THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 



59 



Ten and one-half feet from the surface, with a small horn- 

 stone arrow head and human remains, was a sheet of mica 3 

 inches by 5 inches. This mineral, of comparatively frequent 

 occurrence in mounds to the north of Florida, is very infre- 

 quently observed in that State. Upon no other occasion, with 

 the exception of a minute fragment in Mt. Royal, has it been 

 found by us ; while Mr. Douglas, in 40 mounds on or near the 

 east coast, met with it in but one. There are mines of sheet mica 

 in North Carolina. 



But two of the instruments known as " celts " were found 

 in the mound at Tick Island. Both were superficial and appar- 

 ently unassociated. 



Great numbers of small shell beads were found in connec- 

 tion with human remains, almost invariably near the skull. 

 Eighteen inches from the surface, near the skeleton of an infant, 

 was a barrel-shaped bead wrought from the columella of a large 

 marine univalve. Its length was 14 inches, with a maximum 

 thickness of "8 of an inch. In the perforation at one end still 

 remained a small bead of the kind so numerous in the mounds, 

 leading to the belief that these larger beads sometimes served as 

 central ornaments in strings of smaller ones. Mr. Thruston figures 

 a large bead in this association as the probable method of arrange- 

 ment. 1 



In the white sand layer, with no human remains in associa- 

 tion, was a rude pendant ornament of shell, grooved for suspen- 

 sion . 



In a mass of brown sand, a *'cave" from above, was a sti- 

 letto-shaped instrument of bone (Fig. 25). Its length was 9 - 25 

 inches ; its diameter at the top, from which the articular portion 

 of the bone had been removed, was 1*22 inches. Below the 

 upper margin it was encircled by an incised line while on one 

 side, running longitudinally, were three perforations extending 

 to the central cavity of the shaft. These perforations had each 

 a diameter of "25 inch, and were from '50 to "75 of an inch 

 apart. The implement tapered to a flat point. With the excep- 

 tion of a fragment, doubtless belonging to a similar object, we 

 have met with nothing recalling the stiletto in any of the 

 sand mounds of the river, though at Mulberry Mound, a shell 

 heap of Orange County, two wrought from the canon bone of 

 the deer were found by excavation. 2 



Implements of the stiletto shape are by no means infre- 

 quent in other sections of this country or in Europe. At the 

 National Museum are three implements of bone somewhat 

 resembing the implement from Tick Island. They are about 

 7'5 inches in length, with rounded points and have but one lat- 

 eral perforation. They are decorated with three sets of three 

 encircling lines and were found by Dr. J. C. McCormick in a 



Fig. 25. 

 human l>. 



Implement of 

 me (full size). 



1 Op. cit., page 317. 



- American Naturalist, Aug. 



1893. Mulberry Mound. 



