The Hermes Avitor Jr. was built in the basement of the publishing building largely by candlelight and was flown at San Jose, California's Shellmound Park racetrack near the current San Francisco International Airport.
Shells of terrestrial snails, mainly of the genus Megalobulimus, are found in fluvial shellmound (called sambaqui in Brazil) on the Capelinha archaeological site from paleoamerican culture of early Holocene.