The wampum is formed of the inside of the clam shell, a large sea shell bearing some similitude to that of a scallop, which is found on the coasts of New England and Virginia. The shell is sent in its original rough state to England, and there cut into small pieces, exactly similar in shape and size to the modern glass bugles worn by ladies, which little bits of shell constitute wampum. There are two sorts of wampum, the white and the purple; the latter is most esteemed by the Indians, who think a pound weight of it equally valuable with a pound of silver. The wampum is strung upon bits of leather, and the belt is composed of ten, twelve, or more strings, according to the importance of the occasion on which it is made; sometimes also the wampum is sowed in different patterns on broad belts of leather. The use of wampum appears to be very general amongst the Indian nations, but how it became so, is a question that would require discussion, for it is well known that they are a people obstinately attached to old customs, and that would not therefore be apt to adopt, on the most grand and solemn occasion, the use of an article that they had never seen until brought to them by strangers; at the same time it seems wholly impossible that they should ever have been able to have made wampum from the clam shell for themselves; they fashion the bowls of tobacco pipes, indeed, from stone, in a very curious manner, and with astonishing accuracy, considering that they use no other instrument than a common knife, but then the stone which they commonly carve thus is of a very soft kind; the clam shell, however, is exceedingly hard, and to bore and cut it into such small pieces as are necessary to form wampum, very fine tools would be wanting. Probably they made some use of the clam shell, and endeavoured to reduce it to as small bits as they could with their rude instruments before we came amongst them, but on finding that we could cut it so much more neatly than they could, laid aside the wampum before in use for that of our manufacture. Mr. Carver tells us, that he found sea shells very generally worn by the Indians who resided in the most interior parts of the continent, who never could have visited a sea shore themselves, and could only have procured them at the expence of much trouble from other nations. [Sidenote: REMARKS.]