906 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



bank, so that the mound itself, at this point, now forms the river bank. 

 A large oak tree stands at the very summit of the mound. The lesser 

 pile has been considerably reduced by burning the shells for lime. In 

 front of the mound, looking towards the bay, is a point consisting of a 

 flat salt marsh covered with rushes. The mound is composed largely 

 of oyster shells and appears to have been frequently visited of late. 

 Relics were scarce, and those we did find were of the same class as we 

 had found before. The onlj^ relics which could be found here in num- 

 bers were the small perforated and truncated conchs for necklaces or 

 beads. 



Bordering on the city limits of Tampa, Hillsboro' Bay, and the mouth 

 of Hillsboro' River, is the garrison called *' Fort Brooke." Here are two 

 ancient earth mounds which have been dug into considerably, but we 

 could not learn that anything of special value had ever been found. On 

 the ground about the mounds we found bits of pottery, flint chips, a 

 few arrow heads and rough implements. I here found a genuine quartz 

 pebble, about 3 inches in diameter, round and flat, with its edges 

 broken a little on two opposite sides. This was the only specimen of a 

 pebble that I saw in Florida, and I pronounced it a foreigner. 



All of the marine shells which we saw at these South Florida shell 

 heaps corresponded with the live species now inhabiting the waters of 

 that section. All of the stone implements or fragments, except the 

 piece of soap-stone and quartz pebble before noted, corresponded with 

 the limestone, or the lime fossil coral, or the silicified corals, &c., of that 

 region, the latter, so far as I know, being found only in Hillsboro' Bay, 

 and mostly at Ballast Point, about 5 miles below Tampa. In fact all 

 of the arrow heads from South Florida that I have observed appear to 

 have been made of material obtained at or near Ballast Point. Here 

 are many silicified geodes, both large and small, some having an outer 

 surface that shows a coral formation, while the inner surface is of vari- 

 ous bright colors of chalcedony or drusy quartz. Here also are pieces of 

 cherty flint of considerable size, which, when they have not been previ 

 ously broken, are coated with limestone. The beach at low tide is lit 

 erally covered with quartz that has been artificially broken. Many ap 

 parently unfinished implements are found, and also occasionally finished 

 arrow heads, scrapers, &c. Arrow and spear heads were made from 

 the thin flattish sides of geodes, so that the work was much more haz- 

 ardous than making them from thicker stock. Cavities were numerous 

 even in the best material found here, and presumably for that reason 

 unfinished implements are very numerous in this vicinity. While in 

 many places the beach abounds in stone, I have never known of any 

 having been found, in nature, upon the inland surface. 



A little back from the beach at Ballast Point is a long ridge of shells, 

 much broken, as if washed up by the tide. There are, however (the 

 facts before noted), plenty of evidences that this was ground formerly 

 frequented by the Indians, and many believe this ridge of shells to be 

 the remains of an Indian shell heap. 



