1896.] «J4:^ [Cushiug. 



are universally called in that section of tlie country) was under cultiva- 

 tion as a vegetable and fruit garden ; and it was in the attempt to re- 

 move from it the roots of a large stump, that Captain Ellis had made the 

 find of human bones I had heard of. In excavating near by, I discov- 

 ered that the whole heap was permeated, so to say, with broken human 

 remains ; large bones and small, many of which had been split or shat- 

 tered, mingled with skulls, some few fortunately still entire, although 

 very fragile. I succeeded in securing eleven of these skulls before leav- 

 ing. Few relics of any other sort, save now and then punctured shell 

 ladles, were encountered ; but it was perfectly obvious that the place had 

 been a true bone-heap, established on a slight artificial elevation in the 

 midst of an ancient enclosed pond or water court, and it was also evi- 

 dent that the human remains therein deposited, had been dismem- 

 bered before burial, for ceremonial purposes probably — had been even 

 broken up in some cases. I later learned that this place was typical of 

 the ossuaries or lake-enclosed cemetries almost invariably found on the 

 ancient keys, and came to look upon these curious little mortuary lakes 

 or water courts, with their overfilled central islets, as having been thus 

 framed and fashioned to be, as it were, miniature Keys or Shell Settle- 

 ments of the Dead Key Dwellers buried therein. 



I believe I have now described sufiiciently typical examples of the 

 -ancient artificial shell islands — or, as I like better to call them, " Keys " — 

 of these inland seas of the southwestern coast of Florida. 



Ere passing on to the scene of our long continued and more thorough 

 examination of one of the most ancient and characteristic of these, how- 

 ever, it may be well for me to mention that there were, in Charlotte 

 Harbor, Pine Island Sound, Caloosa Entrance and Matlatcha Bay alone, 

 more than seventy -five of them. Forty of this number were gigantic, 

 the rest were representative of various stages in the construction of such 

 villages of the reefs. No doubt a more searching exploration of these 

 waters, and of the wide and forbidding mangrove swamps on contiguous 

 shores of Sanybel, and of others of the outer islands, and of Pine 

 Island, as well as of the mainland itself, would reveal manj^ others ; but 

 the amount of work represented even by the number I have already 

 named is so enormous and astounding, that it cannot be realized or 

 appreciated by means of mere spoken description or statement. 



Beyond the incurving lower point of Sanybel Island, it was necessary 

 to make the rest of my journey through the open Gulf ; not that another 

 series of narrower inland seas did not lie within similar narrow, sandy 

 islands, but because I could not pause to examine their islet-studded 

 reaches. I stopped at oulj^ two places on ray way to Kej' Marco, which 

 was still between fortj' and forty-five miles further to the southward. One 

 was at Mound Key or Johnson's Key, as it was variously called. I make 

 mention of mj" visit to the place principally because of its great extent. 

 It consisted of a long series of enormous elevations crowned by imposing 

 mounds that reached an average altitude of over sixty feet. They were 



PKOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXV. 153. 2 R. PRINTED JUNE 2, 1897. 



