196 ART IN SHELL, OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



Dr. Eau, in his paper on ancient aboriginal trade in Nortb America, 

 states that in the collection of Colonel Jones, of Brooklyn, there is a 

 vessel formed from a Cassis which is eight and a half inches long, and 

 has a diameter of seven inches where its periphery is widest. It was 

 obtained from a stone grave near Clarksville, Habersham County, 

 Georgia.' 



Two fine specimens of the Gassis flammea were taken from mounds in 

 Nacoochee Valley, Georgia. They were nearly ten inches in length 

 and about seven inches in diameter. The interior whoi'ls and colu- 

 mellse had been removed, so that they answered the purpose of drink- 

 ing cups or receptacles of some sort.^ 



From a stone grave mound near Franklin, on the Big Harpeth Eiver, 

 Prof. Joseph Jones took two large sea-shells, one of which was much 

 decayed. The interior surface of these shells had been painted red, 

 and the exterior had been marked with three large circular spots.^ 



In the grave of a child, near the grave just mentioned, the following 

 relics were found : " Four large sea-shells, one on each side of the skele- 

 ton, another at the foot, and the fourth, a large specimen, with the in- 

 terior apartments cut out and the exterior surface carved, covered the 

 face and forehead of the skull." ^ 



In a small mound opposite the city of Nashville, Tenn., Professor 

 Jones found "a large sea-conch." The interior portion or spiral of 

 which had been carefully cut out; it was probably used as a drinking 

 vessel, or as the shrine of an idol as in a case observed by Dr. Troost.^ 



Two large shells of Busycon, from which the columellse had been re- 

 moved, were obtained from the Lindsley mounds, sixty miles east of 

 Nashville, by Professor Putnam.^ 



Professor Wyman, writing of the mounds of Eastern Tennessee, saya 

 that " among the implements are well-i)reserved cups or dishes, made 

 of the same species of shell [Busycon perversum] as the preceding, but 

 of much more gigantic size than those now found. One of them meas- 

 ures a foot in length, though the beak has been broken off. When en- 

 tire its length could not have been less than fourteen or fifteen inches. 

 These shells probably came from the Gulf of Mexico, and found their 

 way into Tennessee as articles of trafiic. The dishes are made in the 

 same way, and not to be distinguished from those found in Florida at 

 the time of the first visit of the Europeans, or from those, as will be seen 

 further, found in the ancient burial mounds. The great similarity in 

 the style and make of these dishes renders it quite probable that they 

 were manufactured in Florida."^ A number of similar dishes, made 



'Eau, in Smithsonian Report for 1872, p. 376. 



''Jones: Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 233. 



'Jones: Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee, p. 59. 



*IUd., p. 60. 



'■lUd., p. 45. 



* Putnam, in Eleventh Annual Report, Peabody Museum, p. 355. 



'Wyman, in Third Annual Report, Peabody Museum, p. 7. 



