FLORIDA. 121 



couth creature shown in PI. X, and the head of a larger specimen of like character 

 given in Fig. 3, PI. VIII. These are about as rude as could be made. 



Volusia Sand Mounds. — The pottery obtained from a number of small sand 

 mounds near Volusia, Volusia County, is exclusively of the painted variety and, 

 with the exception of a small cup which had a hole broken in the bottom, comprises 

 only vessels of large size. These vases were made perforate, finished at both ends 

 with equal care and well polished and painted with stripings of red in simple pat- 

 terns. 



The illustrations presented in Plates XII, XIII and XIV, convey a very excel- 

 lent notion of such vessels as were recovered in a complete or approximately com- 

 plete state. Figs- 1 and 2, PI. XII, are thought to represent portions of two dis- 

 tinct vessels, although the dimensions and painted design are closely identical and 

 one represents the mouth proper of a vase and the other apparently shows the base 

 of a vase perforated by cutting away the point of the elongated cone. The 

 painted figures, a vertical cheveroned band in one case and a like band and two 

 small circles in the other, are in red on the smooth yellowish gray ground of the 

 paste. 



The vase shown, one view in PI. XIII and another in XIV, is of the painted 

 ware and of unusual size, being 19 inches in greatest diameter and 15 \ inches 

 high. It has a globular body with constricted mouth 10 inches in diameter 

 and an opening in the base 31 inches in diameter, both apertures being sym- 

 metric and neatly finished. The surface is polished in the usual way and is 

 decorated with a design in red paint consisting of bands about the apertures 

 connected by six broad vertical bands as shown in PI. XIII. 



A somewhat similar piece is lOi inches in height and 154 inches in diameter. 

 The upper opening is 9? inches in diameter and that in the base 2i inches. The 

 decoration consists of broad lines in red arranged in three festoons around the upper 

 part of the globular body. 



A point of especial interest with respect to these vases is that though of the 

 usual type of ware, of large size and thoroughly finished, yet they are perforate and 

 were originally made so. This gives rise to the question whether or not the per- 

 foration could possibly have served a utilitarian purpose, such as the straining of 

 liquids, or whether in this instance, as is certainly the case with the rude ex- 

 temporized ware, the perforation had reference only to the use of the vase as a 

 mortuary object shaped in accord with the dictates of superstition. 



Tick Island Sand Mound. — The pottery obtained from this mound is mostly 

 in a fragmentary state. In the main it seems to correspond with the more or- 

 dinary ware found in the mounds and on the surface, being of like grade and 

 character from the lowest to the highest occurrence. The mound was composed 

 of three separate more or less lenticular bodies of material. The lower consisted 

 of a compact mass of shells and yielded no relics. The layer of sand above con- 

 ained vessels and fragments of vessels deposited as usual with the dead, and the 



