226 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 



Pomits and Unio. These species are not intermixed in the same mound, 

 but were used as a general thing separately. The mounds of the sea 

 coast consist entirely of marine shells. They will be noticed hereafter. 

 Those of the interior, large numbers of which exist on the St. John's 

 river and its tributaries, were made a subject of special investigation 

 by the late Professor Wyman, of Massachusetts, and the results are 

 embodied in the "Memoirs of the Peabody Academy of Science, 

 Vol. 1, Xo. 4." During a recent trip to Florida, in 1877, I improved 

 the opportunity to learn all I could in regard to the mounds. My 

 course of travel was first in the St. Johns country. Through it 

 flows in a nearly north direction the river of that name, and which 

 resembles a vast lagoon of the sea, lying, as it does, but a few feet 

 above its level, and for a long distance only separated from it by a 

 narrow belt of land. Indeed, tide influences are felt 180 miles from its 

 mouth. The borders of the St. Johns, as seen from the deck of a 

 steamer present the unvarying aspect of low, flat country and interminable 

 cypress swamps, with here and there moie elevated tracts, covered with 

 live oaks, palmettos, etc. The half tropical vegetation is varied and 

 luxuriant, but most noticeable is the Spanish moss [Tillandsia usneoides), 

 wliich covers every tree in gray apparel, presenting a strange and gloomy 

 appearance. A closer inspection will reveal a dense undergrowth of 

 Saw Palmettoes, scrubs and vines, whose roots permeate the loose soil 

 in every direction. There are several lakes and numerous tributaries, 

 all connected with the main river. These are filled, as formerly, with 

 abundant animal life— fish, shell-fish, turtle, and the noble "gaitor." as the 

 native Floridian calls him. The adjoining country is not less favored in 

 the way of game, the swamps and hammocks affording shelter and safety 

 to deer, bear, wild turkeys, etc. The upper St. Johns seems to have pos- 

 sessed peculiar attractions for the unknown people who built the hundreds 

 of shell mounds existing there, and to have been the centre of population 

 of the inland country. In this respect, finding a parallel in the Missis- 

 sippi, Ohio and Illinois valleys, wheie we know the mound-builders 

 followed the course of ttur large I'ivers. Wyman explored more than 

 fifty mounds in the section indicated, some of them containing several 

 acres, and the deposits of shells varying in depth from six inches up to 

 twenty feet. In most cases he found plenty of pottery, bones of men 

 and animals, together with shell dishes and ornaments, and a few rude 

 flints. They were obtained at various depths by digging, a work, as I 

 found myself, of no little difficulty on account of the dense vegetation 

 that now covers the mounds. The researches of Prof. Wyman estab- 

 lished beyond all doubt, the origin of the mounds, and he was the first 

 explorer to thoroughly establish their character as artificial, though 

 Count Pourtales expressed such a belief in 1848, while Dr. Brinton, who 

 traveled in Florida in 1856, and published a work called '• The Floridian 

 Peninsula," thought otherwise, though he gave them no critical exami- 

 nation so far as I know. 



Of several on the St. Johns examined by me, a description of one will 

 give a fair idea of the others. This lay immediately on the bank of the 



