THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 11 



Three feet from the surface and three feet distant from the other remains was a 

 skeleton in anatomical order. The body lay upon its back, the thighs flexed on the 

 abdomen. The hands were folded upon the chest and on them lay a drinking cup 

 wrought from Fulgur perversum by the removal of the inner whorls and the 

 columella. Drinking cups of this character were still in use when the French 

 landed in Florida. They are not common in the sand mounds of the river, and 

 save in one case have been found only superficially in the shell heaps. 1 Through 

 the bottom of this shell cup a hole had been purposely knocked. Vessels, whether 

 of shell or of clay, deposited with the dead in the river mounds, almost universally 

 show perforation. Of this custum we shall have more to say when describing the 

 low sand mounds near Volusia. 



In various parts of the mound, especially on the summit plateau, burials were 

 comparatively numerous, though an estimate as to number would be misleading, 

 owing. to the amount of surface investigation indulged in by excursionists from 

 Palatka. 



IMPLEMENTS, ORNAMENTS, WEAPONS, ETC. 



Twenty-two-and-a-half feet from the southern margin of the base of the 

 mound, and three-and-a-half feet from the surface, in the pink sand, were found an 

 iron axe of curious pattern 2 and what seemed to be a cold chisel, both greatly cor- 

 roded. In immediate association with these implements was 

 an ornament of metal, one inch in length, considerably dis- 

 colored, perforated for suspension (Fig. 1). Through fear of 



, iniury to the specimen, no analysis has been made, but 

 Fig. 1 Pendant ornament <> j i ' j ^ 7 



of silver (full size). experts of the U. S. Mint, relying on acid tests considered 

 final by them, have pronounced the metal silver, and have ventured the opinion 

 that it is of unusual purity. 



No bones were found in association with these articles of metal. 



Beneath the roots of a large hickory, 10 feet west of the other implements, 

 24 feet from the margin of the base and 3 feet from the surface, were found in 

 association a polished hatchet of stone ; a circular fragment of glass, rudely chipped 

 and considerably worn, possibly fashioned from the base of a bottle ; an unworkecl 

 pebble ; two shell beads ; a cold chisel of iron, 8 inches in length, and an axe of 

 iron of the same pattern as the one previously described. No human remains 

 were in immediate association. 



Thirty feet from the margin of the base and 6 feet from the surface, in the 

 yellow sand, was a pin formed from the columella of a marine shell, 4*75 inches in 

 length. In the annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-81, plate XXX, 

 fig. 2, a counterpart of this pin is illustrated. A similar pin was found in another 

 portion of the mound. Both were unassociated. 



'American Naturalist, Aug. 1893, p. 717. 

 2 Figured in the account of the Thursby Mound. 



