CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, MOBILE BAY. 293 
made from fragments of earthenware vessels, were found. One of these, shown 
with the sherds, has a perforation near the center from which five radii extend on 
one side of the dise and six on the other. 
MOUNDS ох SEYMOUR’S BLUFF, BarpwiN County. 
Along Seymour s bluff, which is near the southeastern end of Mobile bay, near 
the water, are seven mounds on properties of Mr. Owen Roberts, of Mobile, and 
Messrs. William D. Todd and J. W. Nelson, of Gasque, a nearby settlement. These 
mounds, all of sand more or less blackened with organie matter, were probably 
erected for domiciliary purposes, as an exhaustive examination of one, and a careful 
examination of five others, yielded only a few animal bones, one rude arrowhead, 
and some fragments of earthenware. 
One mound, used as a cemetery in recent times, was only casually investigated 
by us. It resembles the others outwardly and probably belongs to their class. 
The westernmost mound, to which the principal examination was given, had a 
height of 5.5 feet with a basal diameter of 120 feet. Of the remaining mounds, 
some were slightly larger than this one, some smaller. 
The earthenware from these mounds, including parts of shallow platters, when 
decorated, bears the small check-stamp almost exclusively, though in one instance 
the head of a duck, in relief, is present. None of this ware, so far as noted, has 
an admixture of shell. 
As these mounds indicated the presence of a considerable population in early 
times, special attention was devoted by us to a search for a cemetery. Much of the 
level ground nearby was carefully sounded with iron rods, and adjacent woods were 
scoured in the endeavor to locate undulations in the ground, which sometimes mark 
the presence of cemeteries. Our efforts were not rewarded. 
SHELL BANK, STRONG’S Bayou, BALDWIN County. 
Going westward from Seymour's bluff along the shore of the bay a distance of 
rhaps 1.5 miles, shell fields are encountered with deposits of shell, increasing in 
bulk until the culmination is reached on the shore of Strong’s bayou, in a mass of 
oyster-shells known as Shell Bank, the property of Mr. J. C. Nelson, of Gasque. 
All along the bay-side the wash of water has laid bare a section of shell deposit, 
which was carefully examined by us. No human bones were seen, but a number 
of fragments of pottery lay in the shell, while other sherds, some water-worn, were 
upon the shore. If the small check-stamp is represented in the decoration of the 
earthenware in this shell deposit, some of which is excellent and bears incised and 
punctate markings, as shown in Fig. 9, it was not noted by us. Only shell-tempered 
ware was seen. Here, in two respects, we note a contrast between the earthenware 
of the shell deposit and that of the neighboring domiciliary mounds of sand. 
Two discoidal stones which, no doubt, had fallen from the shell bank, lay below 
it on the beach. 
