130 The American Naturalist. [February, 



Tick Island, Volusia County, Florida, is reached from the 

 St. John's River by turning east and crossing Lake Dexter to 

 the mouth of Spring Garden Creek, and by following the 

 course of this creek until a tumble-down wharf of palmetto 

 logs is reached, from whence a path half a mile in length 

 leads to the burial mound. 



Tick Island is separated from the mainland by a narrow 

 waterway, its other boundaries being Lake Woodruff and 

 Spring Garden Creek. The Island presents in parts a very 

 wild appearance, covered as it is with gnarled live oak and 

 towering palmetto, with trailing vine and tangled undergrowth, 

 where the presence of the rattlesnake imparts a certain risk to 

 exploration. With the exception of one small house upon the 

 island, at intervals occupied by the hired man whose care it is 

 to look after the orange grove, the nearest point where quarters 

 can be secured is at Astor, eight miles distant on the river. It 

 is, therefore, evident that the explorer with his assistants and 

 the necessary workmen, at least four or five in number (for the 

 throwing out of sand from a stifling trench during a hot Flor- 

 ida day demands frequent change of laborers), must either 

 camp upon the island or occupy a boat chartered for the pur- 



Shape, Size, and Composition of the Mound. 



The burial mound, seventeen feet in height (spirit level and 

 tape line measurement) and in circumference four hundred and 

 seventy-eight feet, is conical in shape, save to the East, where 

 from the summit a gradual slope extends into a winding cause- 

 way or breastwork three hundred and ninety-two feet in length 

 (tape line measurement), averaging four feet in height with an 

 average breadth of twenty-five feet at base and fifteen feet at 

 summit. The description of the composition of the mound is 

 based upon careful observation through parts of ten days of 

 February, March and April, 1891, during which time eight 

 shafts and trenches were dug, the largest being forty-six and a 

 half feet long with an average breadth of thirteen feet, and 

 nine feet deep at the end. having from the level of the ground 



