496 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE N. W. FLORIDA COAST. 



(Lake George) visited by part of the colony of Huguenot French on their journey 

 up the river, the rest remaining at Fort Caroline near the river's mouth. 



Mound near Hogtown Bayou, Choctawhatchee Bat, Washington 

 County, Fla. 



At Hogtown Bayou are the principal shell deposits of Choctawhatchee bay, 

 which are extensive, but in no wise comparable with those of the St. "John's river, 

 or with many on the Florida east coast, or on parts of the west coast, farther south. 



It is our belief that a cemetery lies undiscovered at this place, as previous 

 search by others has failed to locate a mound there, and careful investigation on 

 our part availed only to find a small mound near the water's edge, about one mile 

 up the bayou on the south side. This mound contained no burials. 



The results of our exploration of the northwest Florida coast, so far as we 

 have gone, that is from the Alabama boundary to the easternmost extremity of 

 Choctawhatchee bay, are of considerable interest. 



A new form of burial has been met with in our work, namely, that where a 

 lone skull or a skull with a few bones lies beneath a down-turned vessel of earthen- 

 ware. In but one case was the enclosed form of burial found, i. e., where human 

 remains placed in a vessel are covered by an inverted dish, bowl or large fragment 

 of earthenware. Incidentally, we may say the inverted vessel over human remains 

 lying on sand prevails in Georgia, but these remains. have been cremated, while 

 cremation has not been met with on that part of the northwest Florida coast inves- 

 tigated by us. 



Little of interest but earthenware has come from the mounds and cemeteries 

 lately explored by us, but of earthenware a most striking collection has been 

 obtained. This ware is purely aboriginal in style, no trace of European influence 

 appearing in its make or decoration, which latter is largely symbolical. A mix- 

 ture of cultures is plainly apparent in this ware. We have many of the life-forms 

 of the ware of the middle Mississippi district, but the admixture of coarsely 

 powdered shell in use in that section is wanting in the clay of vessels here. We 

 find the complicated stamp decoration of Georgia and of Carolina, but the temper- 

 ing of the clay with small pebbles forming " gritty ware " is not met with. We 

 encounter in this northwest Florida district, ware from the soft paste of the kind so 

 well known in peninsular Florida to the eastward, while, on the other hand, we find 

 the black, polished ware of Mississippi and districts to the westward of our field of 

 research. 



The small check-stamp found everywhere else by us is also abundantly present 

 in the district we have lately explored. 



Perforation of the base of earthenware interred with the dead, so widely prac- 

 tised in peninsular Florida and occasionally met with in lower Georgia and Alabama, 

 though unknown, we believe, in the middle Mississippi district which seems so 



