CERTAIN RIVER MOUNDS OF DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA. 



By Clarence B. Moore. 



The three succeeding papers give the results of our work in Florida, from 

 January 16th to June 16th, 1895. These results, though mainly cumulative, 

 having been arrived at with great care, are, we think, worthy of publication. 



We wish to return thanks for valuable assistance to Professor Cope, to 

 Professor Putnam, to Dr. E. Goldsmith, and to Prof. H. A. Pilsbry for identification 

 of numerous shells. 



Again we express our indebtedness to Dr. M. G. Miller for continuous assist- 

 ance in the field and in the preparation of these papers. 



C. B. M. 

 August, 1895. 



Such mounds of Duval County as are considered in this paper, border that 

 portion of the river between Jacksonville 1 and the sea, a distance of about twenty 

 miles by water. The large mounds of this territory have been noticed in Part II 

 of our previous report, 2 the smaller, often slight elevations, frequently covered with 

 underbrush and unknown to the inhabitants of the neighborhood, escaped our 

 notice during our previous work in this section, which was not so thorough as that 

 on the upper portion of the river where the territory has been gone over literally 

 dozens of times. 



It is evident that this part of the river sustained a considerable population in 

 former times, rendered possible, perhaps, by the great abundance of oysters in the 

 waters near the river's mouth, where the low marshes are still studded with shell- 

 heaps and a few years back contained deposits of great size. 3 



It will be noticed that the great mounds of this portion of the river resemble 

 Mt. Royal, near Lake George, as to contents, while on the other hand, the low, 

 irregular ridges which seem characteristic of the extreme lower portion of the 

 river, differ considerably in the nature of the objects inhumed, from the mounds 

 of the St. Johns farther south. Mica, so abundant in these low mounds and ridges, 

 was rarely met with and in but small quantities on the river south of Jackson- 

 ville. 4 Again, deposits of numerous pebbles and pebble hammers together, almost 



1 The reader will bear in mind that the St. Johns, whose general course above is south to north, 

 turns abruptly to the east at Jacksonville. 



■i " Certain Sand Mounds of the St. Johns River, Florida," Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Vol. X. 



3 Stowe Island, in the Sisters Creek, when first visited by us, had a deposit of oyster shells thirty 

 feet in height. Since that time the mass has been reduced by shipments to the jetties. 



4 Abundance of mica was present in one mound of the Ocklawaha. 



