Group of charred, cut fresh-water pearls; more than 100,000 found in mounds
Finger-shaped piece of lignite inlaid with fresh-water pearl
Copper bird, 15⅞ inches long with eye of fresh-water pearl
FRESH-WATER PEARLS FROM HOPEWELL GROUP OF MOUNDS, ROSS COUNTY, OHIO
We are informed by Mr. E. P. Dieseldorf, of Coban, Republic of Guatemala, that he has never observed pearls in the pre-Columbian graves in Guatemala; he had, however, frequently found marine shells, whole, and elaborated in connection with jadeite beads.
In a personal communication, Mr. Thomas Gann, of Yucatan, states that, in excavating a mound at San Antonio, near the mouth of the Rio Hondo, in Yucatan, he uncovered a small stone cyst or chamber, containing two perforated, pear-like ornaments of considerable size, together with portions of a human skeleton, painted pottery, etc. He also states that ornaments such as beads, gorgets, and ear-pendants, made from the pearly shell of both the oyster and the conch, are of common occurrence in many sepulchral mounds in British Honduras and in Yucatan, and he notes the fact that pink conch pearls are found in considerable numbers at the present day along the coast of British Honduras. There is no especial fishing for pearls, and they are found only incidentally in conchs which have been gathered for food. These pearls are sold by fishermen in Balize at prices varying from two or three dollars to twenty or thirty apiece. In size they range from that of a large pin’s head to that of a small pea.
Mrs. Marie Robinson Wright informs us that she has never found pearls in the Bolivian graves, although they are quite plentiful in Bolivia to-day, and hundreds of them are offered in the markets. The pretty girls wear them as earrings and in their topos.
There is no doubt that pearls existed long before the advent of man, both in the fresh-water and in the marine form. This is more clearly evidenced by Sir Charles Lyell, who calls attention to the fact that the fresh-water mussel (Unio littoralis Gray), formerly found in abundance at Grays Thurrock, Essex, no longer exists in England, but occurs in France, showing that not only had this mollusk been unseen by any Englishman, but that the form had become extinct in an entire country. Thus, both the pearl shell of the ocean and the pearl-mussel of the river, for many centuries produced pearls, which passed away with the shell itself.