212 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



foot below the surface, continuing from three to four feet down, after which, in the 

 central portion of the mound, no pottery has been discovered during many careful 

 excavations; and in the great shell ridges of Tick Island where, beginning at three 

 feet below the surface, its continuance has been observed through six intervening 

 feet to the base. This fiber-tempered ware is frequently marked by archaic deco- 

 ration not found on the pottery of the sand mounds, nor seen on the earthenware 

 of many of the shell-heaps. Professor Holmes in his interesting paper has pointed 

 out that this rude ware may have been constructed for shell-heap use alone, and has 

 suggested that curved decorations frequently found upon it are not characteristic of 

 earliest types. While admitting the probability of this, we are still inclined to the 

 belief that the presence of this pottery marks the earlier shell-heaps, though not 

 the earliest which are characterized by an absence of pottery, the latest class holding 

 sherds similar to the commoner varieties met with in the sand mounds. 



At a depth of about thirteen feet from the surface in Mulberry Mound frag- 

 ments of this fiber-tempered ware are met with at intervals through the three 

 remaining feet to the base, indicating, we believe, the abandonment of one class of 

 ware for another of considerably better material ; and thus, as we started to show, 

 connecting the inception of Mulberry Mound with, let us say, the middle period 

 of the shell-heaps, a point to which additional probability is lent by the paucity of 

 relics other than sherds characterizing the lower six feet of Mulberry Mound. 



In the shell-heaps of the river we have discovered nothing of necessity con- 

 necting them with the sand mounds of which Mt. Royal is a type. The beautifully 

 polished and tapering hatchets, the pottery of erratic design, ornaments and cere- 

 monial objects of stone have in no instance rewarded our search in the shell-heaps, 

 and we are compelled, therefore, to consider the question of the contemporaneity of 

 this class of mounds with any of the shell-heaps an open one, possibly to be settled 

 by the results of future investigation. 



In this connection we would point out, since Mt. Royal and kindred sand 

 mounds are in close proximity to shell-heaps, that the proximity of sand mounds to 

 shell-heaps on that portion of the river where shell-heaps are met with may arise 

 from the fact that these heaps of shell mark the choicest sites which a later people 

 would settle upon in selecting places of abode long after the abandonment of the 

 shell-heaps. 



It will be well to bear in mind, moreover, in considering the contemporary 

 origin of sand mounds and shell-heaps, that the presence of layers and pockets 

 of shell in many mounds is not conclusive as to the use of shell-fish as food by the 

 makers of the mounds, since adjacent shell-heap material might readily be, and 

 doubtless sometimes was, used for purposes of stratification at a period subsequent 

 to the abandonment of the heaps. 



Taking all these facts into consideration, we have arrived at the conclusions 

 given at the outset of this note, which, for emphasis, we repeat here: — 



1. That no evidence so far discovered connects the oldest shell-heaps with the 

 sand mounds. 



