Rocky Mountains. 65 



spect the same with those which are, at the present day, found 

 on the coast of Georgia and East Florida, known to natur- 

 alists, under the name of F. perversus, though it is certainly 

 much larger than any of the recent specimens we have seen; 

 its length being nine inches and breadth six and a half. 



Several different countries have been mentioned by authors 

 as the habitation of the cornutus ; according to Rumphius it 

 inhabits Amboyna, the straits of Malacca, and the shores of 

 the island of Boeton ; Humphreys says it is brought from the 

 East Indies and China ; Linnaeus believed it to inhabit the 

 coasts of America; but Bruguiere, a more recent author, in- 

 forms us that Linnaeus was probably mistaken, in the habita- 

 tion of this shell, and states it to be a native of the Asiatic 

 ocean. v 



The cornutus becomes of some importance in the question 

 relative to the Asiatic origin of the American Indians. All 

 the authorities to which we have been able to refer, corres- 

 pond in assigning the shores of Asia, or those of the islands 

 which lie near that continent, as the native territory of this 

 great species of conch, with the sole exception of Linnae- 

 us; but as no other author has discovered it on the coasts 

 of this continent, we must believe with Bruguiere, that it is 

 only to be found in the Asiatic ocean. 



The circumstance then of this shell being discovered in one 

 of the ancient Indian tumuli affords, at least, an evidence that 

 an intercourse formerly existed between the Indians of North 

 America and those of Asia; and leads us to believe that even 

 a limited commerce was carried on between them, as it un- 

 doubtedly was with the Atlantic coast, from which the Ful- 

 gur was obtained. 



But although this isolated fact does not yield a positive 

 proof of the long asserted migration of the ancestors of the 

 present race of American Indians from Asia to this country, 

 yet, when taken in combination with other evidence, which 

 has been collected by various authors, with so much industry 



vol. 1. 9 



