Gushing.] ^"^^ [Nov. 6, 



that here, as on Demorey's key, the whole structure had, indeed, been 

 built up on a shoal or reef; a solid foundation of very large conch-shells 

 having first been driven into the original reef, but not apparently here 

 reinforced with clay -marl; smaller shells of many kinds having then, in 

 turn, been piled on this, and that finally — as shown by the talus of uni- 

 form-sized conclis around the base of the terrace — the outer and inner 

 faces of the whole elevation had been covered over or faced up with 

 courses of these beautiful shells. The examination of the mere begin- 

 ning of a station or a settlement at the southern end of Pine Island, then 

 of this further advanced remnant of ancient work, demonstrated to me 

 the correctness of the inference I ventured, prematurely perhaps, to 

 mention in an earlier portion of this paper. The finding here, also, of what 

 was almost unmistakably the outer coating or plastering of a temple or 

 some other kind of large building upon one of the flat terraces or mounds, 

 such as I have so often described as found on the upper keys in more 

 perfected condition, seemed also to indicate as unmistakably that these 

 mounds, wherever found, had been designed as the foundations of such 

 buildings of a more or less permanent and probably public or tribal 

 character. 



A long, very low sand-spit, comparatively narrow, and covered with 

 mangroves, extended in a direction parallel with the curved inner shores 

 of Sanybel Island, from very near the end of this ancient settlement to 

 almost the end of the island itself. This low- bar, joined by another that 

 put out from the oppositely curved shore of the island, enclosed a round 

 body of water known as Ellis' Bay. I heard that Captain Ellis, the 

 long-time resident of the place, had found near his quaint palmetto huts 

 on its southern shore, a few days previously, some human bones. I 

 visited his place. I would fain describe it in all its picturesqueness, — 

 the thatched houses irregularly set on the low flat stretch of sand, amid 

 clumps of native palmettos and luxuriant groves of lime, orange, and 

 other tropical fruit trees ; but can only pause to make due acknowledg- 

 ment of his whole-souled courtesy and helpfulness during the prosecu- 

 tion of my hasty excavations there. Behind his little assemblage of huts, 

 the land rose gradually to a considerable height, consisting almost whollj' 

 of sea sand, that had been drifted over from the opposite beaches of the 

 gulf. This sand drift had in the course of centuries quite buried a low but 

 extensive ancient shell settlement. A drainage canal, that had recently 

 been dug by settlers living farther up the island, revealed to me the pre- 

 viously unsuspected presence of this settlement, and the fact that it, like 

 all the others I have described, had been built up originally from reefs 

 or shoals. From it, a sort of causeway of conch-shells had once led out 

 towards a nearly round, enclosed space, closer to the present shore, and 

 oft" to the westward side of Ellis' place. This enclosure was now, of 

 course, filled with boggy muck and overgrown ; l)ut it surrounded a 

 somewhat extensive, low mound, composed in part of shells and in part 

 of black soil. The mound (or hammock, as such mounds in lowlands 



