mall share of the theories advanced respecting
the origin of the Mound-Builders, the following illustration may be
taken from Wilson, this author, however, being but one of the many who
are equally in fault. The error is in regard to the habitat of the conch
shell, _Pyrula (now Busycon) perversa_.

After exposing the blunder of Mr. John Delafield, who describes this
shell as unknown on the coasts of North and South America, but as
abundant on the coast of Hindostan, from which supposed fact, coupled
with its presence in the mounds, he assumes a migration on the part of
the Mound-Builders from Southern Asia (Prehistoric Man, vol. 1, p. 219,
_ibid._, p. 272), Wilson states.

No question can exist as to the tropical and marine origin of the
large shells exhumed not only in the inland regions of Kentucky and
Tennessee, but in the northern peninsula lying between the Ontario
and Huron Lakes, or on the still remoter shores and islands of
Georgian Bay, at a distance of upwards of three thousand miles from
the coast of Yucatan, on the mainland, _the nearest point where the
Pyrula perversa is found in its native locality_. (Italics of the
present writer.)

Now the plain facts on the authority of Mr. Dall are that the _Busycon
(Pyrula) perversa_ is not only found in the United States, but extends
along the coast up to Charleston, S.C., with rare specimens as far north
as Beaufort, N.C. Moreover, archaeologists have usually confounded this
species with the _Busycon carica_, which is of common occurrence in the
mounds. The latter is found as far north as Cape Cod. The facts cited
put a very different complexion on the presence of these shells in the
mounds.

OTHER ERRORS OF IDENTIFICATION.

[Illustration: Fig. 20.--"Owl," from Squier and Davis.]

The erroneous identification of the manatee, the toucan, and of several
other animals having been pointed out, it may be well to glance at
certain others of the sculptured animal forms, the identification of
which by Squier and Davis has passed without dispute, with a view to
determining how far the accuracy of these authors in this particular
line is to be trusted, and how successful they have been in interpreting
the much lauded "fidelity to nature" of the mound sculptures.

Fig. 20 (Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,
p. 225, Fig. 123) represents a tube of steatite, upon which is carved,
as is stated, "in high