PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 785 



I will now briefly speak of some prehistoric remains in the southwest 

 ern part of the State that I have lately visited. 



In March, 1881, 1 started from Orlando, Orange County, Florida, with 

 an ox- wagon, in charge of a Government party, to make certain surveys 

 and examinations for a steamboat route from Saint John's Eiver to Char- 

 lotte Harbor, on the Gulf of Mexico. 



We passed down by Forts Gatlin, Davenport, and Clinch, and thence 

 down the valley of the Big Chocleypopka River to Peace Creek ; thence 

 to Charlotte Harbor, and from there to the mouth of Caloosahatahee 

 Eiver and up the rivernearly to Lake Okeechobee. Before makingFort 

 Clinch, and near Lake Pierce, we passed near the Indian village of Chipco, 

 named after the old Seminole chief, since deceased. We visited the vil- 

 lage, which consisted of less than a dozen cabins built of logs and fan 

 palmetto. It is situated on a small hill. l!^umerous sweet orange trees 

 in bearing were growingamong the honses, and a sugar-canefield was be- 

 ing cultivated near by. The Indians had been living on this spot for 

 many years, but there was no indications of a kjokkenmodding forming. 

 This is accounted for by the fact that these Indians live principally on 

 venison and fish. No shell-fish of any kind were observed about the 

 place, and so the principal agent in the building of the heaps was want- 

 ing. This may account in some measure for the absence of heaps in the 

 country traversed from Orlando to Charlotte Harbor, as no shell-fish are 

 attainable in that region. 



In all this distance from Orlando to Charlotte Harbor, about 120 miles, 

 I found only one prehistoric mound that I could confidently assert 

 to be of human origin. This was a small kjokkenmodding on the west 

 bank of •' Stake Ford " prairie, just north of the entrance of the south 

 prong of the Big Chocleypopka River. It was situated in a grove of 

 live oaks and was small and uninteresting. 



On the west bank of Lake Livingston, about 12 miles north of the last- 

 named locality, we found about one-fourth of a mile from the lake what 

 appeared to be an earthwork, about 5 feet high, and perhaps 800 feet 

 long, shaped like a crescent broken in the middle. It was in flat pine 

 woods, the convex side facing the lake, and the interior was at that time 

 a grass pond with three small islets, the water about a foot deep. It 

 is very doubtful whether it is the work of man, but it struck us as sin- 

 gular to find such an embankment in the flat pine woods, whose monoto- 

 nous level is often unbroken for many miles. 



At the town of Myers, on the site of Fort Myers, I found n small sand 

 mound in the western jiartof the town. Second street is laid out over it. 



Captain Peter Nelson, of Myers, told me that a canal existed clear 

 through Pine Island in Charlotte Harbor. This is a long, narrow island 

 about 1^ to 2 miles wide. He said public opinion was divided as to the 

 builders, some attributing it to the mound builders and some to the Span- 

 iards, or early pirates. I was unfortunately unable to visit it. There 

 is quite a large mound below Myers on the same side of the river, about 

 a mile from the town. 

 H. Mis. 26 50 



