Pearl
perl, a name given to the inner lining of many fresh water and marine shells. The bodies of clams, mussels, oysters, and shellfish in general are exceedingly tender. To protect these soft bodies they secrete a fluid which hardens on the inside of their coarse lime shells and provides a smooth, pearly lining of exquisite coloring. In commerce the term "mother of pearl" is often given to this lining, and the term "pearls" is reserved for round bits of the same material found loose within the shell or attached to it. The formation of pearls is explained in this way. In case a grain of sand or other substance should happen to get inside the shell the animal has no way of ejecting it, and the fluid coats the annoying grain over with films of pearl. The longer the animal lives the larger the pearl grows. The Chinese and Japanese are said to produce pearls by following nature's plan. They keep the pearl oysters in tanks or on plats of sea bottom. They take the young oyster out of the water, drop a tiny round bit of shell into the soft flesh, and return the oyster to the water for four years. These bits are covered by layer after layer until they form beautiful pearls.
The finest pearl fisheries are ten miles off the northern coast of Ceylon. Divers go down from boats and collect the pearl oysters on the bottom of the sea. Each diver goes down by a rope weighted with a stone. He remains below about sixty seconds gathering as rapidly as possible and then gives a signal to be drawn up with his basket of oysters. Each boat has ten or twelve divers half of whom are drawing breath while the others go down. The oyster gathering is done in water ranging from fifty to seventy-five feet in depth. The oysters are as broad as one's two hands. The live, dripping oysters are piled up on the shore in bins until the excessive heat of a tropical country causes the animals to putrify and the shells to fall open. The mass is then washed carefully for pearls. The divers are allowed one-fourth of the pearls. This fishing has been celebrated for 2,000 years. Cast-away shells cover the coast for miles to a depth of several feet. Aside from the activity and bustle of the pearl season, February to April, when several thousand people live in tents, the Ceylon oyster coast is deserted.
Pearls have been held in high repute in all ages. Matthew speaks of a "merchantman seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Fabulous stories are told of prices paid by wealthy Romans for pearl necklaces, up to half a million dollars, but the prices of extraordinary pearls have no real basis other than desire and the purse of the buyer.
Fresh water mussels have also yielded fine pearls. The rivers of Bohemia and Bavaria have yielded fine specimens. During their occupation the Romans found valuable pearls in the waters of Great Britain. Scotch pearls have been brought into high repute during the past century. The mother of pearl lining of shells is used widely for buttons and pearl inlaid work, knife handles, and other ornamental purposes. Birmingham, England, is a pearl button center and buys half a million dollars worth of shells yearly. The best come from Ceylon, Manila, Cuba, Panama, and the South Sea Islands.
Of late years quite a pearl industry has grown up in the upper Mississippi Valley. The fresh water mussels of the Mississippi and its tributaries from the Arkansas river to Lake Pepin are yielding considerable button material and not a few pearls. The "clams" are brought up from the bottom of the river by their own foolishness. The fisherman bends short wires into a rake so constructed that finger-like teeth are presented to the ground whichever side of the rake falls downward. A large number of these rakes are attached to a sixteen foot piece of gaspipe by short chains, a rope from each end of the gas-pipe to the boat completes the contrivance. The fisherman throws the affair overboard and drifts down stream with the current. The pipe is dragged on the river bottom behind the boat while the little rakes follow, rolling and rising and falling and adapting themselves to every inequality of the river bed. The mussels, as is well known, lie on edge hinge down with the thin edges of the shells opening upward. When by chance a wire passes between the edges of its shell the animal closes up and hangs on for its life. When the trawler thinks he may have made a sufficient catch he draws the rakes up to the boat and throws in another drag while he takes the clinging clams from the wires. The shells are worth from $3 to $20 a ton. Old shells have little or no value. It is estimated that 1,500 fishermen in the upper Mississippi Valley earn an average of $300 each during the season. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of shells are sold yearly to factories situated at La Crosse, Prairie du Chien, Muscatine, McGregor, and other towns. Most of the factories stop short with cutting the shells into circular "blanks" suitable for all sizes of buttons. Other factories make a finished product. The blanks are ground to the proper thickness, eyes are bored, by machinery, of course, the buttons are polished, sewed to cards, and are then ready for market. During the season of 1903 a coarse pearl weighing 182 grains was found. One fisherman was fortunate enough to find a pearl which he sold in the rough for $5,500, but valuable pearls are not found often in these waters.