CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS, APALACHICOLA RIVER. 481 



Mounds near Aspalaga, Apalachicola River, Gadsden County (3). 



About one mile in a NE. direction from Aspalaga Landing, on high ground, is 

 a large field, long under cultivation, property of the late Mr.'john L. Smith and 

 now under management of Mr. William Smith, living nearby. Over this field, and 

 especially over spaces, dwelling sites, having a sprinkling of broken mussel-shells 

 and of Georgiana vivipara and Campeloma lima, were bits of pottery, undecorated, 

 with small check-stamp, with complicated stamp, Avith rude punctate decoration, 

 and, in one or two instances, of good ware with superior, incised decoration. There 

 were also, scattered here and there over these sites, pebbles, hammer-stones, hones, 

 fragments and flakes, of chert, partially-made arrowheads, a few complete ones. 



In this field were three mounds, all of sand, two of which, low and much 

 spread, were shown by thorough digging to have been domiciliary in character. 



The third and largest had a somewhat irregular outline caused, or, at all events, 

 increased, by the use of the plough. As the mound stood on a gentle slope, the 

 height of the artificial portion was hard to determine. Measurements from the 

 west side gave an altitude of 6 feet 8 inches. On the east side, where the foot of 

 the slope was, the mound was 9 feet 5 inches high. According 'to members of the 

 family, the height of the mound had been reduced at least 5 feet by continued cul- 

 tivation. East and west the basal diameter of the mound was 98 feet, and 90 feet, 

 north and south. 



While there had been a certain amount of previous digging, it was small con- 

 sidering the area of the mound. The mound, including certain additional territory 

 surrounding it, was completely dug through by us. 



Human remains were found at fifty-four points, mainly in the eastern and 

 western sides, though burials extended around somewhat as the body of the mound 

 was reached, certain ones being in the central portion. The forms of burial were : 

 the lone skull, the bunch, the flexed burial, and bones scattered here and there. In 

 addition to these there was, on the base of the southwestern portion of the mound, 

 a small pocket of calcined fragments of human bones. Such deposits are met with 

 occasionally in mounds along the northwest Florida coast. 



The condition of human remains was fragmentary in the extreme, and such 

 parts as remained were in the last stage of decay. Burial No. 29 consisted of a 

 dark stain in the sand, and several teeth crumbling into dust. Burial No. 34 was 

 made up of a few minute fragments of bone. Presumably, certain burials in this 

 mound had entirely disappeared. 



But one calvarium was recovered. It showed no artificial flattening. 



Considering the extent of the mound, remarkably few objects had been placed 

 with the dead. 



Burial No. 2, near the surface, a skeleton from which the ribs and one arm 

 were missing, had seven shell beads of fair size, at the neck, and a polished " celt " 

 under the arm. 



Burial No. 18 was represented by one bit of bone. With this burial was 

 charcoal and what remained of a shell drinking-cup. 



61 JOUEN. A. N. S. PHILA., VOL. XII. 



