56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 
are wearing away very rapidly—in places a score of feet since I first knew 
the bay. Not so much in this place, but some. The rock in which this speci- 
men is embedded was not long ago covered by the soil and subsoil, which has 
been washed away. Now all along the shore in places, not continuously, are 
beds or masses of a conglomerate rock, ferruginous, varying in color from red 
to black, and which the late Professor Meek said was bog iron ore, and con- 
taining pebbles, many of them phosphate of lime. It was in this hard rock 
that I found and sent Professor Wilcox pieces of Indian pottery, though he 
discovered some himself before that. These beds of conglomerate rest upon 
sand, and so did this other kind of rock I sent you, and you will see projec- 
tions on the bottom of it where the mud of which it was made was east into 
holes and inequalities in the sand. This same rock, containing occasionally 
an oyster shell, lies in places on top of the hard conglomerate, which would 
seem to show that the skeleton was embedded subsequent to the formation of 
the hard conglomerate, but by an agency similar or identical. 
The bones consisted of the larger part of the thorax, lying, particu- 
larly as regards the vertebree, fairly well in situ. Two pieces of the 
rock in which the bones were included were chiseled out and sent to 
the. Smithsonian Institution and are now preserved in the National 
Museum. Both Mr. Webb (J. G.) and Mr. Wilcox found small 
fragments of pottery in the rock in several places along the shore of 
the bay adjoining Mr. Webb’s property on the south; one of these 
potsherds, apparently a piece of a simple Indian cooking pot, is also 
preserved in the National Museum. 
EXAMINATION OF THE SPECIMENS 
With the exception of a brief report on the Osprey skull and the 
Hanson Landing calcaneum by Leidy, the western Florida fossil human 
bones until now have not been described. In undertaking the de- 
scription of the more important of the specimens, it was recognized 
that the first desideratum was a competent chemical analysis. This 
was kindly made at the Museum chemical laboratory by Mr. W. C. 
Phalen. Four different specimens were analyzed at the same time 
by exactly the same method, and the results were as follows: 
Indian ; 
Constituents Otay | Nonh Os ron 
| | mound. 
a ae: 
Oxide.ofsilies (SiO.) o-eat 0 ee ne eee | 5.87 5.83 1.08 2.03 
BH Osphanic acidu(PsOn) eee eee eee ea ee eel 23.07 31. 66 34.02 35.72 
Oxide ofiron (WesOs)\es ee eed ene | 24.19 10.16 80 1.52 
Oxide ol aluminums(AIO3)p-ss-ssseeci eee eees ao None. 3. 44 Say. 5. 46 
Oxide or manganese (Mm ©) See ates c leet errs areca None. Trace. Trace. Trace, 
Oxideror lime: (Ca) a5 aeaen = ee ccaeen-icsee scotia 30. 02 32. 60 46.77 45.72 
Oxide of maenesinm (MeO) esse eassseess senna eee eee | . 64 09 Trace. 84 
Water: (CHG) 2 tacet eens ceca en esas Sees aes | 412.61 |] eo |f 712:09 a6. 49 
Carponic-acid) eas i(CO})ieeeses ses a en ee eee eee 1.75 || oe |e eps b2.72 
| 
a Calculated by difference. b Calculated theoretically. 
6 
