David Kirsh wrote,
> But the NUMBERS of cowries? Are there really beaches lined with windrows
of cowries? Or -- should I ask -- WERE there such beaches? Sigh.

Yes, the cowries must have made up only a small part of the ballast. In
ports such as Mobile (Alabama) and Pensacola (Florida), much of the
nineteenth-century harbor is underlain by ballast dumped by generations of
ships. Geologists have amused themselves by tracing the pebbles back to
their places of origin, such as the Liverpool area.

Cheers,
Andy

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama


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