beads, some of which would correspond with the size and shape of the pearls mentioned by the Spaniards."
Prof.
Joseph Jones, whose investigations throw much valuable light upon the
contents of the ancient tumuli of Tennessee, says : "I do not remember
finding a genuine pearl in the many mounds which I have opened in the
valleys of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Harpeth, and elsewhere.
Many of the pearls described by the Spaniards were probably little else
than polished beads cut out of large sea-shells and from the thicker
portions of fresh-water mussels, and prepared so as to resemble pearls.
I have examined thousands of these, and they all present a laminated
structure, as if carved out of thick shells and sea conchs." This point
will be referred to again.
Dr. Charles Rau1
writes: "I learned from Dr. Samuel G. Bristow, who was a surgeon in the
Army of the Cumberland during the Civil War, that mussels of the
Tennessee River were occasionally eaten 'as a change' by the soldiers
of that corps, and pronounced no bad article of diet. Shells of the
Unio are sometimes found in Indian graves, where they had been
deposited with the dead, to serve as food during the journey to the
land of spirits."
Dr. Brinton saw on the Tennessee River and its tributaries numerous shell-heaps consisting almost exclusively of the Unio virgini-anus (Lamarck).
In every instance he found shell-heaps close to the water-courses, on
the rich alluvial bottom-land. He says : "The mol-lusks had evidently
been opened by placing them on a fire. The Tennessee mussel is
margaritiferous, and there is no doubt but that it was from this
species that the early tribes obtained the hoards of pearls which the
historian of De Soto's exploration estimated by bushels, and which were
so much prized as ornaments."2
A
source has recently been pointed out whence small pearls, and perhaps
some fine specimens, could have been obtained by the Indians of
Florida, and in considerable quantities. In the Unios of some of the
fresh-water lakes of that State, there were found not less than 3000
pearls, most of them small, but many large enough to be perforated and
worn as beads. From one Unio there were taken eighty-four seed-pearls ;
from another, fifty ; from a third, twenty, and from several, ten or
twelve each. The examinations were chiefly confined to Lake Griffin and
its vicinity. It is said that upon one of the isles in Lake Okeechobee
are the remains of an old pearl fishery, and it is proposed to open the
shells of this lake, which are large, in hopes of finding pearls of
superior size and quality.
1
"Ancient Aboriginal Trade in North * See "Artificial Shell Deposits in
the America," Report of the Smithsonian Insti- United States," in the
Report of the Smith-tution for 1872, p. 38 of the author's reprint.
sonian Institution for 1866, p. 357.
