CERTAIN RIVER MOUNDS OF DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA. 455 



EXCAVATIONS. 



Seventeen days of seven hours each, during parts of April and May, 1895, 

 with an average force of thirty-one men, exclusive of those engaged in directing 

 the work, were devoted to the investigation of the Shields mound. 



The entire mound was encircled somewhat above the margin of the base and 

 work prosecuted for about two days, the discovery of a few interments, none over 

 three feet from the surface, being the only result. . 



Next, the entire eastern slope, 

 commencing a little in from the mar- 

 gin, was removed for a distance of 

 twenty-seven feet, where the trench, 

 at this point 175 feet in breadth, had 

 approached to within eleven feet in a 

 horizontal line of the edge of the sum- 

 mit plateau. From this point the 

 trench, reduced to a breadth of 115 

 feet, was carried along the base, as 

 before, a farther distance of twentj^- 

 one feet, or ten feet be\~ond the mar- 

 gin of the plateau, as shown by accom- 

 panying diagram (Fig. 3). 



In this considerable portion of 

 the mound comparatively few inter- 

 ments were found — possibly two dozen 

 — none at a greater depth than three 

 feet, nor were there any accompanying relics, with the exception of a few shell beads. 

 Next, the entire plateau, with about five feet of adjacent slope was dug through 

 to a depth of from six to eight feet from the surface. 





Mpp- 



Sc.fa.Hfat, 



Fig. 3. — Diagram of excavations in Shields mound. Clear space 

 represents portion excavated to base ; section lines, por- 

 tion excavated to depth of seven feet. 



COMPOSITION OF MOUND. 



No uniform stratification is apparent in the Shields mound. The base is not 

 absolutely determinable, though a streak of sand from two to six inches in thick- 

 ness, discolored by charcoal, was taken as indicating it, the light yellow sand 

 beneath it being free from admixture of any foreign substance. Above this was a 

 stratum of dark yellow sand from three to five feet in thickness, containing con- 

 siderable charcoal in scattered particles, and this stratum continued to the point 

 where the investigation ceased. Above it the composition of the mound varied at 

 every stage of the digging. Yellow sand, yellowish brown sand streaked with small 

 layers of white sand, pockets of gray sand calcined by fire with abundant charcoal, 

 small pockets of brick red sand and layers and pockets of oyster shells and midden 

 refuse containing sherds and fragmentary bones of lower animals, made up an 

 almost indescribable whole. In the central portion of the broad summit plateau. 



57 JOURN. A. N. S. PHILA., VOL. X. 



