METALS, MINERALS, FOSSILS, ETC. 283 



thousand ; of which number he chose so many as made a fair chain, which for their 

 likeness and uniformity in roundness, orientness, and piedness, of many excellent 

 colors, with equality in greatness, had been presented to her majesty, had not a 

 casualty by sea lost them." 



Ribaulde, at an earlier day, (1562,) wrote in extravagant terms of the quantities 

 of pearls which he saw on the coast of Florida. " They had also a great abun- 

 dance of pearls ; which they declared unto us they took out of oysters, and in so 

 nniarvellous abundance, as is scant credible : and we perceive that there are as 

 many and faire pearls found there, as in any country of the world. For we saw one 

 man who had a pearl hanging at the end of a chain of gold and silver, as great as 

 cUi acorn at the least." 



The Decades of Peter Martyr teem with exclamations of surprise and wonder 

 at their great number and beauty ; they elicit both his praise and his philosophy.* 

 We may therefore safely derive the pearls found in the mounds from the Gulf. 

 Together with numerous other remains, they go to establish an extensive com- 

 munication with southern and tropical regions, or a migration from that direction. 

 At present it is believed no pearl-fisheries are maintained, except upon the coast 

 of California. 



Mariive Shells. — The cassis and pyrula perversa of Lamark ; the oliva, margi- 

 nella, and natica ; as well as the columella of a shell, probably the stromhus, have 

 been found in the mounds. A cassis of large size, from which the inner whorls 

 and columella had been removed to adapt it for use as a vessel, was found in 

 mound No. 5, in the great enclosure, Plate X. It is doubtful whether this 

 particular shell belongs to the era of the mounds, or is of a later date. Portions 

 of these shells have nevertheless been found upon the altars, and they were conse- 

 quently known to the mound-builders. This specimen is eleven inches and a half 



in length, by twenty-four in circumference at the largest part. Specimens have 

 been found in the vicinity of Nashville, from which the inner whorls had been 

 removed so as to give place to an idol of clay or stone.f Fragments only of the 

 pyrula. Fig. 198, have been found in the mounds ; although quite a number have been 



* Peter Martyr, Supplement to Hakluyt's Voyages, pp. 415, 417, 419, 455, 4tiy, 471, 475, 493, 500, 

 517, 520, 530, 539, 599 ; Oviedo, in Purchas, vol. iii. p. 972. 

 f Transactions of American Ethnological Society, vol i. p. S61 



