492 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS, APALACHICOLA RIVER. 



In the swamp, in sight from the river, and but a short distance from the mounds 

 just described, are four others. The southernmost, of circuLir outline, composed of 

 sand with a certain admixture of clay, is 4 feet in height, 70 feet across the base, 

 and 40 feet across the summit plateau. 



About 50 yards farther, in a NW. by N. direction, is a circular mound of clay, 

 covered with a considerable thickness of sand. Basal diameter, 66 feet ; diameter 

 of summit plateau, 36 feet; height, 3 feet. 



Fifty yards in a NW. direction from the last mound, is a mound of circular 

 outline, 3.5 feet high, 58 feet across the base and 26 feet across the summit plateau. 



Continuing 40 yards WSW., we came upon a mound near the road, much 

 spread, 46 feet in diameter of base, and 1.5 feet high. 



The two mounds partly cut away by the river were not dug into by us, the 

 cross-section made by the river showing them to have been domiciliary. 



The swamp-mounds were thoroughly investigated and found to be domiciliary 

 in character. 



The mounds of the Apalachicola river yielded nothing especially novel. 



The forms of burial were the same as those prevailing along the northwest 

 coast of Florida, namely, the bunch, the flexed skeleton, the lone skull, scattered 

 bones, and, very rarely, the pocket of calcined remains. The burial of skulls under 

 great bowls, a custom met with in places along the Florida coast as far east as St. 

 Andrew's bay, was not met with on the Apalachicola river ; nor was the urn-burial 

 proper, where bones are placed in vessels covered by others, inverted, met with by 

 us on the river, though, last season, we found one example of this form of burial in 

 a mound on Ocklockonee bay, to the eastward of Apalachicola. 



The earthenware of the river was found to be inferior in quality. The gritty 

 ware of Georgia was not met with nor was the shell-tempered ware of Alabama, 

 with the exception of certain j^ieces in a single mound. In this mound, curiously 

 enough, were several vessels of polished, black ware, the specialty of Mississippi, 

 which we had not found east of Choctawhatchee bay, on the coast, a]id many 

 earthenware vessels which, in material, shape and decoration, recalled the yield of 

 mounds considerably farther to the westward. 



Ceremonial vessels, " killed " by a basal perforation and by holes throughout 

 the body, made before the firing of the clay, were found in considerable numbers 

 along the Apalachicola river and, as is the case with similar vessels met with by us 

 along the Florida coast between St. Andrew's bay and the Warrior river, the ware 

 is most inferior in quality, as might be expected of vessels purposely made for in- 

 terment with the dead. 



The custom prevalent along the northwest Florida coast, to place deposits of 

 vessels for the dead in common in the eastern part of mounds, obtained also on the 

 Apalachicola river. 



