of pearling in this country until 1878,
when many were found in Little Miami River in southwestern Ohio. The
fishing was carried on at low water, and principally by boys, who would
wade out in the water and feel for the mollusks with their feet, and
then bob under and pick them up with their hands. The senior author
spent a day in this fishery with a party of six boys with some success.
During 1878 about $25,000 worth of pearls were collected in the
vicinity of Waynesville on that stream. Mr. Israel H. Harris, a banker
of Waynesville, then began collecting these pearls; and by purchasing
during several years nearly every interesting specimen found in the
vicinity, he made his collection one of the largest and best known in
the country. When sold in 1888, it contained several thousand pearls,
mostly of small size, averaging in weight little more than one grain
each. A large portion of this collection was exhibited in the American
section of the Paris Exposition of 1889, and was awarded a gold medal.
Included in this exhibit was a series of ornaments in which the gems
were arranged according to color, so that in one the pearls were green,
in another purplish brown, in another pink,
1 "Neue Zeit," in Ausland, 1858, No. 8, p. 192.
