204 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



sand, the presence of copper, the occurrence of identical forms of "freak" earthen- 

 ware, taken with a similar form of burial establish this beyond reasonable doubt. 



Unfortunately, the investigation of the Grant Mound has not been so extensive 

 as that of Mt. Royal, but nevertheless no mean amount of work was accomplished. 



In this mound we have found no more traces of the iron distributed by the 

 Huguenots than were apparent in Mt. Royal, to whose king, we are distinctly in- 

 formed, such objects were sent, and it is our opinion that the Grant Mound, like 

 Mt. Royal, was a monument of the past when the Whites first set foot in Florida. 



Mound Near Mill Cove, Duval County. 



About one mile west of Mill Cove, some 150 yards from the river, on high 

 rolling ground sweeping the St. John's for miles, is an Indian earthwork of great 

 size, and of a form entirely novel for mounds of the St. John's. In shape, it 

 resembles a circular platform, having a base diameter of 214 feet, with a circular 

 summit plateau 108 feet across. On the side facing the river, an approach carefully 

 graded, 126 feet in length and 88 feet in breadth, leads to the upper level. Such 

 approaches are not found elsewhere on the St. John's, though somewhat irregular 

 causeways of shell were noted, as the reader will recall, at Tick Island and at 

 Thursby Mound. 



So regular and symmetrical in every way is this great earthwork that its origin 

 was universally attributed to the Huguenot French by those living in the neighbor- 

 hood. It is not likely, however, that the ill-fated founders of Fort Caroline (prob- 

 ably at St. John's Bluff, a few miles below) had time or disposition to pile up great 

 masses of sand, while works of defence are not approached by broad avenues of 

 easy grade. Moreover, Le Moyne, an eye-witness, has left us in Plate X 1 a repre- 

 sentation of Fort Caroline showing no earthworks in connection with it. 2 



There can be no doubt, as the reader will presently see, that the mound near 

 Mill Cove is of aboriginal origin. 



The owner, a foreigner, alleging superstitious terrors on the part of his family, 

 would consent to no extended investigation, though influence and inducements were 

 brought to bear. 



A number of trenches were dug from the surface of the summit plateau, none 

 exceeding 6 feet in depth. These excavations were subsequently carefully refilled. 



So far as our observation extended, the mound is of yellow sand with the usual 

 sprinkling of charcoal. Local layers of red sand near the surface, some several 

 feet in thickness, were encountered. In but one excavation, which happened to be 

 on the edge of the summit plateau, were human remains. These remains, the 



1 Brevis Narratio. 



2 While the drawings made by Le Moyne, or from his descriptions, are not exact in detail, as, for in- 

 stance, the use of bows of Chinese type by the Indians, and the obliging manner in which alligators allow 

 great stakes, propelled by half a dozen men, to be forced down their throats, yet we know bows to have been 

 in use, and doubtless heavy spears were thrust into the jaws of alligators which were by no means timid 

 on the St. John's at even a much later period, as we are told by the traveller Bartram. It is unlikely, 

 therefore, that features of importance, such as the apperance of Fort Caroline, would be misrepresented. 



