casts the veil of falsehood over the charming features of simple nature." These graves evidently contain the relics of a more modern people than those who erected the mounds. On the summit of one of the large hillocks, near St. Louis, (No. 27. described in note 83) are several of these graves: we opened five of them, but in one only were we fortunate in finding any thing interesting, and all that this contained was a solitary tooth of a species of rat, together with the vertebræ and ribs of a serpent of moderate size, and in good preservation; but whether the animal had been buried by the natives, or had perished there, after having found admittance through some hole, we could not determine. If they were buried by the Indians, they are probably the bones of a species of crotalus, as it is known that many Indians of the present day have a sort of veneration for animals of that genus. The circumstance of the discovery of these bones renders it somewhat probable, that rattlesnakes were formerly worshipped by the natives of America, and their remains, like those of the Ibis of Egypt, religiously entombed after death. Whilst we were at Cincinnati, Dr. Drake exhibited {58} to us, in his cabinet of natural history, two large marine shells, that had been dug out of ancient Indian tumuli in that vicinity. These shells were each cut longitudinally, and the larger half of each only remained. From this circumstance it seems probable that they had been used by the aborigines as drinking cups; or, consecrated to superstition, they may have been regarded as sacred utensils, and either used in connection with the rites of sacrifice, or in making libations to their deities; they may, however, like the cymbium of the Archipelago, have served a more useful and salutary purpose in bathing. One of these specimens seems to be a _Cassis cornutus_, of authors, or great conch shell, though it is proper to observe, that of the three revolving bands of tubercles, characteristic of that species, the inferior one in this specimen is double. In length it is about nine inches and a quarter, and in breadth seven inches. The other specimen is a heterostrophe shell of the genus _Fulgur_ of Montfort; and, as far as we can judge, in every respect the same with those which are, at the present day, found on the coast of Georgia and East Florida, known to naturalists 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.