474 CERTAIN RIVER MOUNDS OF DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA. 



COMPOSITION OF MOUND. 



No uniformity of stratification was observed in the construction of the Grant 

 mound. The bluff on which it was built had previously served as a place of abode 

 for the aborigines whose kitchen refuse, in the shape of oyster shells, fragments of 

 bone, and of earthenware, mingled with black loamy sand and charcoal, formed 

 an irregular layer sometimes five feet in thickness. 



This layer constituted the base of the mound. 



Upon this base, through the outer portions of the mound, ran a layer of sand 

 intentionally given a cherry color by the use of Hematite, from twelve to eighteen 

 inches in thickness, which, gradually ascending, was lost, its place being taken, at 

 certain points, by an irregular stratum of pure white sand with a maximum thick- 

 ness of about two feet. 



While the great bulk of the mound was composed of yellowish sand, there 

 were very numerous pockets and local layers of considerable size of white sand, 

 fine and again coarse and angular ; of brown sand ; of gray sand ; of sand dyed a 

 beautiful cherry, and of oyster shells mingled with black loam and midden refuse. 

 A superficial layer of rich brown loam had a varying thickness of from two to three 

 feet. The usual particles of charcoal were encountered throughout the mound. 



At one point on the western side of the central portion of the mound was 

 a striking combination of shades. Above the shell base was a layer of sand black 

 in color through admixture of loam, six inches in thickness. This was surmounted 

 by a band of white sand about ten inches through, above which was a stratum of 

 sand of a chocolate tint, about three-quarters of a foot in breadth. Next came a 

 layer one foot in thickness of sand of stone color, which was surmounted by seven 

 inches of sand tinged a bright cherry. Above these layers were masses of 

 yellowish sand with occasional strata of brown sand and of blackish sand containing 

 oyster shells. This conformation, it must be borne in mind, was not representa- 

 tive of other portions of the mound. 



Water-worn sherds, some from central portions of the mound, gave evidence 

 that a portion of the material had been brought from the river front below. 



Scattered oyster shells were frequently met with throughout the entire mound 

 and to such an extent was their distribution that, by constant contact with the 

 spade and thus exciting vain hopes of the discovery of more valuable articles, they 

 considerably interfered with the interest of the search. 



HUMAN REMAINS. 



Skeletal remains in the Grant mound were singularly disproportionate in 

 number to the vast bulk of material present, and emphasized more clearly than 

 ever before in our experience how much needless labor was sometimes undertaken 

 by the aborigines for their dead. Many men in our employ dug for days without 

 encountering a vestige of human remains and in the entire eastern and southeast- 



