dishing.] dbO [Xov. 6, 



Whilst I was still awaiting replj' from my Director, Major J. W. 

 Powell, and wonclering as to the possible outcome of our undertakings — 

 as to whether the extent of the field we had opened could, wilh such rel- 

 atively imperfect results as I then looked for, be sufficiently represented to 

 the scientific world to command due recognition of its significance eth- 

 nographically, I was happily honored by au unannounced visit from 

 Major Powell himself. Instead of replying to my letter, he had imme- 

 diately set out to visit us, in order to aid personally and on the spot in 

 devising means for the preservation, if not of the collections, at least of 

 a full and adequate record of our finds and discoveries. I had, there- 

 fore, the combined pleasure and advantage of exhibiting to him, alike 

 the field of my observations and the results of our researches therein, 

 and of gaining from him the approval of his trusted judgment as to not 

 only these results, but also as to the methods whereby they had been 

 achieved. 



At this time, however, the season of rain and excessive heat had set 

 in, rendering it certain that the days of the expedition in that section 

 were numbered. Therefore after carefully inspecting our collections. 

 Key Marco, and other typical shell settlements in that portion of the 

 Ten Thousand Islands, Major Powell urgently counseled me to confine 

 operations thenceforward to the completion of excavations in this one 

 little court of the pile dwellers, and therewith to close for the season a 

 work which he again assured me was of unusual architologic significance 

 and capable, he believed, of indefinite extension. 



Thus aided and encouraged by my superiors, I persisted, notwithstand- 

 ing the more or less destructive nature of our researches, if only in order 

 that we might secure the fullest possible data. Fortunately we were in 

 the end able not only to enlarge and complete our collections of photo- 

 graphic records, sketches, surveys and other field memoranda, but also 

 to secure and bring away, in measurably good condition, more than a 

 thousand of these precious examples of prehistoric art in perishable 

 materials, not to mention many hundreds of examples in more durable 

 substances such as shell, bone and horn. 



I must further state that the various ancient artifacts we found in the 

 muck, occurred at unequal depths and in all sorts of positions and rela- 

 tions. There were a few groups of utensils, for example, that obviously 

 belonged together, like mortar cups and pestles, and sets of tools that 

 were still associated ; and there were also some few bundles or packs of 

 ceremonial objects, apparently, which when found still remained almost 

 intact; that is, their wrappings of reed matting, or neat swathings of 

 flag or palmetto leaves still, looked fresh, actually green, in some cases; 

 but on close examination they proved always to be pulpy with decay 

 and impossible of removal. These packs and assemblages or bunches of 

 related things, however, did not present the appearance of deliberate 

 deposition. They looked as though they had fallen and sunken where 

 we found them — some being upside down — as though they had been 



