The Pearl, its story, its charm, and its value

by Wallis Richard Cattelle

The mussels, partially buried, lie lip-end up and the shell slightly parted. Should anything come within this gaping aperture, the mussel at once closes upon it, nipping on with such tenacity that the hold is not loosed until the fisher draws it into the boat and forcibly releases the hook. It is said the mollusk's shell would remain thus tightly closed for ten or twelve hours. After dragging the hooks over the bed, the mussels are taken off and the process repeated.

PEARL-FISHING IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Various rough devices are used, the principle in all being the same. One, illustrative, consists of a piece of lead pipe or an iron bar several feet long, from which depend a number of double or triple hooks several inches apart. This is dropped overboard, the rope on which it is hung is fastened to the stern of the boat, and the boatman rows over the mussel bed dragging it after him. Men who dredge for the mollusks are called clammers. Pearlers are those who at odd times fish for the mussels with pearls as the main object. This class is composed of the backwoods natives who live about the streams in which the mussels are found. They are people who usually follow their inclinations as nearly as they can, working only as it becomes requisite to obtain the few coarse necessities of their lives. With them also are small farmers who at seasons when farm work is not pressing, seek the excitement and possible profit of the hunt for pearls.

For all such persons the occupation has a great fascination. The difficulties of following the streams through almost impenetrable surroundings, the coarse fare of bacon, meal and coffee; the long tramps back and forth to their mountain huts, or the exposure to night in the tangle of the woods, have no terrors for them; they are but common experiences.

Few pearls of value are found, but the occasional pearl which each one does get, makes expectation tingle, and hope recounts again and again the great finds which others have made. There are curious happenings which illustrate the uncertainties of the work.

It is told on the Clinch river in East Tennessee that a pearler, having patiently fished all day, examining the fish from time to time as little heaps of them were gathered, without finding even a small pearl, finally decided to quit. He was about to examine his last small heap when a man standing by offered him fifty cents for the lot. The offer was accepted. From the first shell opened, the buyer extracted a ball pearl which was afterwards sold for one thousand dollars. Two of the finest pearls taken one season from the same section were obtained from a heel-splitter, carelessly dug out of the sand by a man wading in the shallows of the river. The heel-splitter is a large thin-shelled variety, so named by the natives because of the sharp, cutting quality of the shell which protrudes from the sand of the river. They rarely contain pearls, but when they do, the pearls are usually fine.

The largest proportion of fine pearls to the yield of any section since discoveries have been recorded, came from Wisconsin, and many of the best of these, especially of the fancy colored ones, were taken from Sugar river. Many of these were exceptionally beautiful in both color and luster and a good proportion of them were also round.

Much is written and told of the marvellous pearls found in our streams worth large sums of money. Such pearls are found undoubtedly but not in such quantities as one might think from the enthusiastic reports current in daily papers. Finds are written up by reporters who know nothing of pearls and prefer to write a readable story of wondrous gems and great values to a statement of plain unvarnished facts. In this the news-gatherer is assisted by some simple native with an eye single to a good price and a capacity for exaggerated ideas of value impossible to Maiden Lane.

It is no uncommon trick when buyers are present, to find again, a pearl, which has been to New York and back and the ruse often succeeds. Pearls are frequently sold at the fisheries for much more than they would bring in the east. In fact it is difficult to buy ordinary pearls at a reasonable price. The natives will sometimes sell a really fine pearl for less than it is worth because they do not understand the relative values of quality; but they usually over-estimate pieces of poor quality.