CERTAIN RIVER MOUNDS OF DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA. 475 



ern portion of the mound virtually none was present while in no part (excluding 

 the side bordering the river, as to which we are not in a position to speak) had any 

 interments been made within nineteen feet from the margin of the base. 



During our first investigation, which included a superficial portion of the 

 mound containing but few skeletal remains, no burials in anatomical order were 

 met with, such as were encountered being of the bunched variety exclusively. 



In point of fact, however, as was demonstrated by the demolition of the mound, 

 the burial in anatomical order largely predominated, though both forms were met 

 with. On the base, especially, few, if any, bunched burials were brought to our 

 notice. 



More forcibly than ever before was brought to our attention the opposite state 

 of preservation of bones presumably of approximately the same age. At times, in 

 various portions of the mound, the skeleton was represented by remains with hardly 

 a greater consistence than putty, while again, often at no great distance from the 

 base, the bones were fairly well preserved. Such remains lay near oyster shells 

 from which, doubtless, the infiltration of lime was a potent factor in preservation. 

 In the Grant mound, as in all other mounds we have investigated, the great 

 majority of skeletal remains was unaccompanied by relics of any sort. 



No crania were preserved, the facial bones being in all cases crushed or wanting 

 through decay and the vaults usually to a certain extent broken in. 



Marked examples of platycnemia l and of the pilastered femur were noted, and 

 these, with specimens bearing evidence of inflammation and others showing fracture, 

 were sent to the United States Army Medical Museum at Washington. 



After a careful examination of the bones from the Grant mound we were 

 impressed, as has been the case during all our mound work in Florida, with the 

 exceedingly limited number of fractures present among them, probably much less 

 than would be encountered among modern skeletal remains. Presumably the level 

 country, the sandy soil, the absence of ice and of horses and of vehicles, of scaffold- 

 ing and of machinery, and of many other things incidental to civilization, militated 

 against accidents to the human structure. 



"o l 



LOCATION AND ASSOCIATION OF RELICS, ETC. 2 



The proceeds of the demolition of the Grant mound were disappointing in so 

 much as, contrary to our expectation, few new types or specimens of remarkable 

 interest, were encountered. In fact, the eastern and southeastern portions of the 

 mound were virtually barren, as was that part 25 feet in all directions from the 



1 The reader will recall that this flattening of the tibia is no longer regarded as a racial charac- 

 teristic but rather the result of muscular traction upon the bone, in running and climbing. Memoire 

 sur la Platycnemie chez V Homme et chez les Anthropoides. Dr. Manouvrier. Memoires de la Socie'te d' 

 Anthropologic de Paris. Tome troisieme, deuxieme Serie Paris, 1883-1888, page 469, et seq. 



2 The reader of our " Certain Sand Mounds of the St. Johns River," Part II, will recall that at 

 the previous investigation of the Grant mound we found one sheet-copper ornament, a number of beads 

 of the same material, two small vessels of earthenware and a number of "celts" of polished stone. 



