Mr. J. K. Ijord on a Species 0/ Dentaliam. 453 



mainlnnd coast from the Straits of Fuca to Sitka. Since the intro- 

 duction of blankets by the Hudson's Bay Company, the use of these 

 shells as a medium of purchase his to a great extent died out, the 

 blankets hanng become the money, as it were, or the means by which 

 everything is now reckoned and paid for by the savage. A slave, a 

 canoe, or a squaw is worth in these days so many blankets ; but it 

 used to be so many strings of Dentalia. In the interior, east of the 

 Cascade Mountains, the Beaver-skin is the article by which every- 

 thing is reckoned— in fact, the money of the inland Indian. 



The value of the Dentalium depends upon its length : those re- 

 presenting the greater value are called, when strung together end to 

 end, a " lii-qua ;" but the standard by which the Dentalium is cal- 

 culated to be fit for a "Hi-qua" is, that twenty-five shells placed 

 end to end must make a fathom, or six feet, in length. At one time 

 a "Ili-qua" would purchase a male slave, equal in value to fifty 

 blankets, or about £M sterling. The shorter and defective shells 

 are strung together in various lengths, and are called " Kop-kops." 

 About forty "Kop-kops" equal a "Ili-qua" in value. These 

 strings of Dentalia are usually the stakes gambled for. 



The shells are generally procured from the west side of Vancou- 

 ver's Island, and towards its northern end ; they live in the soft sand, 

 in the snug bays and harbours that abound along the west coast of 

 the island, in water from three to five fathoms in depth. The habit 

 of the Dentalium is to bury itself in the sand, the small end of the 

 shell being invariably downwards, and the large end close to the 

 surface, thus allowing the fish to protrude its feeding- and breathing- 

 organs. This position the wily savage has turned to good account, 

 and has adopted a most ingenious mode of capturing the much-prized 

 shell. He arms himself with a long spear, the haft made of light 

 deal, to the end of which is fastened a strip of wood placed trans- 

 versely, but driven full of teeth made of bone, resembhng exactly a 

 long comb with the teeth very wide apart. A squaw sits in the 

 stem of the canoe and paddles it slowly along, whilst the Indian with 

 the spear stands in the bow. He now stabs this comb-like affair 

 into the sand at the bottom of the water, and after giving two or 

 three stabs draws it up to look at it ; if he has been successful, per- 

 haps four or five Dentalia have been impaled on the teeth of the 

 spear. It is a very ingenious mode of procuring them, for it would 

 be quite impracticable either to dredge or net them out ; and they 

 are never, as far as I know, found between tide-marks. 



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

 Indians these Dentalia were worn as ornaments. I have often found 

 them mixed with stone beads and small bits of the nacre of the Ha- 

 liotis, of an irregular shape, but with a small hole drilled through 

 each piece, in the old graves about Walla-walla and Colville. In all 

 probability, these ornaments were traded from the coast Indians; 

 hut, as these graves were quite a thousand miles from the sea, it is 

 pretty clear the inland and coast Indians must have had some means 

 of communication. 



