CERTAIN ANTIQUITIES OF THE FLORIDA WEST-COAST. 369 . 



Some of these, we believe, have been presented to the Museum of Science and Art 

 of the University of Pennsylvania by Mr. Joseph Willcox. 



Little Marco Island, Lee County.. 



The Ten Thousand Islands, whose name is not conferred in a poetical way, 

 but probably falls short in describing the number, beginning with Little Marco 

 Island in the north, thickly fringe the coast line of part of the counties of Lee and 

 Monroe to the Nortlwest Cape, a distance of about seventy miles, in a straight line. 



These keys, formed by oyster bars, sand and the roots of the mangrove tree, 

 are from a few feet to a number of miles in area, and are, as a rule, just above the 

 level of the sea. But an insignificant proportion of these islands have been utilized 

 by the Key-dwellers. 



All published maps of this part of Florida are grossly inaccurate in respect to 

 the Ten Thousand Islands, locating key settlements on the mainland, reversing 

 their positions and the like, while Government charts skip most of the islands, the 

 task being too difficult to cope with. 



The map given by us, mainly taken from the Government chart, shows, as it 

 does, below Key Marco, only the outlines of the outer tier of islands, and, in addi- 

 tion, indicates the location of the shell islands visited by us. These islands do not 

 lie in open water, but are enclosed in a labyrinth of other keys. 



On the eastern side of. Little Marco Island is a shell settlement with the usual 

 ridges and mounds of moderate size. 



Marco, Lee County. 



Marco, on the northernmost end of Key Marco, by far the most important of 

 the Ten Thousand Islands (see map), is where Mr. Gushing made his marvelous 

 collection of objects of wood and of shell in the muck at the bottom of a small 

 triangular court, enclosed between ridges of shell. 



All the territory in and around Marco, including its canals, its courts and its 

 mounds of shell, was cordially placed at our disposition by W. D. Collier, Esq., 

 of Marco, the owner, and investigation was made by us in the muck of courts in 

 the immediate vicinity of the one so advantageously explored by Mr. Gushing. 

 Absolutely nothing rewarded our efforts. 



From Mr. G. E. Cuthbert, of Marco, we obtained a collection of objects 

 ploughed up during cultivation, among which were many rather rude " sinkers" 

 of shell and others somewhat resembling them, but too carefully made to have 

 served for other than ornamental purposes. In Fig. 8 are shown selected speci- 

 mens of this kind from the Ten Thousand Islands, including Marco ; Goodland 

 Point, Key Marco; and Chokoloskee Key. 



In the Marco collection are four shell discs. One, with two perforations, is 

 evidently a gorget ; one is imperforate ; one has a small central perforation, while 

 the remaining one has a much larger hole in the middle. All these are shown in 

 Fig. 9. 



48 JOURN. A. N. S. PHILA., VOL. XI. 



