392 ETHNOLOGY. 



teeth presented distmctive appearances throughout, in the absence of 

 the pointed canines ; the incisors, canine, cuspides, and bicaspides all 

 presented flat crowns, worn to smoothness by the attrition of sand and 

 ashes eaten with the half-cooked food. A bisection of some of these 

 teeth showed the dental nerve to be protected by an unusual thickness 

 on the surface of the crown. Not one carious tooth was found among 

 the hundreds in the mound. Many were entire in the lower jaw, the 

 whole compactly aiod firmly set. In some the second set was observed ; 

 while one jaw had evident signs of a third set, a nucleus of a tooth being 

 seen beneath the neck of a tooth of a very old jaw, whose alveolar pro- 

 cess was gone, and the whole lower jaw ossified to a sharp edge; none 

 showing the partial loss of teeth by caries and decaj^ 



Some of the skulls showed evident marks of death by violence, as 

 from the hands of the enemy in war. In one instance the flint arrow- 

 head was seen sticking in the left parietal bone. A number of skulls 

 were broken in, mostly at the vertex, seemingly by that rude weapon, 

 the stone battle-ax, which was so effective on the skulls of the Spaniards 

 in the early periods of their settlement of Florida. It is evident that 

 sanguinary conflicts often took place between tribes of the mainland, 

 in their disputations for those enviable islands of the sea-coast, abound- 

 ing then in spontaneous productions and surrounded by fish and oj^sters. 

 No remains of these, much below adult age, were found ; the weak and 

 slender frame had returned to dust. All that could be traced of their 

 mortality was a carbonized deposit in the clean sand, with here and 

 there a small fragment of bone. 



Pursuing my investigations, and excavating farther toward the south- 

 east face of the mound, I came upon the largest-sized stone ax I have ever 

 seen or that had ever been found in that section of the country. Close 

 to it was the largest and most perfect cranium of the mound, not crushed 

 by the pressure of the earth, complete in its form, quite di:y, and no^sand 

 in its cavity ; together with its inferior maxillary bone, with all the teeth 

 in the upper and lower jaws. Near by the side of this skull were the 

 right femoris, the tibia, the humerus, ulna, and part of the radius, with 

 a portion of the pelvis directly under the skull. All of the other bones 

 of this large skeleton were completely or partially decayed. Contiguous 

 to this was nearly a quart of red ocher, and quite the same quantity of 

 what seemed to be pulverized charcoal, as materials of war-paint. 

 Anticipating a perfect specimen in this skull, I was doomed to disap- 

 pointment; for, after taking it out of the earth and setting it uj), so that 

 I could view the fleshless face of this gigantic savage, in the space of 

 two hours it crumbled to pieces, except small portions. According to 

 the measurement of the bones of this skeleton, its height must have 

 been quite 7 feet. 



There were three distinct rude ornaments in this mound. First, the 

 vertebrsB of a fish, painted with red ocher, and well preserved. Second, 

 an hexagonal bead, made from the tooth of the alligator, (not painted.) 



