Industrial and Manufacturing Uses of Shells. 285 



500 specimens of Marginclla were obtained near one of the 

 skeletons. Yet the number of entire sea-shells employed 

 as beads by the natives appears insignificant, when com- 

 pared with the enormous quantity of objects of the same 

 class which they manufactured from fragments of the 

 valves of marine and fluviatile shells. These wrought 



o 



beads exhibit various forms and sizes, but are mostly found 

 in the shape of more or less regular sections of cylinders, 

 pierced through the centre. 



They are often proportionately thick, but sometimes 

 rather thin, resembling the small bone buttons of com- 

 merce. Most of them are small, not exceeding six or seven 

 millimetres in diameter ; the largest species, however, have 

 a diameter of no less than 28 millimetres. 



The largest, and therefore the most esteemed, beads and 

 pendants were made by the Indians from the columellce, or, 

 as Cabe^a de Vaca expressed it, from the " hearts," of large 

 conchs, among which the Strombus gigas seems to have 

 been most frequently used. These beads are more or less 

 cylindrical or globular, and always drilled lengthwise. 

 Some are tapering at both ends, resembling a cigar in 

 shape, and were two and a half inches in length. The 

 aborigines also made from the columettcz of large marine 

 univalves peculiar pin-shaped articles, consisting of a more 

 or less massive stem, which terminates in a round knob. 



Calcined shells furnish the purest lime, and it is the 

 kind which, under the name of " chunam," is so largely 

 used in the East as an ingredient with the areca-nut and 

 betel-leaf masticatory. 



For the purpose of the agriculturist, shell-sand and 

 shell-marl, when obtainable, are highly valuable as ferti- 

 lizers ; and crushed shells are used for covering the path- 

 ways in our parks and the walks in our gardens, for 

 making fine pottery, and other purposes. 



