



















OF ST. JOHNS RIVER, EAST FLORIDA. 457 

* * * | Oldtown. 

M’d above 
Osceola, 
‘SPECIES OF ANIMALS FOUND IN THE SHELL- 
OUNDS 
Lake 
Harney, 
Watson's 
Landing. 
Black 
Hammock, 
Blue 
Spring. 
Horse 
Landing. 


* | Enterprise 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
alee 
Deer, Cervus Virginianus, 
Bear, Usus, 7 x 
| Raccoon, Procyon lotor, . 
a 
* 
* 
sum, Didelphys, . l ‘ . 
rkey, Meleagris gallopavo, . . . z 
rds, not kno 
kd 
Sg 
errapin, Emys Floridana, . $ 
Soft-shelled Turtle, Trionyx feroz, 
ies e not known,. è 
Alligator, Alligator Mississippiensis, ie 
_ | Cattish, Pimelodus, . A : : 
| Gar-pike, Lepidosteus, . 
[Eish not known, . 
oti hahha r 
* 
* 
* 
+. & 4 
* * kd 
* 









ee ae ee RRT 



— That the animals of the shells which form the materials of 
e the mounds were used as food, there seems to be no reason- 
able doubt. Unios are known to be edible, and, almost ex- 
clusively, form the shell-heaps on the borders of other rivers 
_ & the Ohio,* the Tennessee,t the Concord, etc.{ We are 
hot aware of any evidence that Ampullarias and Paludinas 
d have been so used elsewhere than in Florida, but their asso- 
: ‘ome with pottery, and charcoal, and the bones of edible 
Animals, seems to be decisive. If the inference we have 
om tie be correct, then it follows that the animal food of the 
meent inhabitants of Eastern Florida was very largely de- 
Tyed from these species, and especially the Paludinas, since 
‘a remains of fish, turtles, alligators, and deer, form so 
msignificant a portion of the whole heap. 
M view of the vast number and size of the shell-heaps 
Tow known to be scattered along the Atlantic coast,§ and 
i Vast quantities of shells which compose them, it is quite 
Sear that the aborigines must have depended largely upon 
shell-fish for food. In fact such was obviously the case with 
= early inhabitants of the old world as’ well as new. Of the 
Daa are ae trea taco meses sen a sama T 
* Aty 
$Brinton, gnc osia Americana, Vol. I, p. 226. 
ad Wrinan ithsonian Publications, 1866, p. 356. via 
e Sosa , Proceedings of Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. a ae 
Scribed the , ph Leidy, Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences, : eket 
nication in. Shell-heaps at Cape Henlopen, and should have been cited in ou s 
AMER m NATURALIST for December, 1867, but at that time we had not seen 
* NATURALIST, VOL. 1. 58 
