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UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO
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253
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swamps
of Liberty County, Ga., at least in Bulltown and Ala-tamaha Swamps.
Some of the pearls taken from this species are as large as swan-shot.
Of the salt-water shells, I know not if any produce pearls except the
oyster (Ostrea Virginica). Pearls of small size are sometimes found in
them."
Prof.
William S. Jones, of the University of Georgia, says that he has seen
small pearls in many of the Unios found in Southern Georgia.
Prof.
Jefferies Wyman, after a careful and extensive series of excavations in
the shell heaps of Florida, failed to find a single pearl. "It is
hardly probable," he remarks, "that the Spaniards could have been
mistaken as to the fact of the ornaments of the Indians being pearls,
but in view of their frequent exaggerations, I am almost compelled to
the belief that there was some mistake; and possibly they may not have
distinguished between the pearls and the shell 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."
Charles
M. Wheatley was confident that there were "splendid pearls in southern
Unios." He instances the Unio Blandingianus and the large old Unio
Buddianus (Buckleyi) from Lakes George and Monroe in Florida, as pearl
bearing. " In Georgia," he continues, " the large, thick shells of the
Chattahoochee, such as the Unio Elliottii, would be the most likely to
contain fine ones; but there is no positive rule, as an injured shell
of any species will doubtless afford some, irregular in most cases and
of no value, but in some instances
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