time a Hi-qua would purchase a male slave, equal in value to fifty blankets, or 

 £50 sterling.'* 



Mr. Frederick Whymper, speaking of an Indian mustfer of various tribes at 

 or near Fort Yukon, Alaska, in 1867, says : " Their clothing was much be- 

 fringed with beads, and many of them wore through the nose (as did most of the 

 other Indian men present) an ornament composed of the Hya-qua shell {Denta- 

 lium entalis, or Entails vulgaris). Both of the fur companies on the river trade 

 with them, and at very high prices. These shells were formerly used, and still 

 are, to some extent, as a medium of currency by the natives of Vancouver Is- 

 land and other parts of the North-west Coast. I saw on the Yukon, fringes 

 and head-ornameuts. which represented a value in trade of a couple of hundred 

 marten-skins, t Mr. Whymper further remarks that " These shells are generally 

 obtained from the west coast of Vancouver Island," and that his spelling 

 " Hya-qua conveys a " closer approximation to the usual pronunciation of the 

 word " than Mr. Lord's " Hi-qua." 



The use of these shells for nasal ornamentation by the Indians, as observed by 

 Mr. Whymper at Fort Yukon, attracted our attention while at Crescent City, 

 in this State, in the year 1861. A medicine-man, belonging to one of the neigh- 

 boring tribes, had perforated the partition which separates the nostrils, and, into 

 the hole thus made, had inserted from each side, point by point, two of these 

 shells, which decoration was further increased by sticking a feather of some 

 wild-fowl into the large end of each of the hollow shells. 



As to the length of the shells, as implied by Mr. Lord's statement " that 

 twenty-five shells placed end to end must make a fathom or six feet," we are in- 

 clined to believe there is some mistake, as the shells would have to average very 

 nearly three inches in length. Of the great number which we have seen of the 

 species mentioned by Lord and Whymper {Dentaliuvi entalis, or Entalis vul- 

 garis), but very few attain a length of two inches; the great majority averag- 

 ing much less. As to the specific names of the shells used as above, and the 

 localities from which they are obtained, it may be well to state that the " west 

 coast of Vancouver Island " form is the Dentalium IndianorumX of Dr. P. P. 

 Carpenter ; but probably the greater part of the tusk-shells which are or have 

 been in circulation, do not belong to the American species, but to the common 

 European Dentalium,'^ referred to by the gentleman, and which closely resem- 

 bles the American. The foreign species has been extensively imported for the 

 Indian trade, and we have noticed at different times large numbers of the im- 

 ported shells displayed for sale in the fancy goods stores in San Francisco, 

 together with beads and other Indian goods. The use of the Dentalia for 

 money among the Alaskan tribes is also corroborated by Mr. W. H. Dall, whose 

 extensive travels and thorough investigations in that territory are well known. It 



* Proceedings Zoological Society, London, March Stli, 1864. 



t Whymper's Alasha, Harper's edition, 1869, p. 255. 



$ Supp. Eep. Brit. Ass'n, 1863, on Mollusca of W. N. America, p. 648. 



S Antalis entalis. Vide AdamB' Genera, vol. I, p. 457. 



