8 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



hundred yards north of the creek, was a mound of sand having a height of 10 feet 

 and a circumference of 21.0 feet. Its form was the usual truncated cone. Upon it 

 grew five forest trees. Its proximity to Palatka made it for years the objective point 

 for picnic parties which had excavated in a desultory way, but a systematic inves- 

 tigation was never attempted. 



The mound was visited by us November, 1892, and a portion carefully 

 explored. In April, 1893, it was again visited with a party of twenty men, and 

 leveled to the ground. The surface of the mound was composed of a layer of 

 sand to which a pinkish color had been given by admixture of pulverized 

 hematite. This layer had a maximum thickness of about four feet, being consid- 

 erably thinner on the summit plateau, doubtless through action of the elements. 

 Beneath was fine yellowish sand, in places as dry as flour ; while lower, someAvhat 

 coarser and moister sand continued to the base which was marked by a layer of 

 pure white sand about four inches in thickness ; beneath was the yellow sand of 

 the surrounding territory. 



BURIALS. 



Bodies were all in anatomical order, though in certain cases were found por- 

 tions of skeletons through which previous visitors had dug. Human remains were 

 confined exclusively to the pink sand layer, never exceeding a depth of three feet 

 from the surface. 



With the exception of one calvaria, no human remains were preserved, owing 

 to their crushed and decayed condition, though all resources employed upon such 

 occasions were at hand, including shellac and heated solutions of glue. 



And here it may be well to remark that the condition of bones depends less 

 upon their age than upon their surroundings. It is fallacious to adduce partial or 

 entire decay of human remains as a proof of advanced antiquity, since the Dunn's 

 Creek skeletons, interred with implements of European origin, must be assigned to 

 a post-Columbian period. On the other hand, human remains found in the shell 

 heaps and in sand mounds having an intermingling of shell, though certainly as 

 old and doubtless in some cases of much greater antiquity, through association 

 with shell and the consequent infiltration of lime salts, are in fairly good condition. 



Two feet below the surface was a skull associated with a few vertebrae but 

 with no other bones. Close by lay a bit of hematite with two fragments of pot- 

 tery and two beads of shell. In addition were what seemed to be two brass or 

 copper buttons, spherical in shape and evidently of European origin, since one still 

 had a metal loop apparently soldered on. Their use as earrings is possible. One 

 lay in actual contact with the skull and had imparted a greenish tinge to a part of 

 the temporal bone. The calvaria was saved and was of the brachycephalic vari- 

 ety found almost without exception in the sand mounds. One foot from the sur- 

 face and three feet east of the skull just described, surrounded by sand deeply 

 tinged with red iron ore, were two tibiae, two femurs and a pelvis. A former 

 investigator had dug through the ribs. 



