332 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
of early date. The finest are from the east side of Cayuga lake, 
and they vary from nearly 7’inches in length to those quite short. 
Fig. 121 represents one of these. Small perforated seashells are 
found on recent sites, and were used as beads. Fig. 20, 22, 26 and 
30 show some out of several varieties. Fig. 19 is Littorina 
irriorata, a Long Island shell, found at the fort west of Caze- 
novia. It is rare north of Maryland. 
Gardiners bay and the east end of Long Island were the original 
seat of the wampum trade in New York, less ancient than has been 
supposed, and thence it reached the New England coast in 
recent times. An early writer said that the Narragansetts 
“were the most curious coiners of the wampumpeag, and 
supplied the other nations with many pendants and _ brace- 
lets.” Roger Williams’s account is quoted elsewhere. Adriaen 
Van der Donck said that the black wampum was prepared from 
conch shells cast ashore twice a year. The Indians preserved the 
pillars of these, ground and drilled them. He erred in the 
species. Daniel Denton wrote a Brief description of New York in 
1670, which was reprinted in 1845. A note in,this says that the 
best wampum was made of the hearts of the common hard clam 
on Long Island, and was sent to the western Indians for money 
and council purposes. “The Indians broke off about half an inch 
of ithe purple color of the inside, and converted it into beads. 
These, before the introduction of awls and threads, were bored with 
sharp stones, and strung upon sinews of animals, and when inter- 
woven to the breadth of the hand, more or less, were called a belt 
of seawant or wampum. A black bead, of the size of a large straw, 
about half an inch long, bored lengthwise and well polished, was 
the gold of the Indians and always esteemed of twice the value of 
the white. . . Seawant was also sometimes made from the com- 
mon oyster shell, and both kinds were made from the hard clam 
shell_—Denton, p. 41-42 
The writer often finds the white beads made from the columella 
of small spiral shells. Roger Williams said of the Indians: ‘ Most 
on the Sea side make Money, and Store up shells in Summer 
against Winter, whereof to make their money.” 
In his History of Long Island, Thompson says: “ The immense 
quantity that was manufactured accounts for the fact that, in the 
