THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 87 



IMPLEMENTS AND POTTERY. 



No implements of stone of any sort were found. 



With superficial burials at length were two scrapers of shell. 



With many of the bodies were fragments of pottery to which the triangular 

 shape of the arrow head had been given. 



In disturbed and undisturbed strata were fragments of pottery decorated 

 with red pigment. 



Seven feet from the margin of the base and 3 feet 10 inches from the surface 

 was found what presumably had served as the handle of a vase. The fragment, 3 

 inches in length from tip of beak to back of head, probably represented the head of 

 a vulture, (Plate XV, fig. 4). The lined decoration was clearly incised. Por- 

 tions of the head, represented by shading in the figure, were colored crimson. In 

 our experience of technical work in pottery in the river mounds this head represen- 

 ted the limit of aboriginal endeavor. Unfortunately, as the white sand layer did 

 not extend to the point where this relic was found, it cannot be said positively to 

 have lain under unbroken strata, and therefore to be definitely identified with the 

 period of the construction of the mound ; but as a fragment of a vase similarly 

 colored and lined (Plate XV, fig. 5) was discovered upon the base with undisturbed 

 layers above, the head is probably contemporary with the mound. 



Six feet from the surface lay 3 skulls in actual contact, forming a species of 

 triangle. In association was a fragment of a pot, including a handle terminating 

 in the head of a bird, (Plate XV, Fig. 6). Somewhat similar patterns are figured 

 from Arkansas. 1 



CONCLUSIONS. 



In this mound, though the work was largely done with the trowel, nothing indi- 

 cating contact with Europeans was met with. 



Dr. Brin ton, it is true, found beads of glass in this mound, 2 which led him to 

 attribute to it an origin comparatively modern, and this opinion has been widely 

 disseminated by Colonel C. C. Jones" who quotes it on page 236. 



We are inclined to believe the beads to have been superficial : 



1. From' analogy. Several mounds in the same section have beads on the 

 surface similar to those described by Dr. Brinton. A very careful search by us has 

 failed to discover any at greater depth in any of them. 



2. From negative testimony. If the builders of the Ginn's Grove mound 

 had possessed such beads, we think some would have been placed with the scores 

 of burials exhumed by us. 



3. No mention is made by Dr. Brinton of bunched burials. This form large- 

 ly predominates along the base. 



•Fourth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, 1882-1888, Fig. 879, page 386. 

 2 "Floridan PenhiHula," page 170. 

 H)p. fit. 



