iV,)C) SHELL HEAPS OF EAST FLORIDA — WEHB. 



stages i)i' lliis coiisti'Uctioii. Wliilc the use to which the greater miiii- 

 Ix'i of the iniplenients ol" sliell iiiiist liave been ]nit is obvious, there is 

 imuh muertainty regarding others which are found in abundance. 

 One of these, known as the i)erforate(l shell, may have been used for 

 the dressing of skins, and the i)erforation which has i)rov<)ked so nuich 

 speculation, made for the insertion of the linger to give more hrmness 

 to the grasp.* (PI. Lxxviii.) 



Another, found in abundance, is made usually from the smaller shells 

 of the Strombus, and is worked as near as jmssibU' to the form of a ball. 

 They may have been playthings of the children. Tlie drinking shells 

 were pre[)ared with great care, and seem als(> to have been used as 

 cooking utensils, some of them showing marks of exposure to fire. (PI. 

 LXXix.) From the great number of perforated shells found on one small 

 heap T was led to conclude that it w:is in .some sense a manufactory of 

 these articles. Some of these scrapers or gouges show as sharj) an 

 edge as it is possible for a shell to receive, while others are dull. Othei 

 uteusils take the form of spoons, A granite or other ])ebble with an 

 end flattened and polished was probably used to put an edge on such 

 imi)lemeuts as rei^uired to be sharpened. 



The pottery, though mostly in fragments, affords an interesting study 

 and shows great variety of design in its ornamentation. Some of the 

 vessels were mad(^ in baskets Avoven from cord, while others, from the 

 peculiar marking on their external surface, must have been ma<lein an- 

 other way. The great smoothness and perfect regularity of the internal 

 surface of these vessels is remarkable. They vary much as to the char- 

 acter of the material of which they are made. Some are of pure clay? 

 and of these, some are tlioroughly baked and hardened, while others 

 are slightly baked and therefore brittle. Others have an admixture, 

 to a greater or less degree, of sand, and are harder. In size they vary 

 from a bowl holding 1 or 2 (puirts to vessels holding 5 gaUons, and in 

 shape from a shallow pan-like dish to a pot or vessel resembling a jug. 

 (Pis. Lxxx, Lxxxi.) The ornamentation includes about one hundred 

 dirterent designs, the principal of which are shown in PI. lxxxii. It 

 is easy to understand the origin of the fine cord-like markings which ap- 

 l)ear on the surface of those vessels which were molded in baskets. 

 Other vessels were apparently ornamented by using a pen-like instru- 

 ment made from a reed, while the clay was soft, and still others by rolling 

 l)ortions of the soft clay and then putting tlu'm on as a housewife some- 

 times ornaments her pie crusts. In one specimen, the impress of the 

 fingers is plainly visible, showing even the texture of the skin. l>y far 

 the larger portion, however, ai)pear to have been ornamented by the use 

 of a stamp, which left the surface arranged in squares, as shown in the 

 plate. Fully three-fourths of the pottery found is ornamented in this 



* Those shells have beou found with wooilcn h;m(llfs inserted in the perforation 

 for use Jis hatchets or picks, and the L'. S. National Museum possesses several speci- 

 mens. — T. W. 



