PRATT OX SHELL MOXEY. 45 



while for a currency it ivould be needful in order to determine the value 

 by the cost of labor which they exhibit. And beside, we see by the re- 

 cent specimens before us of the same species, that they are very far 

 from being ornamental in their appearance. 



SHELL BEADS. 



We have here a quantity of beads exhumed from a mound at Tooles- 

 boro, Iowa, last year, which are not only shell beads, but they are pearl 

 beads, that is they are made of either detached or attached pearls, found, 

 possibly, in the bivalve shells of the Mississippi. 8uch pearls are, how- 

 ever, rare in our river shells, and these are, without much doubt, marine. 

 1 have here one or two very small pearls I found detached and lying loose 

 (having apparently grown so), in the Unio rectus. Many of these from the 

 Toolesboro mound were apparently attached, i. e.,w^ere excrescences or 

 protuberances, resulting from injuries to the shells, and of flne pearly 

 texture upon one side only. Two of these pearls, very flne ones, were 

 used as the eyes of one of the bird pipes found in the same mound. 

 The most of these beads were found within and around one of the skulls. 

 We have here also a small quantity of shell beads, found last year by 

 Mr. Tiffany in one of the mounds at Albany, Ills. These beads are 

 probably made from marine shells, and are of three varieties : First, of a 

 discoidal form, about four-tenths of an inch in di- 

 ameter, and two- tenths of an inch thick in the mid- 

 dle, edges very much rounded, and a rather large 

 hole drilled through in the direction of longest di- 

 ameter, and considerably tapered from each end of 

 FIG. 3.-NatLirai Size, the hole to the middle. (Fig. 3.) Second, a cylin- 

 drical form, about one-quarter of an inch in diameter, and somewhat less 

 in length, (Fig. 4) ; and third, cylindri- ^_^^^ ^^^ 



cal like the second form, but about ^^^^ \0J 



twice as long, (Fig. 5). The Hrst and ^^^^ 

 FIG. +. second forms were found at the neck of fig. 5. 



a skeleton, and the third (long cylindrical) at the ankle, as described by 

 Mr. Tiffany. 



We received some time since, from Mrs. Haines, of Richmond, Ind.. 

 some button-shaped shell beads, being flat disks three-tenths of an inch in 

 diameter, and one-tenth in thickness, perforated in the middle. (Fig. 6. i 

 These were found in a mound in Florida, on the St. John's 

 River, eight miles from the mouth. This mound, whicli 

 was explored by Mr. Eli Haworth, contained the skele- 

 FI6. 6. ton of one of those thick-skulled gentlemen who inhab- 



ited that region during the early centuries. The skeleton, as described 

 by Mr. Haworth, was in a sitting position, facing the river, and nearly 

 covered with the beads, of which there were probably five bushels. If 

 this was money, this party, when he left, took his fortune with him, 

 part way, at least. Perhaps he was a manufacturer of the articles, and 

 then it might well have been said : " He rests from his labors, and his 

 works do follow him." At his feet was a drinking cup, formed from a 



