This is a flashback to a thread that ran a week ago.  Quite by accident, I
just found a site that has just about anything anyone could possibly want to
know about BEADS.  There is a pretty interesting section on shell beads -
types of shells used, historical information, methods of perforating, etc.
There are separate pages on cone shell beads, cowrie beads, bivalve beads,
tusk shell beads, wampum, etc.

The site home page is:
http://www.thebeadsite.com

but if you want to go straight to the shell stuff, use:
http://www.thebeadsite.com/CHI-SS.html

Regards,
Paul M.