CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF THE OCKLAWAHA RIVER, FLORIDA. 



By Clarence B. Moore. 



The Ocklawaha River, whose narrow, winding and rapid current enters the St. 

 Johns from the western side of that river, about twenty-five miles above Palatka, 

 has its source in Lake Apopka (see map) though the head of navigation is at the 

 channel between Lakes Eustis and Dora. 2 From Lake Apopka, running in a north- 

 erly direction, it traverses Lake Dora, Lake Eustis and Lake Griffin and continuing 

 first through marsh and then through swamp land and joining Orange Creek, an 

 unnavigable stream, it turns abruptly to the east, pursuing this course until its 

 union with the St. Johns. 



Passing through a portion of Lake County, traversing the county of Marion 

 and skirting on the south about one-half of Putnam County, the Ocklawaha, irres- 

 pective of curves, has a length of about seventy-five miles. So tortuous, however, 

 is the stream that these figures convey not the faintest idea of the distance to be 

 travelled by water in a journey from the outlet of the river to its source. 3 



In comparison with the St. Johns, the Ocklawaha had little to offer the abori- 

 gines as a place of abode. From the mouth to the union with the stream from 

 Silver Springs (where the acquaintance of the tourist with the river usually comes 

 to an end) the Ocklawaha runs between cypress swamps with very occasional bits 

 of solid land ; while above, the course of the stream is through saw-grass marshes 

 offering an equal paucity of landing places. 



It is therefore evident that the archaeologist exploring this stream, fully cog- 

 nizant of the fact that the aborigines were no mean judges of living sites, must set 

 out with a less sanguine spirit than would be justified on the St. Johns, especially 

 as it is doubtful whether the lower Ocklawaha, obstructed, at every turn as it must 

 have been, by huge trunks of fallen cypresses, offered in early times a channel of 

 communication. In point of fact, the paucity of shell-heaps and their restricted 



1 The mound on Bear Island and that at Davenport, within a few miles of the mouth of the 

 Ocklawaha River, have been described in Part II of our " Certain Sand Mounds of the St. Johns 

 River, Florida." Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Vol. X. 



2 The channel between Lakes Eustis and Dora has, at places, scarcely two feet of water. In addi- 

 tion, two immovable bridges bar the way. 



3 A table of distances used on the line of steamers plying on the river, gives as 101 miles the 

 distance by water between the point of union with the St. Johns and the entrance into Silver Springs 

 Run, somewhat less than one-half the length of the Ocklawaha, and this, be it remembered, is a less 

 tortuous portion of the stream than that farther south. Between Alligator Landing and Moss Bluff on 

 the upper river, the distance by land is given as three miles by those in a position to know, and as five 

 times that number when the journey is made by water. 



