ISOfi.] OO-L [Cuf5hing. 



example of its kind. Key Marco, water-courts, canals, elevations, 

 central mounds, cistern holes, garden terraces and all, was, that is, 

 but another such as were tlie keys further north. I scarcely paused 

 in this preliminary reconnaissance to do more than determine this 

 most significant point, but prosecuted the excavation only during a 

 portion of the following day, then packed vip my already considerable 

 collection, and securing permission from Captain Collier, to bring men 

 and more thoroughly excavate the place another year, returned to St. 

 James City. 



There, with Captain Whiteside's ready help, I secured the services of 

 an intelligent and interested Scotchman, Alexander Montgomery by 

 name, and of Johnny Smith, an active and bright young pilot of the place. 

 With them, I reexamined and excavated to some extent, in the keys I 

 had already seen, and in some others around Pine Island ; finding only 

 more and more reason to regard them as of such kind as I have already 

 described. 



The rainy season had set in. The heat was excessive, although it was 

 only early June. The mosquitoes and sand flies swarmed forth from the 

 mangroves in such clouds that wherever we dug, except on one or two 

 of the comparatively barren and lofty keys, it was necessary for us to 

 build smudge-fires all around us and bi'eathe their pungent smoke in 

 order to be free from these irritating creatures. I mention this, not be- 

 cause I was forced to abandon work thereby, but since it offered one 

 more explanation — an important one, it seemed to me — of the causes 

 that had led to the building and occupation of these ancient keys so far 

 out in the shallow but open waters, where, ere the mangroves grew, 

 men were comparatively free from these pests of life in southern Florida 



These additional explorations quite convinced me that in those yet 

 unnumbered tropic islands lay a vast, comparatively new and very 

 promising field for archaeological research, and with this thought and 

 its warrant in the way of collections, I hastened back to Philadelphia 

 and made report to Doctor Pepper. 



Organization of the Pepper-Hearst Archaeological 

 Expedition. 



I am happy to say that Dr. Pepper, with the ready aid of several of 

 his friends and associates, immediately planned to fit out under my di- 

 rection, during the following winter, an expedition for the more com- 

 plete exploration of this interesting region. At a meeting held soon 

 after my return, Mr. Jacob Disston generously volunteered not only to 

 make a contribution — as did several other Associates of the Archa:ologi- 

 cal Department of the University, whom I would fain mention — but, 

 also, to turn over for our use his schooner, the Silver Spray, belong- 

 ing to a fleet of sponging vessels at Tarpon Springs, some twenty -five 

 miles north of Tampa, on the west coast of Florida. Almost as speedily. 



