1^96.] 4-j1 [Gushing. 



Plate XXX. 



The contour lines in the Topographic map of Key Marco (represented 

 on Plate XXX, and described on pp. 349, 850, of the text), by means of 

 which Mr. Sawyer has indicated, with the utmost fidelity and accuracy, 

 the minutest features of that remarkable and gigantic structure, nec- 

 essarily have to be reproduced here in one color. Therefore, the sig- 

 nificant difl^erence between elevations and depressions above and below 

 the mean or higli tide level are not clearly apparent. For example, the 

 circles and parallel lines in the extreme southeastern portion of the 

 map, represent deep round wells or basins, and almost equally deep 

 canals and graded ways leading to and from them : while the quite sim- 

 ilar, although more numerous, lines at 13', 14' and 18', in the easterly cen- 

 tral portion of the map, indicate mounds and other heights above the 

 mean, corresponding, in foot-measure, to these several figures. 



The long, narrow water-court or fish-pound — at the northern end — 

 still slightly open to the sea through its short canal ; the three larger 

 courts — respectively twenty, thirty, and fifty feet wide — down on the 

 western side, and the larger triangular "Court of the Pile Dwellers " 

 excavated by us and shown more fully in the plan on Plate XXXI, are 

 all indicated by flat shading, and are marked with mangrove signs. 



It will be noted that above and toward the left of this court, are two 

 similar courts, that had been filled nearly up to their marginal rims, 

 probably to form gardens or platforms ; and that to the right, the very 

 large bayou at the southern end of the key was already being reclaimed 

 for the formation of additional courts or enclosures, by the extension of 

 the shell works down toward the terminal eastern sea wall. Excava- 

 tions revealed the fact that in places the borders of this bayou were 

 already occupied by dwellings like those of the courts, at the time of 

 the abandonment of the place. 



The eastern edge of the key was worn away by the sea. The termini 

 of canals similar to those on the northwestern edge, as well as the gen- 

 eral oval outline of other portions of the key, indicated that it originally 

 extended a little more than two hundred feet out in this direction, and 

 that it probably here also contained water-courts, fish-pounds and other 

 features, like those lower down on the opposite margin. It also indicated 

 that at the time of abandonment, the place of the extensive mangrove 

 swamp to the southward, was open water, and that the main tidal cur- 

 rent between the key and Caximbas island further to the south, fiowed 

 past this easterly portion. It is remarkable that Key Marco is excep- 

 tional in having thus been somewhat demolished ; for of more than a 

 hundred keys examined by me, first and last, only this and five others 

 had been disturbed by the countless storms that have, throughout un- 

 numbered centuries, swept those regions and changed, on every hand, all 

 other sections of the coast. During the ages that must have elapsed 

 since these gigantic structures were piled up, they have stood unscathed, 

 the stress of tidal wave, and flood and storm ; and they were, in early 

 historic days, as is abundantly attested by old writers, used as places of 

 refuge in times of inundation, by Indians, as, indeed, they have continued 

 to be used ever since, even by modern settlers. 



