246 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



the present abstract, excepting the last three paragraphs, which I give in his 

 own words : 



" Though the absolute age of the mounds cannot be determined, a minimum 

 age of several hundred years has been approximately ascertained, justifying the 

 conclusion that some of them were essentially finished two or three centuries 

 before the arrival of the white man, as shown by the age of the trees growing 

 upon them. Other, but not exact, signs of age are to be found in the changes of 

 the channel since the mounds were built, the greater or less destruction of the 

 mounds by the river, the growth of swamps and the consolidation of the shells 

 through the agency of percolated water charged with lime. 



" Only a single skull of the builders has been found ; this differs from the 

 skulls of the burial mounds in being longer, with the ridges and processes more 

 pronounced. There are bones from other parts of the body from two individuals, 

 in both of which there was the flattening of the tibia. A second collection of 

 human bones was found embedded in sandstone, under a shell-heap at Rock 

 Island, Lake Monroe. Only a part of the skull was found ; the tibiae were flat- 

 tened, but no other peculiarities were observed. 



" Whether the builders of the mounds were the same people as those found 

 there by the Spaniards and the French is uncertain. The absence of pipes in all 

 and of pottery in some of the mounds, and the extreme rarity of ornaments, are 

 consistent with the conclusion that they were a different people. To those may 

 be added the negative fact that no indications have been found that they practised 

 agriculture."* 



The coasts of Florida, as has been stated, are lined with vast accumulations 

 of marine shells cast away by the former population of the peninsula. I will 

 make special mention of those located on and near Tampa Bay, on the Gulf 

 Coast, which have been examined and described by Mr. S. T. Walker, connected 

 with the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. 



" The materials of which the shell-heaps are composed," he remarks, " are 

 indicated by the name applied to them, shells constituting by far the larger 

 portion of the mass, differing only in the species composing them ; and here I 

 will state that, after diligent search, I have never discovered a shell in these 

 heaps belonging to a species that is not common in Tampa Bay to-day. The 

 kinds of shell that predominate are those which are most abundant in the im- 

 mediate vicinity. Thus, if the mound be located near oyster-bars, as on bayous, 

 or near the mouths of creeks or rivers, we find that shell constituting the mass 

 of the structure. If on or near sand-flats, we find conchs, clams, scallops, etc., 

 predominating. Intermingled with the shell, but forming only a small part of 



* Wyman : Fresh-Water Shell Mounds ; pp. 86, 87. 



