504 TWO SAND MOUNDS ON MURPHY ISLAND, FLORIDA. 



HUMAN REMAINS. 



Burials were of the bunched variety, which, our readers will recall, consists 

 of piles of bones previously denuded of flesh by exposure to the elements. In this 

 case separate interments were often represented by isolated crania or by various 

 long bones of one skeleton or of several individuals. 



Certain burials found near the surface with iron implements and glass beads 

 had also the appearance of belonging to the bunched variety of interment, though 

 of these we may not speak positively as they had possibly been subjected to 

 disturbance by subsequent cultivation of the mound and the setting out and removal 

 of orange trees. 



In that portion of the mound included in the slope and not covered by the 

 summit plateau, human remains were noted at forty-eight different points, many 

 of these deposits, however, including the remains of a number of individuals. 



In that portion of the mound beneath the summit plateau, that is to say, 

 a mass of material about 12 feet high and 21 feet in diameter, interments were so 

 numerous at places and so frequently in contact — single crania, bunches of long 

 bones, and great layers of human remains, in places over one foot in thickness — 

 that all efforts to record the number of individuals represented, were abandoned. 

 Moreover, in many places — and this applies also to other portions of the mound — 

 mere discoloration of the sand or at most yellowish powder, marked the former 

 presence of bones. 



No human remains were encountered at a depth greater than 12 feet, though 

 certain objects of aboriginal design were fully one foot lower. 



No skeletal remains were preserved. 



EARTHENWARE. 



The earthenware of this mound was of markedly inferior quality and design. 



In the northern portion of the mound, including about one-third of the circum- 

 ference, beginning near the margin and extending in for about 15 feet, between 

 2 and 3 feet from the base, was a curious layer of bits of earthenware and consider- 

 able fragments of vessels. These sherds were not laid in close proximity but at 

 irregular distances, here and there, as though strewn upon that portion of the 

 mound during its erection. No human remains were encountered with these 

 sherds. 



None but comparatively small vessels were recovered intact, though, from a 

 considerable depth, near the center of the mound, four vessels of several quarts 

 capacity each, but fragmentary and incomplete, were found in association. Several 

 large fragments and one complete vessel had basal supports which we have noted 

 as present in but three or four other mounds of the St. Johns. The use of feet on 

 early aboriginal earthenware is unusual in any section of the United States, and 



