ANTHROPOLOGY. 405 



I did not attempt to make any drawings of this complicated affair, as 

 the growth upon and around it is so dense that a person is obliged to 

 crawl through it, and after following the winding banks for half an 

 hour one is about as likely to come out exactly where he goes in as any- 

 where else. Cabbage-palms of all sizes, intermingled with thorny bushes, 

 prickly pear, and Spanish bayonet, make progress slow, painful, and 

 unsatisfactory, at the same time obstructing the vision totally. 



After three or four hours of hard labor, I arrived at the following con- 

 clusions : the mound proper is a structure 15 feet in height and several 

 hundred feet in length, level on the top, with three sides almost precip- 

 itous. On the south the usual roadway reaches the top by a gentle slope. 

 It is composed of alternate layers of sand and shell, the sand being ob- 

 tained from the beforementioned excavation on the eastern side, which 

 is surrounded, except in one place, by an embankment, the break in 

 \\ Inch constitutes an outlet for the water. Along the beach, and extend- 

 ing back to the mound, there are winding banks of shell from 3 to 5 feet 

 high. These continue at intervals along the coast to Point Pinellos, 

 three miles below. 



After digging in many places, and finding nothing excepting a few 

 fragments of pottery and the sharpened end of a cedar post, which no 

 doubt formed a part of an ancient building, I gave up the search until 

 fortune should favor me with more leisure and fewer mosquitoes. In 

 the bluffs along the beach, half a mile below, I picked up a skull that 

 had been washed out by the sea, but diligent search failed to reveal 

 anything more. 



13. MOUND AT BETHEL'S CAMP. 



One mile south of Maximo Point is the most beautiful mound that I 

 have seen in South Florida. It stands about one-fourth of a mile in- 

 land, immediately opposite a place known as Bethel's Camp. There are 

 good springs of water along the beach, between which and the mound 

 is a narrow strip of hummock. The mound is situated in a " rosemary 

 scrub," and rises to an imposing height above the low trees in its vicinity. 

 Its outlines are beautifully regular, and all its angles are sharp and well 

 defined. 



Its length (estimated) is about 200 feet along the top, and its heighi 20 

 feet. It is about ."><» feet wide on the top, with a beautiful inclined road- 

 way leading up its western side. Figs. 3 and 1, Plate VI, will give an idea 

 of its ground plan and end elevation. At A, Fig. -">, an excavation was 

 made many years ago, consisting of a ditch 25 feet long. No one could 

 tell me who dug it. On a pine tree at a, Fig. 3, the date " L840" is cut 

 in the bark; the tree is about twelve inches in diameter, and is about 

 as large as any of the trees in the vicinity. At the point B, same fig- 

 ure, another pit had been dug, and 1 was informed by reliable parties 

 that the skeleton of a man had been taken from it — also an Indian pipe. 

 The bones had long since fallen into dust and the pipe been lost. 1 ex- 

 tended this pit in all directions, but found nothing excepting a few pieces 



