16 INTRODUCTION. 



Florida," that the oldest layers in the Florida shellheaps were without pot- 

 tery, which is only found in the later deposits, and is most abundant in the 

 shellheaps of the coast. From this and other evidence, he argues the 

 appearance in Florida of distinct tribes who have successively formed and 

 occupied the shellheaps. It is also important to note that implements of 

 stone are almost absent in the shellheaps of Florida, except on the surface, 

 where they have been left by recent tribes, while bone and shell implements 

 are abundant. In the collection from the shellheaps on the Amazon there 

 are several bone and stone implements, but their comparative abundance I 

 do not know. In the Japanese shellheaps stone implements were very few 

 in number, as in those of Florida, while implements made of bones, teeth, 

 and deer's antlers were common in both Japan and Florida. To carry this 

 comparison a step further, it is only necessary to call attention to the fact 

 that the shell-heaps of the Atlantic coast of the United States from Florida 

 to Maine abound in fragments of pottery and bone implements, while only 

 a few stone implements have been found. 



If we contrast the shellheaps of the Atlantic coast, Brazil, and Japan 

 with those of the coast of California, we find in the three former localities 

 pottery and bone implements common to all, while articles of stone are rare. 

 In those of California we find pottery only in very exceptional instances and 

 on the surface, in such connection with other articles of European manu- 

 facture and of such peculiar structure as to lead to the conclusion that it 

 was only known in California after European contact, or by an occasional 

 article received from a distance. Articles of bone and shell are common, 

 and articles of stone exist in great abundance and of fine workmanship. 



If we extend our comparison to the Northwest, we find that the lowest 

 beds of the oldest deposits of the Aleutian Islands hold a similar relation to 

 the overlying beds that the lowest layers of the Florida heaps do to those 

 above them. In both cases, these lower beds were formed by people who 

 were in the lowest stage of savagery. On the Aleutian Islands, as shown 

 by Mr. Dall's very thorough researches, which he has so well presented in 

 his recent Memoir,* the earliest deposits consist principally of the remains 



* Tribes of the Extreme Northwest, by W. H. Dall, published as Part I of the Ethnology of the 

 Geographical and Geological Explorations of the Rocky Mountain Region, under direction of the De- 

 partment of the Interior, J. W. Powell in charge. 1877, pp. 41, 91. 



