194 DENTALIIDiE. 



himself with a long spear^ the haft made of light deal, 

 to the end of which is fastened a strip of wood placed 

 transversely, but driven full of teeth made of bone, 

 resembling exactly a long comb with the teeth very wide 

 apart. A squaw sits in the stern of the canoe, and 

 paddles it slowly along, whilst the Indian with the spear 

 stands in the bow. He now stabs the comb-like im- 

 plement into the sand at the bottom of the water, and 

 after giving two or three such stabs draws it up to look 

 at it; if he has been successful, perhaps four or five 

 Dentalia have heen impaled on the teeth of the spear.^^ 

 At one period, perhaps a remote one in the history of 

 the inland tribes of Indians, Dentalia were worn as 

 ornaments; they are found in old graves, quite 1000 

 miles from the sea, mixed with stone beads and small 

 bits of the nacre of Haliotis, of an irregular shape, but 

 with a small hole drilled through each piece. Rows of 

 these tooth-shells may be seen in the ethnological cases 

 at the British Museum. Sometimes the top of the 

 shell is excavated instead of truncated, and in such case 

 the pipe does not project beyond the edge. The lip of 

 the pipe is expanded and reflected in some of my speci- 

 mens. The fiy are very slender, and are marked with 

 a few slight concentric ribs; the point forms an oval 

 bulb, and has a minute circular orifice. 



It is the Tubulus antalis of Martini, and D. India- 

 noTum of P. Carpenter. In Gmelin^s compilation the 

 description is made up of this species and B. Taren- 

 tinum. The same confusion exists in works of the 

 older writers on European and British shells. 



