SHELLS AND MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS. 189 



skill could not accomplish. A large bridge, with 

 twenty arches, in the town of Biddeford, in 

 Devonshire, crosses the Towridge river, near the 

 spot of its juncture with the Taw. The tide flows 

 so very rapidly here, that it was found impossible 

 to keep the bridge in repair by means of mortar. 

 "The corporation therefore," says this writer, 

 " keep boats in employ to bring mussels to it, and 

 the interstices of the bridge are filled by hand 

 with these mussels. It is supported from being 

 driven away by the tide, entirely by the strong 

 threads these mussels fix to the stone-work ; and 

 by an act or grant, it is a crime liable to trans- 

 portation for any person to remove these mussels, 

 unless in the presence and by the consent of the 

 corporative trustees." 



The Indian tribes of America, when deliberating 

 on important matters, ratify their agreements by 

 an interchange of strings or belts of wampum. 

 The string is simply a cord, on which are strung 

 several square pieces of mussel- shell. The belt 

 consists of many of these strings, and each has its 

 appropriate meaning. When intentions are not 

 pacific, defiance is expressed by a figure of the 

 tomahawk, rudely sketched on the piece of mussel- 

 shell. And then follow the savage war-whoop 

 and the wild dance, and all the precursors of bar- 

 barian warfare, the records of which would fill us 

 with unmingled horror, but that we have some- 

 times to contemplate instances of an heroic spirit 

 triumphing over bodily suffering, which, in a 

 better cause, were worthy of highest admiration. 

 The mussel-shell, too, is, among these tribes, often 

 the record of past treaties, and is brought forth 

 occasionally, year after year, that the old man 



