Putnam.] 4do [I^ov. fi. 



remains which have been discovered since confirm those reports ; so I 

 believe that the culture described this evening, which is eminently a 

 maritime culture, has developed from the same centre, though in its own 

 direction, and has many analogies to the culture which Hernando de 

 Soto found some distance north of it. 



We have a record — very unsafe to follow — composed about 1650 to 

 1658 by an Englishman, written in Latin, translated in French and 

 published in Rochefort's History of the Antilles, where the writer 

 says that a general art culture existed from the Appalachean country 

 southward ; and he tells us, as Prof. Mason has pointed out, of dwellings 

 built on piles in the lower portion of Florida. I have not myself ex- 

 amined the original since I saw Prof. Mason's quotation some months 

 ago ; but I think it very likelj^ that pile dwellings are found anywhere 

 among native tribes where it is convenient to make them. "VVe meet 

 them throughout Borneo and Maracaybo ; and to this day the Semi- 

 noles, who live in southern Florida, build their houses often on piles 

 in the bayous. It is one of those natural and necessary methods of 

 construction which we will find under certain geographic conditions 

 wherever they are discovered. This is my contribution to this most 

 interesting study — entirely novel and extremely valuable — to which we 

 have had the privilege of listening. 



Prof. Putnam : 



It is seldom that an archaeologist has the opportunity of examining a 

 collection of objects of so much scientific importance as those on exhibi- 

 tion here to-night ; and it is certain that a thorough study of all the re- 

 sults of this exploration, carried on by Mr. Gushing, under the auspices 

 of the University of Pennsjlvania, will add largely to our knowledge of 

 American archteology. 



Dr. Brinton has expressed the opinion that the people represented by 

 this collection were very likely of the same stock as those in other parts 

 of Florida and Georgia. I fully agree with him on this point, because 

 the culture we have here is of the same type as that known to have ex- 

 isted in other parts of Florida, and in Georgia, and I may saj" that it is 

 similar to that still farther north, as far up as the Ohio valley. 



What I consider the most important point in Mr. Cushing's discoveries 

 is that he was able to bring out of this muck deposit on the Florida 

 Keys a large number of objects which by being buried in the muck were 

 preserved ; whereas the same objects if buried in a sand mound or lost 

 in a shell heap would have perished. It is important to note that the 

 objects in this collection, made of imperishable material, such as stone, 

 bone and shell, are of the same character as those already known from 

 other parts of Florida. Thus it seems to me that Mr. Cushing's dis- 

 covery instead of indicating a new culture, has thrown a powerful 

 light \\\m\\, and greatly extended our know ledge of, the old culture of 

 Florida. 



The (question we are all asking is, Wiiere did tliis jteople originate :' 



