THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 43 



this band three others extend vertically, two being surrounded by double curved 

 stripes, the other by only one. 



In addition to this pottery, nothing, with the exception of two arrow heads 

 and human remains, rewarded the search of the Dillards. 



November 13, 14, 15, 16, 1892, were devoted by us to careful work on such 

 portions of the mounds as remained. The burials were all of the bunched variety, 

 the cranium surmounting the bundle of long bones arranged horizontally. Upon 

 at least four occasions — a feature never noticed elsewhere in our mound investiga- 

 tion — large fragments of pottery were placed in actual contact on the skull. In 

 one case the top of a large vase laid over a skull had somewhat the appearance of a 

 hat. When, as was sometimes the case, the cranium lay beneath the bundle of 

 long bones this did not occur. One skull showed an ugly perforation, oval in 

 shape, -5 of an inch by '32 of an inch, in the right half of the occipital bone and 

 occupying the center of the triangle formed by the median line of the bone, the 

 right half of the superior transverse line and the lambdoidal suture. The blow 

 seemed to have been delivered obliquely. There was no splintering of the inner 

 table nor any exostosis, nor were any scratches or cuts apparent on the outer sur- 

 face suggesting trepanning. 



No crania were saved in condition for measurement. 



Of 6 humeri, 4 showed perforation. 



One tibia showed an index of 64*4. 



One femur gave an index of 136. 



Lying in immediate association with a bunched burial were found together 

 two arrow heads ; three chipped implements of chert, the largest having a length 

 of 5 inches ; one spear head ; four chips ; two cores ; a fragment of sandstone, and 

 three pieces of shell implements. 



Several additional arrow heads were found during the excavation. While 

 fragments of large vessels were numerous, admitting of partial restoration, our 

 search yielded but one unbroken vessel, a small earthenware pot decorated with 

 crimson pigment. In this case a hole had been intentionally knocked in the bot- 

 tom, and not made previous to baking. 



In none of the river mounds have we seen pottery approaching the size of that 

 from the low mounds of Volusia ; while the curious custom of manufacturing mor- 

 tuary pottery with intentional perforation of the base previous to baking, a class of 

 pottery that could serve no purpose in the land of the living, is especially empha- 

 sized in these mounds. We are of the opinion that the breaking in pieces of whole 

 pottery when interred with the dead did not obtain with the Indians of the river, 

 since vessels when found broken lay in place as crushed by the weight of sand. 

 When disconnected fragments have been found with a skeleton they have often 

 proved to be of different patterns, and never capable of restoration. The mutilation 

 of pottery by perforation at the bottom is referred to by Squier 1 as practised by 



1 Aborig. Mon. of the State of New York, page 71, foot note. 



