CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE N. W. FLORIDA COAST. 497 



greatly to have influenced the ware of the northwest Florida coast, is very preva- 

 lent in this coast district. This mutilation of base consisted in the knocking out 

 of a small portion before interment with the dead in fulfilment of some ceremonial 

 rite. In peninsular Florida, as we have already pointed out in this Report, the 

 aborigines went a step farther and prepared in advance, presumably, flimsy mortu- 

 ary ware with a base-perforation made during process of manufacture. This ready 

 made mortuary perforation, which we have never encountered in Alabama, Georgia 

 or Carolina, was met with by us, in our researches this season in very few instances 

 and to the eastward of Pensacola bay only. It might seem that the custom to 

 perforate the base of earthenware by fracture, originating in Florida, or brought 

 there from we know not where, spread upward and sideward to a limited extent and 

 that ready made mortuary perforation, probably a refinement and an afterthought, 

 was less widely disseminated. All this, however, before final conclusion, had best 

 await results of work we hope to be able to do the coming season. 



