ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 215 



remains, which with the exception of the larger bones of the legs or 

 arms, generally crumbled upon exposure to the air, though handled 

 with extreme care. In the shell -heaps and near them, as well as 

 in the burial or earth-mounds, were found fragments of pottery, 

 arrow-heads of chalcedony, and other implements made of stone or 

 shell. Near the Point PinalHs mounds, a remarkable vase made of 

 Steatite, shaped somewhat like a common soup-tureen, had been ob- 

 tained; through the kindness of Mr. Rothammer, this valuable 

 specimen of aboriginal workmanship was obtained by me for the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and is now in its collection ; the material 

 of which this vase is made Avas probably obtained at Apalachico- 

 la, near Avhich place a deposit of soapstone exists ; and the mater- 

 ial of Avhich the arrow-heads are made, was, without doubt, obtained 

 at the elevated and now fossilized coral reef in Hillsborough Bay, 

 known as Ballast Point, not f;ir from the town of Tampa. 



The great incentive to the invasion and conquest of Florida by 

 DeSoto, was tiie reputed wealth of the country in gold and pearls ; 

 and fabulous accounts were given by the ancient narrators of the 

 abundance of the latter in the possession of the natives or in the 

 hands of the soldiers of that famous expedition. It is highly prob- 

 able that but few of the rank and file of DeSoto's army were suf- 

 ficiently familiar with pearls to know anything about them ; and if 

 true pearls were found by them in the possession of the Indians, 

 the latter must have obtained them from the freshwater mussels of 

 the rivers, (Unios) ; and as not one mussel in ten will yield a pearl, 

 and not one pearl in ten will be as large as a pin's head, and not 

 one in one hundred be of proper color, it is much more reasonable 

 to suppose that the so-called pearls were the smooth glossy shells 

 known as Marginella conoidalis, which species is quite abundant 

 between tide-marks on the west coast of Florida, and of which a 

 great quantity was found a few years ago in an ancient mound in 

 the city of St. Louis, Missouri. This supposition is strengthened 

 when it is considered how highly certain species of shells are es- 

 teemed as ornaments, or for use as money, by barbarous tribes in 

 many parts of the world, even at this day, and the factitious value 

 which is frequently attached to some species of shells by uncivilized 

 man.* 



*See article entitled " Shell Money," in American Naturalist, Vol. Ill, pp. 1-5. 



