208 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



since the iron axe, the beads of glass, the pewter, and the lead from the superficial 

 burial are not distinguished from the deposits from the base, and too frequently are 

 factors in the attribution of the age of the mound. 



The mounds of the west coast, of the lake country, and of the prairie lands of 

 the northernmost portions of the State have received but superficial attention. 

 The Bureau of Ethnology, Report 1883-1884, page xxi, contains the statement 

 that but few of the Florida mounds were built for burial purposes, from which 

 statement the thoroughness of the work may be inferred. On the other hand, Mr. 

 Andrew E. Douglass, who has given serious attention to forty mounds of the east 

 coast, informs us that upon not one single occasion has he found in these mounds 

 other than superficially, objects connecting them with the civilization of the Whites. 



In conclusion, we are firmly of the opinion that all the larger mounds of the 

 St. John's, and, with trifling exceptions, the smaller ones, date from a period prior to 

 the coming of Europeans. 



Are the Sand Mounds of the River Contemporary with Its Shell-Heaps? 



During the four seasons covering our researches on the St. John's River, we 

 have given special attention to the question of the contemporaneity of the sand 

 mounds and of the shell-heaps of the St. John's, carefully weighing reasons for and 

 against, and especially directing our researches with a view to elucidate certain 

 points previously clothed in uncertainty, questions which the lamented Wyman, 

 pioneer investigator of the archaeology of the river, doubtless would have taken up. 1 



Unfortunately, the results of our researches have not put us in a position to 

 make a positive statement. But it is our opinion that what we believe to be the 

 earlier of the sand mounds, as for instance that at Tick Island and the Thursby 

 Mound, were contemporary with what we consider the later shell-heaps ; but 

 whether sand mounds were constructed contemporaneously with presumably the 

 older shell-heaps, and whether the period of the shell-heaps had not come to a close 

 when what are probably the comparatively later sand mounds, as typified by Mt. 

 Royal, were constructed, we are unable to say. 



Before presenting in detail the reasons upon which this opinion is based, we 

 shall give a brief summary of the principal features of the shell-heaps of the St. 

 John's, founded upon our work of two seasons with steam-motive power and an 

 adequate force of men. virtually covering every known fresh-water shell-heap on 

 the river.' 2 



1 Professor Wyman says : " We leave out of consideration the burial mounds, which niay possibly be 

 as old as the shell-heaps, because they have not thus far been satisfactorily examined and proved to be so. 

 Nearly all the explorations of them have been confined to the superficial portions where there are mixed 

 burials of an earlier, though perhaps not of the earliest, and the later inhabitants. The only mound 

 which we have had an opportunity to examine quite to its base had only recent burials on the top, but 

 none whatever lower down. In its general appearance it exactly resembled the others." — Fresh Water 

 Shell Mounds of the St. John's River, Florida, page 47 (foot-note). 



2 Partial results of these investigations are given in the American Naturalist, November, 1892, January, 

 February, July, August, 189H, January, 1894. 



