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The materials most highly prized for necklaces were turquois and shell which were fashioned into beads, some of which were finely made. These necklaces did not differ from those now worn, and the shells employed were mostly marine varieties of the genus Pectunculus.
Turquois and shell beads were found in considerable numbers in the excavations at Awatobi, but, as they are similar to those from Sikyatki, I have reserved a discussion of them for following pages. A few fragments of shell armlets and wristlets were also exhumed. These were made generally of the Pacific coast Pectunculus, so common in the ruins of the Little Colorado.
In the North-east Australian province we have species of Donax, Mactra and Corbula, all apparently new, from the shallower localities; Corbula tunicata, Pectunculus tenuicostatus, and another, from 8 to 11 fathoms, off Cumberland Islands; species of Arca, Pectunculus, Avicula, Pecten, Venus, Circe, Cardium, Cardita, and Erycina, mostly new, from 15 to 17 fathoms in a sandy and shelly bottom off Cape Capricorn.
There were also many fragments of rope, string, cord, and loosely twisted bands, resembling head bands for carrying burdens. Several shell and turquois beads were found, but my limited studies of the cliff-houses revealed only a few other ornaments, among them being beads of turkey-bone and a single wristlet fashioned from a Pectunculus.
The forms of imitations of shells, in clay, of which examples are shown in plate CLXXIII, j, k, l, are rude in character; they are often painted with longitudinal or vertical black lines, and have a single or double perforation for suspension. The shell imitated is probably the young Pectunculus, a Pacific-coast mollusk, with which the ancient Hopi were familiar.
In the South-eastern province we find in forty and forty-five fathoms on a muddy bottom in Bass Strait, Turritella sinuata, Trochus nebulosus, a Pleurotoma, an Emarginula, a Dentalium, two species of Cardita, a Cypricardia, a Venus, a Nucula, and Pectunculus holosericeus.
The sandstone contains fragments of wood, either in the state of lignite or partially silicified, sharks' teeth, and shells in great abundance, both high up and low down the sea-cliffs. Pectunculus and Oliva were most numerous in individuals, and next to them Turritella and Fusus. Gastridium cepa, G.B. Sowerby. 2. Monoceros, fragments of, considered by M. d'Orbigny as a new species. 3.
Pectunculus lividus, Reeve. 73. Pectunculus pectenoides, Deshayes. 74. Avicula margaritifera, Linne. 75. Tridacna gigas, Linne. On the day of our arrival at El-Wijh I sent a hurried letter of invitation to Mohammed 'Afnan, Shaykh of the Baliyy tribe; inviting him to visit the Expedition, and to bring with him seventy camels and dromedaries.
The Clypeaster altus, Spondylus gaederopus, Pectunculus pilosus, Cardita calyculata, and several other shells, serve to identify this formation with that of the Madeiras, and Ancillaria glandiformis, which is not rare, and some other fossils, remind us of the faluns of Touraine. The sixty-two Miocene species which I collected in the Grand Canary were referred by the late Dr.
The only shell was a fragment of a bracelet made from a Pectunculus, a Pacific coast mollusk highly esteemed in ancient times among prehistoric Pueblos. The majority of the wooden objects found showed marks of fire, which were especially evident on the ends of the roof and floor beams projecting from the walls.
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