HOLMES] DRINKING AND FOOD VESSELS. 197 



from tlie same shell, were obtained from mounds at Cedar Keys, Florida, 

 by Professor Wyman.' 



Francis Cleveland, C. E., who, in 1S2S, had charge of the excavation 

 known as the "deep cut" on the Ohio Canal, informed Colonel Whittle- 

 sey that at the depth of twenty five feet in the alluvium several shells 

 belonging to the species Busycon perversiim were taken out.^ 



Dr. Drake, writing of the Cincinnati mountls, mentions " several 

 large marine shells, belonging, perhaps, to the genus Buccimim, cut iu 

 such a way as to serve for domestic utensils, and nearly converted into 

 a state of chalk." ^ 



Mr. Atwater states that " several marine shells, probably Buccimnn, 

 cut in such a manner as to be used for domestic utensils, were found in 

 a mound on the Little Miami Eiver, Warren County, Oliio." ' 



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 Clark's 

 mound, on Paint Creek, Scioto Valley, Ohio.'' This specimen is eleven 

 and a half inches in length by twenty four in circumference at the 

 largest part. It is farther stated that fragments of these and other 

 shells are found in the tumuli and upon the altars of the mound-build- 

 ers. In digging the Ohio and Erie Canal, there was found, near Ports- 

 mouth, its southern terminus on the Ohio Eiver, a cluster of five or six 

 large shells, which appeared to have been thus carefully deposited by 

 the hand of man. They were about three feet beneath the surface. The 

 columelliB of some large shells, i^robably the Strombus gigas, were also 

 discovered." 



Several large marine shells were found in a mound near Grand Rapids, 

 Mich. They were all hollowed out, apparently for carrying or storing 

 water, and in one case perforated at the upper edge on opposite sides 

 for suspension by a cord or thong.' 



Mr. Farquharson mentions a vessel made from a Biisycon perversum, 

 obtained from a mound near Davenport, Iowa. The shell has been cut 

 through about an inch above the center; it is thirteen inches in length 

 by seven in width, and has a capacity of nearly two pints." He also 

 describes a large specimen of Cassis from a mound iu Muscatine County, 

 Iowa.8 



Long, in his exijeditiou from Pittsburgh to the Eocky Mountains in 



'Wyman, in Third Annnal Report, Poabody MnseuRj, p. 8. 

 -Foster: Preliistorio Races of the United States, p. 78. 



'Since the shell here uamed is finite small it is probable that tbc specimens found 

 were Busycons. 

 ^Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mount.ains, Vol. I, p. 3(il. 

 '■Atwater, iu Transactions Aniericau Antiquarian Society, Vol. I. 

 "Squler and Davis: Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 283. 

 Tlbifl, p. 284. 



" Farquharson, in Proceedings of the Aui. Association, 1875, page 296. 

 9/61U, p. 297. 



