PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 865 



have been constructed by the modern Indians, viz, their inadaptibility 

 to concerted and continued effort. For if the large mounds were the 

 gradual growth of ages and varied by successive additions, by many 

 generations, we can readily understand and accept the theory of their 

 being the work of the modern Indian. 



West of the great mound are many small circles of shells covered with 

 soil, from 40 to 60 feet in diameter, and the earth is covered with frag- 

 ments of broken pottery. Over a space reaching from the great mound 

 to the beach, one-fourth of a mile in width, and extending along the beach 

 for nearly a mile, are shell heaps of all shapes and sizes, from a mere 

 bed a foot in thickness to large heaps 12 and 15 feet high. In the fields, 

 the crops are growing in beds of shell, and the furrows are full of broken 

 pottery and fragments of clay figures. The latter are generally repre- 

 sentations of the heads of birds and animals, though human heads and 

 busts are not uncommon. Many are extremely rude, rendering it diffi- 

 cult to catch the particular form intended to be figured, while others are 

 pretty fair imitations of the objects copied, and are quite creditable speci- 

 mens of aboriginal art. They are composed of the same material of 

 which the pottery was made, viz, black, red, or blue clay with a mixture 

 of some white material resembling pounded shell. Some are composed 

 of a reddish clay and afterward covered with a finer material, nearly 

 black, which give the object the appearance of being glazed. In other 

 specimens the body is formed of black clay and covered with red. As 

 before remarked, the majority of the images represent the heads of 

 animals and birds. Of the former the wolf or fox, the squirrel, and the 

 beaver seem to have been the favorites, while the duck or goose is often 

 copied among the birds, though the serpent and the owl were not for- 

 gotten. 



In Plates I, II, and III, may be seen rough copies of several of these 

 images, which will give an idea of the most common forms, from the 

 rudest up to the best hitherto obtained. These images are not found 

 in the mouuds or graves, but scattered about the fields, on the surface, 

 or in the piles of shell, along with broken pottery. It is somewhat 

 strange that these images are only found on the shores of Choctawhat- 

 chee Bay and Santa Rosa Sound. In all the explorations along the 

 west coast of Florida they have not been found, nor have any been 

 heard of in any other portion of the State. Westward, however, they 

 exist. Dr. George Taylor, of Mobile, has several which he obtained from 

 the shell heaps on Bon Secour Bay, near Sand Island light, and they 

 are said to have been found in the shell heaps, along the Mississippi 

 coast. 



Many hundreds of these images have been recovered on Choctaw- 

 hatchee Bay, and while a few have found their way into the National 

 Museum, many have been destroyed or are in the hands of private par- 

 tics. Others will doubtless be found as the lauds are brought into cul- 

 tivation. 



H/Mis. 69 55 



