Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 193 
not seem to have been usual in shells other than cowries, 
either in America or anywhere else. 
It is remarkable that after so many years, and with 
the yearly increase of knowledge, the two shells figured 
by Holmes should have remained undetermined. They 
are reproduced along with the other shells of Holmes’ 
plate by H. Beuchat, on page 145 of his “Manuel 
d’Archeologie Américaine” (Paris, 1912), but no further 
details are added. 
Regarding the use of cowries in Southern California, 
Frederick W. Putnam” gives some interesting particulars, 
though these are somewhat lacking in detail. He writes 
(p-(254)25° Bhesfact, that the; Indians, of California,:in 
ommon with savages generally, often decorated their 
implements and utensils with the same materials which 
they employed for personal ornament, is proved by articles 
collected from the graves ; as, for instance, the decoration 
of the rims of the large stone mortars, on which, held in 
place by asphaltum, are pieces of the pearly shell of 
ffaliotts,-or sometimes, the perfect shells of two or three 
beautiful species of Cyprea; C. spadicea particularly being 
employed on the mainland. Another method of ornament- 
ing the rims of these mortars consisted in cutting away the 
dorsal portion of the shells of Cypr@a and fastening them 
to the mortar, by their cut surface, with asphaltum, so as 
to exhibit the lips of the shell, with their serrated edges.” 
Such a cut shell is represented by Putnam in Plate xiii., 
Fig. 52, of his work, but no specific name is given. Its 
contour is totally unlike that of C. spadzcea, or any other 
American cowry. My colleague, Mr. R. Standen, and I 
have carefully compared the illustration with various 
cowries, and the only shell the features of which appear 
197 In ** Report U.S. Geog. Surv. west of tooth meridian, vol. vii.— 
Archeology,” Washington, 1879. 
