102 BUREAU OF AMEETCA:Nr ETHNOLOGY [bull. 6 



Explorations have been conductetl in this area by numerous stu- 

 dents, prominent among whom are Kain in New Brunswick; Boyle 

 and Laidlaw in Canada; Willoughby, Putnam, Cushing, McGuire, 

 and Moorehead in Maine; Putnam and Chase in Massachusetts; Per- 

 kins in Vermont; Haldeman, Mercer, Holmes, and Wren in Penn- 

 sylvania; Beauchamp, Parker, Harrington, Pepper, and Skinner 

 in New York; Rau, Abbott, Volk, and Ileye and Pepper in Xew 

 Jersey; McGuire, Holmes, Fowke, Dinwiddle, Valentine, Kengla, 

 Reynolds, and Proudfit in the District of Columbia and Virginia; 

 Thomas, Heye, Holmes, and Bushnell in the Carolinas. 



Early observers embodying in their works important data regard- 

 ing the aborigines of the region are AVhite of the Roanoke colony, 

 Smith, Strachey, and Hariot of the Virginia colony ; Burk, Be\'erley, 

 Jefferson, Heckewelder, Kalm, Holm, Lawson, Adair, Bartram, and 

 others. 



2. The Geokoia-Florida Area 



This area includes the Florida peninsula and part of southern 

 Georgia. The aboriginal occupants, so far as known historically, 

 were mainly of the Muskhogean and Timucuan stocks, a remnant of 

 the former only, the Seminole, remaining in the peninsula to-day; 

 and since the anti<iuities show no radical diversity of characteristics 

 they may safely be assigned, in large part, at least, to the ancestors 

 of these groups. A colony of Cuban Arawak is said to have settled 

 on the west coast of Florida in comparatively recent times, but no 

 very distinctive traces of their presence have been observed. The 

 early literature of the region, summarized by Brinton in Notes on 

 the Floridian Peninsula, supplies many interesting details of the 

 yanished peoples. 



The antiquities of the area are somewhat distinctly sot off from 

 those of the North Atlantic area, but graduate almost impei'ceptibly 

 into those of the Gulf States to the west and the great Mississippi 

 Valley area to the northwest. 



Shell heaps, many of remarkable extent, occur along the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts, and on the banks of the larger rivers. Some of 

 these remain as originally deposited, while others have been more 

 or less remodeled for purposes of dwelling, observation, or defense by 

 the aborigines, and have been subject to extensive disturbances and 

 even to obliteration in cases by the present occupants of the region. 

 Bui-ial mounds, principally of earth and sand, are very numerous. 

 The houses, built of poles and thatch, arranged often in circular 

 village groups and surrounded by palisades, have left but meager 

 traces. Communal houses mentioned by Cabeza de Vaca were so 

 large that they " could contain more than 800 persons." The 

 researches of Cushing demonstrated the fact that pile dwellings 

 were in use along the Gulf coast, and also that canals and " water 



