BIVALVES. 5a 
the Asiatic origin of the American Indians. All 
recent authorities assign the shores of Asia, or those 
of the contiguous islands, as the native territory of 
this great species of Conch; all indeed, except Lin- 
nzeus, who evidently mistook its locality. The 
discovery of this shell, in one of the ancient Indian 
tumuli, affords a strong presumptive proof of the 
long asserted migration of the present race of Indians 
from Asia: taken in connexion with other evidence, 
it may, indeed, be regarded as corroborative of that 
popular belief.* 
Shells of this division abound in the cabinets of 
the curious, or serve to embellish the apartments of 
the rich: there, as well as on their native rocks, or 
when deposited by the tide upon the shore, we 
admire, but too frequently consider them as merely 
gratifying to the eye of taste. Yet the construction 
of the inhabitants is still more worthy of admiration 
than the exquisite variety of the floating citadels in 
which they are enclosed. Those valves which are 
frequently so remarkable, close or open according to 
their inclination or necessity ; and this is effected by 
means of a fleshy protuberance of a reddish colour, 
divided into two lobes, and answering the purpose of 
feet. Thus, when a River Muscle is inclined to leave 
* James’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. 
