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GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES IN THE
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are
now. " To form an opinion," says Dr. Mitchell, "of the frequency of
their occurrence, I mention a circumstance that happened on Long
Island. A man desirous of making a collection of clam pearls gave
notice through the neighborhood that he would pay a quarter of a dollar
each for those of proper size ; and in the course of two months he
received two dozen. The clam-mongers in the city save the pearls they
find on opening the shells, and sell them to persons who come to the
stalls in the market to purchase them." He himself possessed a
purplish one weighing 69 grains, which surpassed all that he had ever
heard of.
The
manufacture of wampum to be sold or traded to the Indians is an old
American industry, and the manufacture is still in the hands of the
Campbell family, who originated it. The first to engage in this
industry was John Campbell, who was succeeded by Abraham Campbell, and
by the survivors of the four sons of Abraham, the youngest of whom is
now over seventy-five years old. Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith described the
manufacture,1 and took a series of the beads, to represent the industry, to the New Orleans Exposition. She says :
"
Originally the grandfather of the Campbells, who resided at Tea Neck,
N. J., would make trips to Rockaway in a boat which, when they
returned, was loaded with clams (Venus mercenaria), the meat of which
was given to the country people in return for opening the shells. The
blue ' heart'of the clam, as it was called, was cut out and made into
beads used for the groundwork of the wampum belts. At one time this
industry flourished so that thousands of dollars were paid out weekly
to buy the beads made by the white country-people who manufactured them
at the time. The hole of the bead was made with an arm-drill and they
were polished or ground on grindstones. The white beads were not made
from the clam, but from conch-shells (Strombus gigas), which they have
always imported from the West Indies. The young clams cannot be used,
and the old have so decreased in number that this branch of the
industry has been greatly reduced."
When Mrs. Smith visited the Campbells she had with
1 Science, Vol. 5, p. 3.
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