HOLMES] PENDANT ORNAMENTS OF THE MOUND-BUILDElJS. 259 



faces and rounded edges. The first has two perforations at the upper 

 edge, while the other has similarly placed but much smaller ones, be- 

 sides a small central perforation surrounded by an incised circle. The 

 national collection contains similar specimens from most of the Atlantic 

 States ; they differ from the larger discoidal beads only in the method 

 of perforation. A typical specimen of thi^ class, four and a half inches 

 in diameter, is sbowu in Fig. 3. It was associated with the remains of 

 a number of children in a mound in Hardin County, Ohio. Disks of 

 this class were usually suspended upon the breast with the concave side 

 out. That many of the specimens described were suspended in this way 

 is indicated by the character of the abrasion produced by the cords. On 

 the concave side the cord of suspension has worn deep grooves between 

 the perforations, and on the opposi te or convex side similar grooves extend 

 obliquely upward from the holes toward the margin of the disk, indicat- 

 ing the passage of the cord upward and outward around the neck of 

 the wearer. 



A large white disk, similar to the one just described, was obtained 

 from a grave at Accotink, Va. It is five inches in diameter and has one 

 central and three marginal perforations. It is made from a Busyconper- 

 versum, and is neatly shaped and well polished. 



A fine specimen two inches in diameter was obtained from a mound 

 on the French Broad Eiver, Tenn., and, with many other similar speci- 

 mens, is now in the national collection. 



The central perforation is often verj' much enlarged. A number of 

 specimens, recently sent to the National Museum, from a mound in 

 Auglaize County. Ohio, show several stages of this enlargement. One 

 specimen five inches across has a perforation nearly one inch in diame- 

 ter, while in another the perforation is enlarged until the disk has be- 

 come a ring. These gorgets show evidences of long use, the surfaces 

 and edges being worn and the perforations much extended in the man- 

 ner described above. They have been derived from the Busycon per- 

 versum. 



In Fig. 4 I illustrate an annular gorget from a mound in Alexander 

 County, 111. It was found associated with ornaments of copper by the 

 side of a human skull, and is hence supposed to have been an ear or- 

 nament. It is fragmentary and has suffered greatly from decay, the 

 surface being mostly covered with a dark film of decomposed shell sub- 

 stance, which when broken away, exposes the chalky surface of the 

 shell. These shell rings, so far as I can learn, have been found in the 

 States of Ohio and Illinois only. 



Rectangular pendants are much more rare. The national collection 

 contains one rude specimen from Texas. It is about two inches wide 

 by two and a half long, and is made from the base of some large dex- 

 tral-whorled shell. A similar but much more fiuished specimen comes 

 from Georgia, and is preserved in the New York Natural History Mu- 

 seum. 



