ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS. 243 



"As an illustration of their frequency and extent we may instance 



those on the right bank of the Savannah River, above the city of Augusta. Only 

 one need be specitically mentioned, and this will be found in Columbia County, 

 near the confluence of the Great Kiokee Creek and the Savannah River. Here, 

 op2:)osite a succession of rapids in the river — a locality which would have afforded 

 marked facilities for successful fishing in the manner adopted by the Indians of 

 this region — upon a bold bluff is an accumulation of fresh-water shells covering 

 the surface of the ground to a depth varying from two to four feet, and extending 

 nearly one hundred yards in length, and more than a quarter of that distance in 

 width. Intermingled with them may still be found the bones of large fishes, 

 deer, turkeys, raccoons, bears, bison, turtles, squirrels, rabbits, and other animals 

 and birds, and also fragments of pottery, arrow and spear-points, soapstone net- 

 sinkers,* crushing-stones, axes, chisels, rude moi'tars and other implements, and 

 various ornaments of clay and soapstone. Here, then, was one of the favorite 

 camping-grounds of the Indians. Hither they resorted for centuries, feeding 

 upon fish, mussels, and game. This is but one of many extensive refuse-heaps 

 of a similar character which have attracted the notice of the writer along the 

 banks of fresh-water rivers not only in Georgia, but also in Florida, Carolina, 

 Alabama, and Tennessee. In these relic-beds no two parts of the same shell 

 are, as a general rule, found in juxtaposition. The hinge is broken, and the 

 valves of the shell, after having been artificially torn asunder, seem to have been 

 carelessly cast aside and allowed to accumulate at the very doors of the lodges, 

 where, mixed with the debris of the encampment, in the course of time they 

 became heaped up to such an extent as to form these large shell-banks.f 



Cast shells, both marine and fluviatile, were also used in the construction of 

 burial-mounds by the aborigines of Georgia. " Shell-mounds," says Colonel 

 Jones, " formed the common graves of the Indians occupying the coast. Thej' 

 abound upon all the sea-islands, and are thickly congregated upon the outer 

 blutfs and along the banks of salt-water streams. The admixture of shells im- 

 parted a permanency to many small mounds which, otherwise, would long since 

 have been entii'ely obliterated. Most of them contain more than one skeleton, 

 the bones being generally disposed in a horizontal position. In a few instances 

 the dead were inhumed in a sitting posture. Only occasionally do the human 

 bones found in these tumuli indicate the action of fire. The drift- 

 shells — collected by the action of the tides into ridges so common along the coast — 

 were also employed in the construction of these tumuli. "J 



Florida. — The fresh-water shell-heaps abounding along the banks of the 

 Saint John's River have been specially studied since 1860 by the late Professor 



* Noticed on p. 165. 



f Jones: Antiquities of the Southern Indians; p. 483, etc. 



t Ibid.; p. 195, etc. 



