Arizona silver belt., 1901-06-13
MONEY IN PEARLS.
Some Valuable Gems Found in the Streams of
 Kentucky.

Kentucky.
 The continued dry weather of the rast summer and fall, which has caused many of the creeks and rivers in Ken lucky to go nearly dry, has been very
 avorable to the pearl hunters in the Numberland and other rivers, and quite d number of fine specimens have been lound, especially in the Cumberland liver, which seems to be the most pro luctive of Pearl-bearing mussels. One If the well-known pearl hunters told the writer that he had found several pearls during the past summer that were worth S75 to S1o0 each, and c large lot of smaller and cheaper ones.
 The leading pearl hunters, who pres pect up and down the Cumberland, send their pearls to Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, Tiffany getting the best of them. Several years ago an old man riclled up mussel from sandbar in the Cumberland river near Point Burn side, station on the Cincinnati South ern railroad, and upon opening the " HAtA bifAiNN itbAANl St ilAAiNNilt pearl of fine size and color. A pearl hunter who ran across the old man shortly afterward, and to whom he showed the gem, at once recognized the value of it, and bought it for a trifling sum, afterward selling it for $500, Such finds as this, however, are few and far between.
 The pearl hunters work whenever the water is not too cold for them to wade in it. They find the mussels lying on the sandbars, pick them up, and prying them open, feel" for the pearl, and if there is no pearl drop the mussel back into its place in the river. The pearl is found ciinging to the wall of the mus sells shell, and close to the mouth of it. The large majority of the pearls, as matter of course, are oddly shaped and irregular in form, and for that reason are worthless. Now and then pearls of beautiful color are found, but useless because of a lack of desirable form. The round pearls, usually found and put upon the market by these wander ing pearl hunters, vary in size from the dimensions of the head of pin to the size of a pea, and bring from 90 cents to $50 apiece Few of them re. oh the $50 mark, however.
 The pearl hunter who searches the Kentucky streams is usually a shift less, easy-going fellow, who is at home most any place, and makes his bed upon the banks of the stream as readily as he would in the most elaboratcly furnished mansion. When he has good luck on a trip he waits until all of hN money is gone before he strikes out upon another journey. Now and then
 more businCEslil,c operator is found vIO will carry @ camping outfit good tent, etc, and live in true sport.uan- like style while at work.
 The pearl hunters say that one req son why the streams of Kentucky are more productive of pearls than the rivers in some other states is because of the limestone bedrock, which seems more adapted to the purposes of the pearl-bcaring mussrIs than .he tormu- tiOns underlying many streams iu other sections of ,Ae country. Pear mussels are, therefore, found in nearly every waterway in the blue grass state, hut for some reason only a compara- lively small number of men are en- gagged in the hunting of them, which frequently pays great deal better than most an. other form of common labor. The excitement and anticipa- tion attendant upon the industry, too, has something of the effect of the fas- { nation of the diamond fields, for the next one" is always expected to Ec 55CO beauty One oi the most valuable ,earls ever found in the United States, the pearl hunters say, came from the Miami river, in Ohio.-St. Louis Globe. Democrat.