282 ANCIENT MONUMENTS, 



we are informed by Bartrani, were much used by the Southern Indians for articles 

 of use and ornament. 



Several of the fossil teeth of the shark recovered from the mounds are repre- 

 sented in the cut, Fig. 197. It will be observed that they are of different species. 

 They seem to have been used for various purposes. Some have holes drilled 

 through them near the base ; others are notched, as if designed to form spear or 

 arrow-heads. Raleigh observed some used as such among the Indians of Carolina. 



-Half size. 



It seems most probable that they were designed for cutting purposes. No. 2 is 

 fragmentary ; the remaining portion was not found. It will be seen that it had a 

 hole drilled through it near the base, and was notched at the sides. We are of 

 course ignorant of the locality from which they were obtained. It is a well known 

 fact, however, that they are abundant in the tertiary formations of the Lower 

 Mississippi.* From this direction must have come the teeth of the alligator, a 

 number of which have been obtained from the mounds. 



Pearls. — Mention has been made, on a preceding page, of the great number of 

 pearls found in the mounds. It is incredible to suppose that a hundredth part of 

 these were obtained from the molluscs of our rivers. The question then arises, 

 whence were they obtained ? As has already been stated, the Indians of the South 

 and South-west used them extensively as ornaments at the time of the Discovery, 

 and at that time, it appears from the chroniclers, maintained regular fisheries for 

 them.t If we may credit the early writers, they were abundant among all the 

 nations inhabiting the shores and islands of the Gulf, and were found in consider- 

 able numbers on the Atlantic coast, as far north as Virginia. Raleigh saw them 

 on the coast of North Carolina. Heriot, in his Voyage to the Shores of Virginia, 

 says : " Sometimes in feeding on muscles we find pearls ; but it was our hap to 

 meet those which were ragged and of a pied color, not yet having discovered the 

 country where we heard of better and more plenty. One of our company, a man 

 of skill in such matters, had gathered from among the savage people about Jive 



* B. L. C. Wailks, Esq., Proceedings of Sixth Anniuil Meeting of the American Association of Natu- 

 ralists and Geologists, p. 80. — Also Prof. Ginns, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. second series, vol. i. 

 t De Soto's Expedition, Supplement to Hakluyt's Voyages, p. 715. 



