290 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, MOBILE BAY. 
SHELL MOUND NEAR Fisu River, BALDWIN COUNTY. 
On the bay, about one-half mile in a northerly direction from the northern 
point of the entrance into Fish river, is the property of Mr. William V. Street, of 
Point Clear, Alabama. Adjoining the house is a shell field that has been under 
cultivation. In this field is a mound composed of oyster-shells with a slight admix- 
ture of small clam-shells (Rangra cuneata) and black loam. 
This mound, roughly circular in outline, about 3 feet in height and 60 feet 
across the base, had thirteen holes dug into it by us; each from 5 to 5 feet in 
diameter at the surface, and extending to the base. 
No human remains were met with. 
Broken pottery was found in considerable quantity, all shell-tempered, though 
it was noted that the finer quality of ware contained shell pounded into more 
minute particles than that in the coarser variety. The decoration is incised, in the 
main, consisting chiefly of series of roughly parallel, encircling lines. Punctate 
decoration is present on some fragments of coarser ware, and a combination of line 
and cross-hatch on one specimen of fine paste. The small check-stamp is repre- 
sented by a single fragment. Loop-handles are numerous. 
One small disc, carefully cut from a fragment of earthenware, came from the 
mound, and two larger ones from the surface of the surrounding field. 
Similar dises, made from fragments of earthenware vessels, have been met with 
in numbers in various regions from Canada’ to Costa Rica.” 
We have found imperforate earthenware discs of this kind in South Carolina, 
in Georgia, and in Alabama, but not in peninsular Florida, where the discoidal 
stone also is not found. These discs doubtless were used in some game. Mr. Laid- 
law says the Crees and Salteaux employ them in a game similar to our “ billy 
button.” Hartman saw earthenware discs of this kind in use among the children 
of the Pipiles of Salvador, who fastened a bunch of feathers to a disc and throwing 
it into the air, called it “ pigeon ” or “ little rooster." 
In northwestern Florida? we found two earthenware discs centrally perforated, 
one on each side of a skull, against the bone, with a disc of sheet-copper on the 
outside of each of the pottery discs. Cord remaining in the copper discs showed 
that each had been connected with one of the earthenware discs and that the cord, 
passing through the lobe of the ear and fastened to the earthenware dise, which was 
worn behind the lobe of the ear, had kept the copper disc in place in front of the 
lobe. Once again, in middle Florida, we found two similar dises of earthenware with 
fragments of sheet-copper. Such earthenware discs, utilized to economize in the 
1G. E. Laidlaw, “Тһе Aboriginal Remains of Balsam Lake, Ontario," American Antiquarian, 
March, 1897. 
°С. V. Hartman, “ Archeological Researches in Costa Rica,” Stockholm, 1901, p. 33, foot-note. 
See also Gerard Fowke, “Stone Art,” 13th An. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethn., p. 109. 
W. H. Holmes, “Aboriginal Pottery of Eastern United States,” 20th An. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethn., 
р. 48. 
Stewart Culin, * Chess and Playing Cards," Rept. U. S. National Museum for 1896, p. 709. 
з “Certain Aboriginal Remains of the NW. Florida Coast," Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Phila., 
Vol. XII, p. 336. 
