1892.] Investigation at Tick Island. 569 
and two inches through the brown sand and converging to a 
width of 10 ft. through the white sand. No effort was made 
to penetrate the compact mass of shell at the base of the 
mound save at one or two points, where the usual debris of 
the shell heaps was found. The trench, when digging was 
discontinued (having followed the upward slope of the shell 
base) was 11 ft. and 10 in. in depth, of which the white sand 
above the shell was 5 ft. 8 in. and the upper layer or brown sand 
6 ft. and 2 in., leaving to the shell base a thickness of 5 ft. and 
5 in. above the level of the margin of the base of the mound. 
At a distance of 30 ft. from the start the side of the white 
sand ridge was encountered, the trench up to that point run- 
ning through the brown sand layer. The first skeleton was 
met with 24 ft. from the beginning of the trench. Previous to 
this many bones entirely disconnected, and mainly the larger 
bones of the skeleton, were found. With the exception of the 
articular portions the bones were not affected by decay to a 
marked extent as were those subsequently found covered by 
the white sand. It is possible that they are of a later period 
or that the lime salts from the admixture of shell have con- 
tributed to their preservation. As before stated these bones 
were not in association with each other but must not be con- 
founded with the form of burial practiced on the east and 
west coasts of Florida and in at least one mound on the St. 
John’s, namely Ginn’s Grove, south of Lake Monroe, where 
piles of larger bones previously exposed were found buried 
Horizontally surmounted by the skulls. Neither were the 
bones in any way crushed, split or charred, suggestive of the 
methods of many of the shell heaps of the St. John’s River, 
nor did they show any signs of the breakage of necessity 
occurring when decayed bones are disturbed by the aid of 
implements. In the plateau constituting the summit of the 
mound were flexed burials (probably intrusive) in anatomical 
order and others were numerous on the slope bordering the 
plateau. Unless the disconnected bones were washed down 
when the mound was larger and not asat present held compactly 
together by the roots of vegetation, I can form no hypothesis 
to offer as to their condition when found. 
40 
