The American Pearl Fisheries. .223
Columbian
discovery of the New World—long before the written history of America
begins—the ancient inhabitants who built the huge mounds that are so
widely spread through the Mississippi Valley, were in the habit of
collecting and treasuring Pearls. Messrs Squier and Davis, the
explorers of so many of these pre-historic tumuli, discovered in some
of the Ohio mounds great numbers of Pearls that had been perforated for
use as beads, but were rendered friable by the partial calcination to
which they had been subjected on the hearths of the ancient mounds. The
explorers were led to believe that most of these beads were not
fresh-water Pearls, derived from the neighbouring rivers, but were true
marine Pearls which must have been obtained, directly or indirectly,
from the sea coast.
When
Columbus visited for the first time some of the islands in the Gulf of
Mexico, he found the natives fishing for Pearls, which they used as
beads for necklaces. It is curious to note that the views of the
Indians as to the origin of Pearls, were identical with those which
obtained for ages such wide credence in the old world ; and which have
been "set forth in the early chapters of this work. The Indians of
America regarded them, in fact, as congealed dew-drops, which had been
caught by the gaping oysters.
During one of the expeditions of Ferdinand
