CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS OF THE GEORGIA COAST. 89 



jaws from the mounds, and, as the wide-spread prevalence of aboriginal customs is 

 well known, we think it not unlikely that the jaws from the mounds, in former 

 times, saw service in masks of wood, which have disappeared through decay. 

 Professor Cushing lately found in Florida numbers of wooden masks with other 

 aboriginal .articles of wood preserved beneath mud, and it is our opinion that the 

 aborigines of the sand mounds inhumed numbers of articles of wood which have 

 not lasted until the present time. In fact, our own researches in Florida mounds 

 have brought to light wood preserved by contact with copper. 



A few beads, hematite and fragments of uninteresting vessels, represented all 

 additional articles met with in the mound, 



St. Catherine's Island, Liberty County. Mound near the Light-house. 



In the border of the woods, in view of the sea, about one-half mile in a south- 

 easterly direction from the landing, near the site of the projected light-house, was a 

 fairly symmetrical mound entirely of sand, having a height of 3 feet, a diameter 

 at base of 56 feet. 



Much of the mound was dug through. At places were bits of decayed human 

 bones near the surface, and, near the center, just below the surface, a pocket of cal- 

 cined fragments of human bones belonging to at least two adults and one adolescent. 



About 6 feet from the center, in a grave beneath the base, was a badly-decayed 

 skeleton on its back with knees flexed against the thighs. Near it lay another. 



One arrowhead of chert lay loose in the sand. 



St. Catherine's Island, Liberty County. Low Mounds at the North-end. 



In pine woods, about 1 mile in an easterly direction from the main landing are 

 two mounds about 50 yards apart, the larger having a diameter of 42 feet, a height 

 of 3 feet; the smaller, a diameter of 36 feet, a height of 14 inches. There had 

 been no previous examination. Each of these mounds was excavated as to the 

 central portions and was thoroughly trenched. A few fragments of a decaying 

 human cranium were met with in the smaller mound, while the investigation of the 

 larger was without result. 



In the vicinity of these mounds was a somewhat larger one which, being a 

 valued land mark, we did not touch. 



Careful attention was paid to numerous low shell-heaps studding the island of 

 St. Catherine's. In some, results were negative, while from others came sherds 

 incised and with the complicated stamped decoration in use in the best class of the 

 burial mounds of the coast. 



Ossabaw Island, Bryan County. Middle Settlement, Mound A. 

 About half way from either extremity of the western side of Ossabaw Island, 

 on a small creek about five miles from the main channel, are a few cabins tenanted 

 exclusively by colored people, and known as the Middle Settlement, 



