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; Linnæus believed it to inhabit the coasts of America; but Bruguiere, a more recent author, informs us that Linnæus was probably mistaken in the habitation of this shell, and states it to be a native of the Asiatic ocean. The _cornutus_ becomes of some importance in the question relative to the Asiatic origin of the American {59} Indians. All the authorities to which we have been able to refer, correspond 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 Linnæus; 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 undoubtedly was with the Atlantic coast, from which the Fulgur 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, it will be regarded as highly corroborative of that popular belief.[084] In the prairies of Illinois, opposite St. Louis, are numbers of large mounds. We counted seventy-five in the course of a walk of about five miles, which brought us to the hill a few years since occupied by the monks of La Trappe.[085] This enormous mound lies nearly from north to south, but it is so overgrown with bushes and weeds, interlaced with briers and vines, that we were unable to obtain an accurate account of its dimensions.