THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 245 



to the late Dr. Rau, 1 and to others for more or less elaborate notices of the discovery 

 and theories as to the source of supply of the material. 



In Mr. Douglass' interesting paper are many reasons to show that all gold 

 ornaments found in Florida to his time of writing (1889) "are post-Columbian in 

 date, and are fabricated from metal wrecked upon the Atlantic coast while in 

 transit to Spain," this conclusion being based, among other things, upon the fact 

 that no objects of gold have been reported found in Florida farther north than 

 Mosquito Inlet, a point on the coast about fifty-five miles south of St. Augustine, 

 while one would look for more northern discoveries was the gold derived from 

 native nuggets of Georgia. This statement, so far as we know, holds good to the 

 present time, though one of our silver ornaments is from a point about thirty-five 

 miles north of the Inlet. 



Now let us examine the internal evidence presented by the objects of precious 

 metal collected by us on the St. John's. For obvious reasons we have not desired 

 to' submit to chemical analysis articles of such small size and of such rarity. 



The ornament of gold found superficially in Thursby Mound has a specific 

 gravity of 17T66, and is of that pale color conferred by a considerable alloy of 

 silver. This alloy, we may remark, is frequently found in native gold, and is. we 

 are informed at the United States Mint, seen in nuggets from North Carolina and 

 Georgia. 



We are, however, unable to determine from evidence in our possession whether 

 the specimen is from a nugget of native gold, hammered down, or from gold possi- 

 bly obtained by barter or from wrecks. 



Not far distant from the ornament just described was found a semilunar orna- 

 ment of sheet silver, having a specific gravity of 10'083, or near that of hammered 

 silver alloyed with copper, about 750 fine. Acid tests show the presence of copper. 

 Again we are unable to decide as to origin. 



A disc of gold from the Cook's Ferry Mound, Lake Harney, is of a deep yellow 

 hue, and has a specific gravity of 16 '6, showing the presence of greater impurities 

 than the gold from Thursby Mound. 



The bar-shaped ornament of silver from the mound at Dunn's Creek lay at a 

 depth of 35 feet with implements of iron. Considerable digging had been done by 

 previous investigators at this point, and it is not unlikely that sand thrown from a 

 neighboring excavation was responsible for a portion of this depth. Its specific 

 gravity is 10'4, or exactly that of pure cast silver. The association with iron in 

 this case is a sure indication of its interment in post-Columbian times, though 

 whether its manufacture preceded that period we are unable to determine. 



The fineness of early Spanish coins varied considerably, 2 and before comparing 

 their specific gravity with that of the gold and of the silver of the mounds the 



1 Observations on a Gold Ornament from a Mound in Florida, Smithsonian Report, 1878, page 298. 



2 A Manual of Gold and Silver Coins of all Nations with Treatise on Bullion, Plate, etc. Eckfeldt 

 and Dubois, Philadelphia, 1851. 



