Gushing.] 4:JU [Nov. 6, 



Plate XXIX. 



The view of the rounded corner and a portion of the side at the south- 

 eastern end of the. shell-faced platform on the crowning terrace or 

 elongated pyramid-mound of Demorey's Key, Pine Island Sound, given 

 in Plate XXIX, does not, unfortunately, include the subsidiary" platform 

 of approach at the farther end. As related on pp. 338 and 339, the vegeta- 

 tion covering this and nearly all other portions of the kej% was so rank, 

 that but for an accident, the character of the shell work of this terrace 

 would not have been even suspected. Hence too, the tessellated pave- 

 ment of clamshells along the lines of approach to the side platform and 

 toward the end of the main work, were exposed only here and there, at 

 great labor, and therefore do not appear in the picture. It will be ob- 

 served however, that the apices of many of the shells in the facing of the 

 terrace, are crushed in. It was found that as this ancient facade was built 

 up, the conches were laid in place — the whorls of each course all turned 

 one way — and that finally all were hammered into place more firmly, until 

 the whole facing was thereby made even. It was thus that the points or 

 spires of some of the shells were broken in as shown. I later learned 

 that this mode of building was resorted to not only in such facings of 

 the heights, but also in the laying of tlie foundations of the keys on the 

 submerged reefs. 



