MISCELLANEOUS INVESTIGATION IN FLORIDA. 30 
ел 
MOUND ох PINE ISLAND, LEE COUNTY. 
Pine Island is a narrow island about fifteen miles long, just south of Char- 
lotte Harbor. 
About three miles below the northeastern extremity of Pine Island, just off 
shore, is a key ! about three acres in extent, called “Indian Old Field," which is an 
aboriginal shell deposit with a shell mound upon it. 
About three-quarters of a mile in a WNW. direction from the shell key, 
on Pine Island, was a burial mound of sand, slightly over 5 feet in height and 
60 feet across the base. Тһе mound was away from the solid ground, on what 
is known as a sand-spit, z. e., territory not usually covered by tides, but subject 
to overflow during unusually high ones,—a curious spot to choose for a place of 
burial when solid ground was so near. 
Near this burial mound is the eastern end of the aboriginal canal that extends 
across Pine Island, a distance of about two miles, and ends at the huge deposits of 
shell and mounds of sand, formerly known as the Battey Place,* but now called 
Pineland, on the western shore of the island. 
The mound, then on property of the late J. Н. Kreamer, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
was partly investigated by us in the winter of 1900." During this investigation 
there were found burials at thirty-eight points, loosely-flexed, closely-flexed, and 
several masses of disconnected bones; also aboriginal disturbances. 
With the burials were three “celts” of iron or of steel; glass beads, іп three 
instances; two tubular beads of sheet-silver, with overlapping edges; one kite- 
shaped pendant of thin sheet-silver, decorated with a cross repoussé; а handsome 
lancehead of hornstone, 4 inches long; a lancehead of chert; two arrowheads of 
chalcedony; a tooth of a fossil shark, with a perforation. At the beginning of the 
excavation, at the northeastern side of the mound, were many fragments of pottery 
belonging to different vessels, placed thickly together; also several shell drinking- 
cups, and a number of conch-shells (и> perversum). 
In the winter of 1904 the mound was revisited by us and completely exca- 
vated, with the kind permission of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Harrsen, living near- 
by, who had acquired the property since the former investigation. 
This mound, built on lime-rock, was of gray sand except near the base where 
the sand was black through admixture of organic matter. In this black material, 
which increased in thickness from a few inches at the margin to about eighteen 
inches at the center, lay a number of burials, many flexed, some to the left, some 
to the right. In parts of the base was what seemed to be an inextricable confusion 
of burials; and the badly decayed condition of the bones and the presence of water, 
at times, made determination of the form of burial impossible. Nevertheless, it was 
certain that among the burials were scattered disconnected bones, sometimes singly, 
' Key, from Spanish cayo, “ rock,” “shoal,” “ island.” — À 
? Described by Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing, “ Preliminary Report on the Exploration of 
Ancient Key Dweller Remains on the Gulf Coast of Florida,” Proceedings of the American Philosophi- 
1 Society, Philadelphia, Vol. XXXV, Хо. 153, p. 13 et seq. - 
ord De es in fee “Certain Antiquities of the Florida West-Coast," Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. of 
scribed 
Phila., Vol. XI, p. 362 et seq. 
39 JOURN, А. N. 8. PHILA., VOL. XIII. 
