Gems & Precious Stones: Pearls Page 249



	UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO	225

	The largest and finest black pearls (for it is the black pearls which are the specialty of these fisheries) that have been found weigh from 120 to 140 and even 240 grains each. A pearl of 12 grains, which is perfect in beauty, color, and shape, may be worth $200, but very slight defects will reduce the price to one-tenth of that sum. The best black pearls found come from these fisheries, though peacock-green, blue, green, gray, and white ones are also found. In shape they vary greatly, being spherical, pear-shaped, egg-shaped, conical, in the shape of a little round loaf, or a wax match. Frequently pearls are found attached to and forming a part of the inside of the shell, instead of being in the membrane, when they are of little value, because they are difficult to remove, and are usually imperfect. Most of the pearls from this place are sent to market by way of San Francisco. A letter to the author from a leading firm there contains the following: " The pearl fisheries average about 5,000 carats a year, which represent a value of $200,000, to which you must add about 800,000 pounds of pearl shells representing a value of about $ 180,000. The cost amounts to about $100,000." During 1887 it is believed that more than $50,000 worth of pearls were found. The total product of the fisheries has amounted to as much as $250,000 in a single year, and the sale of the shells to as much more. From November, 1868, till September, 1869, $26,000 worth of pearls were purchased from this locality by one New York house. These were of various sizes, including four that weighed over 20 grains and one of 49 grains. In color, the pearls from this locality vary from pure white through gray and brown to black. The latter have become so fashionable in late years that their value has increased tenfold. One black pearl weighing 50 grains was valued at $8,000. Fresh-water pearls are found, as before stated, in various species of the Unios, more frequently, according to Dr. Isaac Lea, in the Unio complanatus, but also in the following: U. Blandingianus, U. Buddianus, U. costatus, U. Elliotti, U. fragilis, U. globulus, U. gracilis, U. Mortoni, U. nodosus, U. orbiculatus, U. ovatus, U. torsus, U. undulatus, and U. Virginianus. Not one pearl in a hundred from Unios is of good shape, and prob-