788 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



things, but they must have been brought from a great distance, and were 

 therefore held in great esteem and corresponding care taken of them. 

 Their tools and weapons were probably mostly of wood, and have, of 

 -course, long ago decayed. Very many of the flints found were probably 

 the implements of the later Indian tribes. 



Eegarding the remains in the Kissimmee Valley and about Lake Okee- 

 chobee there is little doubt that they were constructed by a race anterior 

 to the Seminoles, and for purposes of worship or war; possibly, also, in 

 some places for internal improvements. These remains deserve careful 

 and systematic search and study. I am informed by Dr. Kenworthy, 

 of Jacksouville, that he has found on the Gulf coast other evidences of 

 attempts at improvements by canals on a large scale. 



The amount of pottery that is found in Florida is truly astonishing. 

 In the kjokkenmoddings it forms a large percentage of the material. 

 It is found also in the sand mounds, generally in larger pieces, and 

 sometimes in whole vessels. It has never been my fortune, however, to 

 find any of the latter. There is scarcely a hummock or jiiece of rich 

 arable land which does not yield numerous specimens upon being cleared 

 and dug up. It seems as if the ancient people who used it had an eye 

 to fertility iu choosing their residences, and goes to prove that they 

 l)racticed agriculture. They certainly made a very judicious selection 

 of lands for cultivation, if we are to believe that these places had been 

 in actual cultivation where such broken ])ottery is found in the soil. 

 It is very seldom that it is found scattered in like manner in the poor, 

 light, sandy soil. Kjokkenmodding heaps are found on all kinds of soil, 

 but it is very seldom, in fact never to my knowledge, that the poor, 

 white, sandy soil yields, upon being turned up, any broken pottery, as 

 is the case in the rich lands. Per contra, tbe residence of a large com- 

 munity for a great length of time on poor, white, sandy soil would nec- 

 essarily enrich the land and give it a darker color ; but it would also 

 tend to an increased elevation and so form a kjokkenmodding, which 

 simple cultivation would not do. Allowing that these rich fields where 

 broken pottery is found bad been under cultivation and been cleared of 

 trees, we must go back for the age of these agricultural operations be- 

 yond the age of the trees now growing upon them, which, in many situ- 

 ations that hav^e come under my observation, would exceed four or five 

 hundred years. There are now growing upon these fields dense trop- 

 ical forests, almost impenetrable jungles, with trees of immense size 

 and age. 



It is known that the Seminoles were agriculturists. In the Seminole 

 war our armies found flourishing fields of corn and other crops, and the 

 settlers often point out clearings in hummocks, with the great dead 

 bodies of live oaks girdled and killed many years ago, as old Indian 

 fields. These old giant live-oaks will last two or three generations when 

 girdled and left standing. Broken pottery is also found iu these places 

 in profusion, but these fields are but small clearings iu immense forests, 

 whose soil, wherever opened, is found filled with pottery. 



