260 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



A large keystone-shaped gorget with rounded corners was obtaiaed 

 from an ancient burial place at Beverly, Canada. It is illustrated in 

 Plate L, Fig. 1. 



The small pendant shown in Fig. 5 is given by Schoolcraft in "Notes 

 on the Iroquois." It represents rudely the human figure, and is orna- 

 mented with eight perjjendicular and four or five transverse dots. It 

 was found on the site of an old fort near Jamesville, N. Y. In the same 

 work Mr. Schoolcraft illustrates another small pendant, which is repro- 

 duced in Fig. 6. The body is heart-shaped, the iJerfoi-ation being made 

 through a rectangular projection at the upper end. It was found at 

 Onondaga, IST. Y. 



The small pendant presented in Fig. 7 is from West Bloomfield, N. 

 Y. It has been suspended by means of a shallow groove near the 

 upper end. It is made from the basal point of a dextral-whorled shell. 



The handsome little pendant shown in Fig. 8 was found with similar 

 specimens in Monroe County, New York — probably on some ancient vil- 

 lage site. It is well preserved and has been made from the columella of a 

 dextral-whorled shell. An ornamental design, consisting of lines and 

 dots, is engraved upon the face. A small, deeiily countersunk perfora- 

 tion has been made near the ujiper end. These objects have appar- 

 ently been strung with beads, as the perforations show evidence of such 

 abrasion as beads would produce. Many of the New York specimens 

 have a new look, and their form suggests the i)ossibility of civilized in- 

 fluence. They are certainly more recent than the western and southern 

 specimens. 



A small cylindrical pendant is illustrated in Fig. 9. A large, neat 

 perforation has been made at the upper end, and the middle portion of 

 the body is ornamented by a series of encircling grooves. This speci- 

 men has been made from a large Unio and was obtained from a mound 

 in Union County, Ky. 



Western forms. — In variety of form the plain pendants of the Cali- 

 fornia coast excel all otbers. Specimens from the graves are generally 

 well preserved, not having lost their original iridescence, although so 

 much decayed as to suffer considerably from exfoliation. 



As indicated by the present well preserved condition of these shell 

 ornaments, they are probably not of very ancient date ; indeed it is 

 highly probable that many of them are post-Columbian. 



Cabrillo visited the island of Santa Rosa in 1542 and found a numer- 

 ous and thriving people. In 1816 only a small remnant of the inhabi- 

 tants remained, and these were removed to the main-land by Catholic 

 priests. Their destruction is attributed to both war and famine. The 

 history of the other islands is doubtless somewhat similar. 



Articles made from shell are found to resemble each other very closely, 

 whether from tbe islands or the main-land. All probably belong to the 

 same time, and although the peoples of the islands are said to have 

 spoken a different language from those of the main-land, their arts were 



