216 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



Creek mound is nearly seven inches in length. One specimen only in 

 this collection differs from the type already described; this has been 

 made from a dextral-whorled shell ; the head is somewhat spherical, but 

 is unusual in having an umbonate projection at the top. It is illus- 

 trated in Fig. C, Plate XXX. 



Another small pin, which is about one and one-half inches in length, 

 has a poorly defined head, and would seem useless for the purposes or- 

 dinarily suggested for the larger specimens. 



A recent collection from Pikeville, Tenn., includes a number of speci- 

 mens made from the spike-like base of the Busycon perversum. They 

 are roughly finished, and taper to a point at both ends. TLe larger 

 ones are six inches in length and nearly one inch in diameter. All are 

 perforated longitudinally. This perforation is neatly made and about 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter. In one specimen which has been 

 broken open two perforations may be seen running almost parallel with 

 each other, as if they had been bored from opposite ends and had failed 

 to meet. The length of these perforations is quite remarkable, and it is 

 difficult to understand how, with the primitive tools at the disposal of 

 these people, a uniform diameter could be given throughout. One of 

 these objects is shown in Fig. 3, Plate XXX. 



Other States besides Tennessee have furnished a limited number of 

 shell pins. Their occurrence in a mound near Columbus, Ga., has already 

 been mentioned. 



The national collection contains a fine specimen from Macon, Ga., col- 

 lected byJ.O. Plant. The Peabody Museum has a number from mounds 

 on the Saint Francis River, Ark. One of these is illustrated in Fig. 8, 

 Plate XXX. They differ from the pins heretofore described, being in 

 all cases unsymmetrical. The shaft is flat and somewhat curved, and 

 joins the mushroom-shaped head near one edge. This results from the 

 peculiar shape of the portion of the shell from which the pin is derived, 

 the head being cut from the peripheral ridge and the shaft from the 

 body below or the shoulder above. Two specimens of this class have 

 recently been obtained from a mound at Osceola, Ark. A profile view 

 of one is shown in Fig. 10, Plate XXX. 



A pin of this class, from a burial mound at Black Hammock, Fla., 

 is described and illustrated by Professor Wyman.' From the fact of its 

 being perforated at the point, he regards it as a pendant ornament. He 

 states that it is cut from the suture, where a'whorl joins the preceding 

 one. In this respect it resembles the specimens from Arkansas. It is 

 made from a Busycon perversum. 



In the National Museum we have two specimens from Florida. One 

 of these, from Pensacola, is illustrated in Fig. 2, Plate XXX, and is of 

 the ordinary form. The other is a short, broad-headed specimen, illus- 

 trated in Fig. 7, Plate XXX. 



In the Peabody Museum are two small specimens of the ordinary type, 



'Wyman, in the American Naturalist, November, 1868, Plate X, p. 455. 



