SHELL HEAPS OF TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA. 413 



tions on the crest and at its base, we were enabled to find the position of 

 former fires, which give sonic evidence of the former cannibalism of the 

 ancient people of Florida. We found near this fire but few remains of 

 implements, consisting of one arrow-head, very primitive, broken pieces 

 of pottery, a few ornamented with very rude stamped figures, which 

 generally consisted of raised lines drawn at equal distances from each 

 other. 



"The animal remains consisted of the bones of the dog, a claw of the 

 common crab, and a human tibia burned and split, which discovery 

 almost directly points to the cannibalistic habits of the mound-builder. 

 We were so fortunate as to procure several specimens, one having the 

 anterior process, which shows some tendency to flatten above the nu- 

 trient artery. 



" The evidence we have to offer regarding the age of the mound is very 

 unsatisfactory, consisting of rude pottery which would point to a greater 

 age, or parallel with the mounds on Saint John's River ; but we find 

 this pottery in another place on the same mound. (Plate I, a, b.) 



" The shells point more or less to the Pliocene age, although the mound 

 gives us a limited genera. We find the Busycon carica, a common shell 

 on the Atlantic coast, but occurring as a fossil in the Miocene of Mary- 

 land, South Carolina, and North Carolina ; B. perversion, fossil in the Pli- 

 ocene of South Carolina; Ostrca virginianum, common to the coast, but 

 fossil in the Pliocene; Pyrula pyrum, fossil in the Pliocene of South 

 Carolina. The larger specimens are still common (according to Holmes 

 and Tourney) to the Atlantic coast. We find in this mound the larger 

 and smaller specimens mixed." 



REPORT 0\ TnE SHELL HEAPS OF TAMPA RAT, FLORIDA. 



By S. T. Walker, of Char Water, Florida. 



No little speculation has been expended upon those vast accumulal ions 

 of shells which line the coasts of Florida, and stand as silent witnesses 

 of the labors of an ancient people that once inhabited this peninsula. 

 These immense mounds strike the mind of the beholder with amazement 

 when he considers the limited resources of the savages who constructed 

 them; for in the presence of these great monuments the largest domi- 

 ciliary mounds of sand sink into utter insignificance, and it becomes 

 hard to realize how the united efforts of a savage people, the larger 

 part of whose time must have been occupied in procuring a bare suf- 

 ficiency of food, could have been concentrated on such useless works for 

 a sufficient time to erect them. 



It was thoughts like these which fust led me to examine them criti- 

 cally, in order to discover the object of their erection and the method 

 of their construction. Mound after mound was explored with pick and 

 shovel, and every object that presented itself, however minute, was ex- 



