ANCIENT ABORIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 383 



the northern border of California far upward to the north, the shells of 

 the Dentalium represented, until within the latest time, the wampum of 

 the Atlantic region, being used, like the latter, both as ornament and 

 money. These shells, which abound in certain places of the Pacific 

 coast, may be likened to small, tapering, and somewhat curved tubes. 

 Being open at both ends, they can, be strung without further prepara- 

 tion. As my essay relates only to that portion of North America which 

 lies east of the Eocky Mountains, I probably would not have mentioned 

 the use of Dentalium-shells, were it not for the fact that they have 

 been found in the interior of the country, far from the Pacific coast, as 

 personal ornament of existing tribes, and even in the ancient mounds of 

 Ohio.* The latter fact, indeed, is of great interest in its bearing on the 

 extent of former aboriginal trade-relations, the distance from the Pacific 

 to the State of Ohio being almost equal to the whole breadth of the 

 North American continent.t 



PEARLS. 



Perforated pearls, destined to serve as beads, often form a part of the 

 contents of ancient North American mounds. Squier and Davis found 

 them on the hearths of five distinct groups of mounds in Ohio, and 

 sometimes in such abundance that they could be gathered by the hun- 

 dred. Most of them had greatly suffered by the action of fire, being in 

 many cases so calcined that they crumbled when handled ; yet, several 

 hundred were found sufficiently well preserved to permit of their being 

 strung. The pearls in question are generally of irregular form, mostly 

 pear-shaped, though perfectly round ones are also among them. The 

 smaller specimens measure about one-fourth of an inch in diameter, but 

 the largest has a diameter of no less than three-fourths of an inch4 

 According to Squier and Davis, i)earl-bearing shells occur in the rivers 

 of the region whose antiquities they describe, but not in such 

 abundance that they could have furnished the amount discovered in 

 the tumuli ; and the pearls of these fluviatile, shells, moreover, are said 

 to be far inferior in size to those recovered from the altars. The latter, 

 they think, were derived from the Atlantic coast and from that of the 

 Mexican Gulf. It is a fact that the Indians, who inhabited the present 

 Southern States of the Union, made an extensive use of i^earls for 

 ornamental purposes. This is attested by the earliest accounts, and more 

 especially by the chroniclers of De Soto's expedition (the anonymous 

 Portuguese gentleman and Garcilasso de la Vega), who speak of almost 

 fabulous quantities of jiearls, which that daring leader and his followers 



* Stevens, Flint Cbips, p. 468. 



+ Since waiting the above, I learned, by consulting Woodward's work on conchology, 

 tliat the Dentalium is also found in the West Indies. If it should likewise occur on the 

 southern coasts of the United States, there is at least a possibility that the specimens 

 found in Ohio may have been obtained from the last-named region. 



\ Ancient Monuments, p. 232 



