468 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS, APALACHICOLA RIVER. 



When our representative located this mound, previous to our visit, through 

 some error the name of the rightful owner was not obtained, and, at the time of 

 our visit, on account of the owner, in his absence, having a watchful representative 

 on the spot, we were unable to investigate. Full permission to dig reached us after 

 our departure. However, the mound was doubtless domiciliary, as indicated by its 

 shape and by the section laid bare by the river, which showed neither bone nor 

 artifact. 



MoujfD IN Davis' Field, Apalachicola River, Calhoun County. 



About one mile in a northeasterly direction from Blountstown is Davis' Field, 

 long under cultivation in time gone by, but now covered with a sprinkling of pine 

 and other trees, on property of Hon. F. M. Yon, of Blountstown. 



The mound, which had been much ploughed over and considerably spread, bore 

 trace of but little previous digging. Its height was 4.5 feet; its basal diameter, 

 considerable of which, however, was due to former cultivation, was 70 feet. 



Fourteen trenches were dug inward by us from the margin of the mound, as 

 found by us, until the original margin, presumably, was reached, when what re- 

 mained of the mound, with a diameter of about 50 feet, was completely dug down, 

 with the exception of small parts around several large pine trees. 



The mound, circular in outline, was made of clay having a small admixture of 

 sand, wdth here and there, small layers and pockets where clayey sand predomi- 

 nated. Throughout, at various points, were more or less charcoal and several fire- 

 places of considerable size. In the northern part of the mound, extending inward 

 ten feet along. the base, with a maximum width of 6 feet and a maximum height of 

 3 feet, was a mass of fire-hardened clay, red from the effect of heat. Curiously 

 enough, while, here and there, a bit of charcoal lay near this mass, the amount 

 present seemed disproportionately small considering the extent and duration of fire 

 necessary to produce such an effect. 



The burials in this mound, which were hardly of more consistency than would 

 be damp sawdust compressed, were met with in twenty-six places. Many of these 

 were found on or near a central space showing marks of fire, and probably be- 

 lonsred to a general interment made at the same time. We shall refer to this mat- 

 ter, later. 



The first burial, a few small bits of bone, was met with in the eastern part of 

 the mound at what probably was the original margin. This burial lay near a de- 

 posit of earthenware but may have had no connection with it. 



The next burial, fragments of a femur, lay in the NW. part of the mound, 

 much farther in than the first burial. After this, burials consisting of the bunch, 

 single skulls, fragments of long-bones, etc., continued to be met with until well in 

 toward the center of the mound, after which flexed skeletons alone were found, be- 

 ginning with Burial No. 15. Several lay in shallow pits below the base of the 

 mound. 



With no burial was an artifact immediately associated, with the exception of a 



