1855.] 



OBSERVATIONS ON CONCHOLOGICAL HELIOS OF THE RED 1N1)L\NS OF (_'. ^V. 



157 



occasions as the sacred vessels from wliieli they administer 

 medicine to the sick ; but it is in one of these sinhti-oi-aal 

 turbinella that the consecrated oil is kept, with which the 

 emperor is anointed at his coronation. 



It is probably in reference to this custom that Meuschen, 

 who considered what is now recognised as the full-grown shell 

 a different variety from the smaller one — called by him the 

 Miirex Pijrxim — gave to it the name of Murex Sacrificaior* 



These shells are often curiously ornamented with elaborate 

 carvings, fine specimens of which are preserved in the British 

 Museum. In the Synopsis of the Zoological Galleries in that 

 Museum, it is remarked, " The Turbinella from their form 

 have been called turnip shells. These are often used as oil 

 vessels in the Indian temples, and for this purpose are carved 

 and otherwise ornamented, as may be seen by some in the 

 collection. When reversed, they are much sought for by the 

 Ceylonese, and highly valued ; one of these reversed shells is 

 in this collection. They are said to sell for a very large price 

 ill Ceylon and China." 



In the great basin of Lake Superior, and in the higher 

 latitudes beyond — the regions occupied by the Algonquin 

 Indians — the traces of older occupation are, with one excep- 

 tion, few and slight. Dr. Schoolcraft remarks of this region : — • 

 " There are no artificial mounds, embankments, or barrows, to 

 denote that the country had been anciently inhabited. . . 

 It is something to aflirm that the mound-builders, whose works 

 have filled the West with wonder, had never extended their 

 sway here. The country appears never to have been fought 

 for, in ancient times, by a semi-civilized, or even pseudo- 

 barbaric race. There are but few darts or spear heads. I 

 have not traced remains of the incipient art of pottery, known 

 to the Algonquin and other American stocks, beyond the 

 Straits of Saint Mary, which connect Lakes Huron and Supe- 

 rior ; and am inclined to believe that they do not extend in 

 that longitude beyond the latitude of 36° 30'. There is a 

 fresh magnificence in the ample area of Lake Superior, which 

 appears to gainsay the former existence, and exercise by man, of 

 any laws of mechanical or industrial power, beyond the canoe- 

 frame and the war-club. And its storm-beaten and castellated 

 rocks, however, imposing, give no proofs that the dust of 

 human antiquity, in its artificial phases, has ever rested on 

 them." 



It IS in this region that the great mineral treasures are found 

 which attracted the attention of the native Indians long before 

 the discovery of this continent by Columbus or Cabot, and in 

 that prehistoric period of America furnished the chief element 

 of traffic, and the consequent source of intercourse between the 

 north and south. I have referred in a former communication* 

 to the working of the copper by the Indians of Lake Superior, 

 without any skill in the ractallurgic arts, and indeed without 

 any precise distinction between the copper which they mecha- 

 nically separated from its native matrix, and the nnmallcable 

 stone or flint out of which they were ordinaril}- accustomed to 

 fashion their spear and arrow heads. This metal, Dr. School- 

 craft remarks, " was employed by the Indians in making 

 various ornaments, implements, and instruments. It was used 

 by them for arm and wrist-bands, pyramidal tubes, or dress 

 ornaments, chisels and axes; in all ca'^os, however, having been 

 wrought out exclusively b}' mere hammering, and brought to 

 its required .shapes without the use of the crucible or the art of 



* DiUwyn's Descriptive Cfitaloguc of Recent Shells, p. 6G0. 

 * Caniidinii .lournnl, vol. ii.. |i. 214. 



soldering. Such is the state of the manufactured article, as 

 found in the gigantic grave creek mound, and in the smaller 

 mounds of the Scioto Valley, and wherever it has been scat- 

 tered, in early days, through the medium of the ancient Indian 

 exchanges. In every view which has been taken of the subject, 

 the area of the basin of Lake Superior must be regarded as the 

 chief point of this intermediate traffic in native copper. In 

 exchange for it, and for the brown pipe stone of the Chippewa 

 River of the Upper Mississippi, and the blood-red pipe-stone of 

 the Coteau des Prairies west of the St. Peters, they received 

 certain admired species of sea-shells of the Floridian Coasts 

 and West Indies, as well as some of the more elaborately and 

 well-sculptured pipes of compact carbonate of lime, grauwacke, 

 clay slate, and serpentines, of which admirable specimens, in 

 large quantities, have been found by researches made in the 

 saci-ificial mounds of the Ohio A'alley, and in the ossuaries of 

 the Lakes. The makers of these may also be supposed to have 

 spread more northwardly the various ornamented and artistic 

 burnt-clay pipes of ancient forms and ornaments, and the ovate 

 and circular beads, heart-shaped pendants and ornamented gor- 

 gets, made from the couch, which have received the false name of 

 ivory, or fine bone and horn. The direction of this native 

 exchange of articles appears to have taken a strong current 

 down the line of the great lakes, through Lake Erie and 

 Ontario, along the shores of the States of Ohio and New York, 

 and -into the Canadas. Specimens of the blood-red pipe-stone, 

 wrought as a neck ornament, and of the conch bead pendants 

 and gorgets, &c., occur in the ancient Indian burial grounds, 

 as far east as Onondaga and Oswego, in New York, and in the 

 high country about Beverly, and the sources of the several 

 small streams which pour their waters into Burlington Bay, on 

 the north shores of Lake Ontario."* 



In view of this ancient traffic between the north and south, 

 the conohological relics now referred to are of peculiar value. 

 Whatever doubt may be thrown on the derivation of the 

 specimens of ancient native manufiicture, or of the copper 

 found in sepulchral and other deposits in the Southern States, 

 and in Central America, no question can be made as to_ the 

 tropical and marine origin of the large shells now exhibited, 

 and brought from the inland districts, lying between the 

 Ontario and Huron Lakes, or the still remoter shores and 

 islands of Georgian Bay, at a distance of not less than two 

 thousand miles from the shores of Yucatan, on the main land, 

 where the pijrida periMjrsa is found in its native locality 



It is obvious from the large and cumbrous size of the 

 American pijrulae, that they must have possessed some very 

 peculiar value or saoredness in the estimation of the Indian 

 tribes of the northern regions, to encourage their transport from 

 so great a distance, through regions beset by so many impedi- 

 ments to direct traffic. Their transport to the Canadian Lake 

 regions appears to have been practised from a very remote 

 period. Dr. Schoolcraft describes specimens of the pijriihi 

 perrei'sa obtained by him in these regions in an entire state, 

 among traces of Indian arts and customs, "deemed to be 

 rclics'of the Ante-Cabotian period ;" and from the circumstance 

 of their discovery in sepulchral mounds, and laid at the head 

 of the buried chief, with his copper kettle and other peculiarly 

 prize.l relics, the pj/rnia of this continent would appear to have 

 been hold in noless veneraticni by the natives of America, than 

 the .\siatic species now are by the native Cingtile.se, or the 

 more civilized and cultivated priests of China. The examples 

 found are generally more or less marked or ornamented. Tlio 



■ History, &c., of Imlian Tribes," vol. i.. p. 07, I'i8, 



