214 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



at Dunn's Creek, no article of copper distinctly of European workmanship has been 

 met with by us in the mounds of the St. John's. Articles of brass, of whose origin 

 no doubt can exist, are of course not under consideration. 



COPPER OBJECTS OF ABORIGINAL DESIGN. 



Before proceeding to discuss objects of copper discovered by us in the mounds 

 of the St. John's, which, it is strongly our belief, are of aboriginal design, we wish 

 earnestly to call the reader's attention to the admirable paper 1 by Professor Cush- 

 ing, which we regret our space forbids us to quote at length. 



In this paper it is clearly shown how the most complicated designs in sheet 

 copper hitherto brought to the attention of archaeologists can be reproduced with 

 purely aboriginal tools, and how the sheets can be beaten from native copper with 

 the aid of annealing. As to annealing we shall speak in another portion of this 

 paper. 



The reader of the two parts of our report will recall that from five mounds 2 of 

 the St. John's, whose contents gave no evidence of necessity connecting them with 

 a period subsequent to the Conquest, numerous objects of copper were taken by us, 

 including ornaments of sheet copper with various repousse, designs, beads of sheet 

 copper and beads of wood, shell and limestone copper-coated, jaws of mammals 

 encased in sheet copper, copper effigies of the serpent and of the turtle, and piercing 

 implements of hammered sheet copper. These piercing implements, of which the 

 longest measured 19 inches, seemed upon superficial examination to be wrought of 

 solid copper. A careful inspection, however, showed them to be made in at least 

 two different ways ; some from strips of thick sheet-copper hammered over on itself 

 and rounded by hammering, others of many thicknesses of copper in thin encircling 

 sheets beaten into very close contact. 



Now this class of objects, deriving its material from sheet copper of various 

 thicknesses, represents about all the work in copper so far met with on the St. 

 John's. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to it, and not include in this inquiry 

 articles found in other sections, wrought from masses of solid copper, such as "celts," 

 bracelets, heavy breast-pieces, and the like, whose material and manufacture by 

 cold hammering, so far as we know, is believed by none to be other than aboriginal. 

 In fact, Professor Putnam informs us that such implements and ornaments have 

 been reproduced under his direction without the intervention of heat. 



The copper work of the St. John's is characterized by the following features : — 



1. The invariable lack of uniformity in size. If the reader will examine the 

 representations of objects from Mt. Royal and other mounds, it will become appa- 

 rent that no two articles coincide exactly as to dimensions. 



2. The great diversity of shape and ornamentation. In all our mound work 

 we have discovered no two objects exactly alike. It is quite evident that had a 



1 Primitive Copper Working, American Anthropologist, January, 1894. 



2 Grant Mound, Mound on St. Augustine Road, Mound on Tick Island, Mt. Royal, and Mound in 

 pine woods west of Duval's. 



