THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 33 



coated, still strung on a cord of vegetable fibre, with three spherical pendant beads, 

 a large one between two smaller ones. The beads, barrel-shaped, were -6 of an inch 

 in length. With them were human teeth and many small pieces of sheet copper, 

 evidently fragments. 



In association with a polished hatchet, 5 feet from the surface, was a piercing 

 implement of copper, similar in shape to the one previously described. Its length 

 was 8*8 inches. With it was a disc of the same metal, badly corroded, with a cen- 

 tral boss surrounded bj- a beaded margin. The diameter of this disc was 2 inches. 



Two-and-one-half feet below the surface of the 

 western slope were two objects, probably of soft lime- 

 stone, the upper surface thinly coated at places with 

 sheet copper, at others exposed by erosion (Fig. 17). 

 In appearance they greatly resembled large cuff-but- 

 tons. Their diameter was 175 inches; diameter of the 



biG.li. Copper-coated ear plug , 7 



(full size). expanded portion of the shank 1T2 inches ; height - 6 of 



an inch. They were probably ear plugs worn in an 

 enlargement of the lobe of the ear, a use to which, it has been surmised, the spool- 

 shaped copper ornaments of the mounds in other localities Avere put. Many of 

 Le Moyne's plates 1 represent ear decorations of surprising size. While his pictures 

 are doubtless exaggerated, they are unquestionably based upon facts observed by 

 him during his visit to Florida, (1565). 



Somewhat similar ear plugs are figured as coming from a stone grave of Tenn- 

 essee. 2 



Three feet from the surface, unassociated, was a bead apparently of limestone, 

 copper-coated, one inch in length and *8 of an inch in diameter. At various depths 

 throughout the mound were beads of clay and of shell similarly coated. 



In the northwest slope, 6 feet from the surface, was a sheet of copper about 6 

 inches by 6 inches, in two fragments. It was enclosed in a matting apparently of 

 reeds, flattened or split and woven together. Such matting is described as found in 

 other sections of the country. 



The discovery of copper in considerable quantity is new to the records of 

 mound investigation in Florida. In the publications of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion no reference is made, we believe, to the occurrence of copper in the mounds of 

 that State, nor have authorities at the Institution been able to indicate references 

 of such a character. Mr. Douglass, during his extensive mound investigations on 

 the east coast, found but two objects of copper : one, a bead in the mouth of a 

 skull, which he believed to be intrusive ; the other, a fragment of a spool-shaped 

 ornament. 3 Excluding a hawk-bell and metal buttons, probably brass, from the 

 Dunn's Creek mound, and plaited wire of copper or brass found in association with 

 iron at Mulberry mound, all of which articles were clearly of European origin and 



1,1 B reels Narratio" De Bry, Frankfort, 1591. 



2 " Antiquities of Tennessee," page 168. 



3 Andrew. E. Douglass, Esq., in private letter. 



