CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE NW. FLORIDA COAST. 283 



ing at the Springs, near a large shell-heap, is a mound on property of Mr. Thomas 

 H. Hall, the owner of the Springs, who resides on the place. 



The mound, of circular outline, had a basal diameter of about 60 feet. A former 

 excavation in the center of the summit plateau, though filled, seemingly had lessened 

 the orioinal altitude. At the time of our visit the mound was eioht feet hic-h. The 

 excavation, the only one previous to our own, was circular with a diameter at 

 the top of from 10 to 12 feet. At a depth of 4 feet it was 8 feet across. It had a 

 diameter of 2 feet 5.5 feet down, where it ended. Joining the mound on the western 

 side was a causeway 60 feet long, 24 feet of which was a graded ascent at the 

 western end. The remainder of the causeway was level until its union with the 

 mound. The causeway, about 5 feet in height, was 47 feet wide at the start, 

 diminishing about 10 feet later, owing to great excavations on either side, whence 

 sand for the causeway or mound had been taken. 



The mound was totally demolished by us as was the causewaj' with the excep- 

 tion of the 24 feet of slope, which were trenched by six men without result save the 

 discovery of a recent burial with parts of a coffin and nails. 



We shall first take up the causeway. No burials were found in the marginal 

 parts or in the sides. In the southwestern part, at the union of the slope with the 

 fiat surface, was a bunched burial near the base. About 30 feet in from the end of 

 the causeway and about 5 feet from the surface, was a small bunch of bones includ- 

 ing a skull. Near these lay two pendants, one of igneous rock, the other made from 

 a quartz pebble, each about 2 inches in length. Their shape is roughly ellipsoidal, 

 each with an extended end around which is a groove for suspension. Near the base, 

 at different points, were two lone skulls. 



Under the sloping sides of the causeway were several vessels from which con- 

 siderable parts were missing. Had it not been that the basal perforation was present 

 in them there would have been grounds to consider them broken and cast aside 

 during the making of the mound. 



A number of vessels, none equalling in excellence of ware or decoration the 

 better vessels of the mound proper, were found in the main, or flat portion of the 

 causeway. Some of these will be particularly described with the vessels from the 

 mound proper. 



There were also in the causeway one shell drinking cup and two masses of 

 plumbago, deeply pitted. 



In the mound proper, beginning at the very margin of the eastern side and con- 

 fined almost exclusively to that side, were thirty-one burials, including, as to form, 

 the flexed, the bunch, the lone skull. Several were too badly decayed to allow 

 determination and several others came down in caved sand. So badly decayed were 

 the bones that no whole skull or considerable part of a skull was met with, but care- 

 ful examination of such fragments as were found, discovered no sign of flattening. 



The custom to put oyster-shells over burials was chiefly honored in the breach 

 in the Hall mound. Several burials had a few shells lying with them, but two or 

 three only had masses of oyster-shells above them, such as we have found elsewhere. 



