72 SHELL OKNAMENTS AND UTENSILS. 



beads (Fig. 274, New York). The Southern Californians chiefly employed 

 the nacreous Ilaliotis-shell as the material for their ornaments, which are 

 abundantly represented in the collection of the National Museum. There 

 are, for instance, ornaments shaped like a ring, provided with a pierced stem 

 projecting from its circumference (Fig. 275, Santa Cruz Island) . Such objects 

 may have been worn as ear-pendants. Another class of Californian ornaments 

 cut from the Ilaliotis, consists of somewhat crescent-shaped pieces truncated 

 at their extremities, and pierced for suspension (Fig. 276, Dos Pueblos). 

 They may have been worn as gorgets. Still other objects of decoration (?) are 

 cut in a variety of hardly definable, irregular forms, which present, however, 

 generally rounded outlines (Fig. 277, Santa Cruz Island; Fig. 278, Dos 

 Pueblos). The holes drilled through them characterize them as objects 

 designed to be suspended or attached. 8 The Californian specimens here 

 treated, although stained by age, retain much of their iridescent nacre, and 

 a more recent origin must be ascribed to them than to the described shell 

 objects taken from mounds in the eastern portion of the United States. 

 Lastly, there should be noticed among the Californian specimens a peculiar 

 class of relics cut from the shell of Lucapina crenulata, and approaching in 

 shape an oval, from which the middle portion has been removed, leaving an 

 oval hole (Fig. 279, San Miguel Island). As yet it is not known whether 

 articles of this description formed ornaments, or were employed in a more 

 profitable manner. 



9 Mr. I aul Schumacher figures in the manuscript report of his explorations in Southern California draw 

 ings of worked and pierced pieces of shell, somewhat resembling the original of Fig. 278. These objects, 

 lie thinks, were fastened to the end of fishing-lines to attract the prey, in accordance with the present mode 

 of trolling with a spoon-hook. 



