570 The American Naturalist. [July, 
In the white sand ridge as before, lying upon the shell base, 
were found burials in anatomical order, while differing from 
our former investigation some interments were met with in 
the white sand considerably above the shell. 
Owing to decay and to the pressure of sand no crania 
were saved though great pains were taken and preservative 
agents were at hand. In this connection I may say that from 
seventeen burial mounds on or near the St. John’s River 
more or less thoroughly explored by me, I have taken but one 
whole skull in good condition. So great is the pressure 
exerted by heavy masses of sand that often the shafts of 
tibie found at the base of burial mounds have been crushed. 
Such being the case it can readily be conceived how slender 
are the chances to recover a skull in perfect condition. 
As before no mark of decay was found in any of the teeth 
though many showed signs of excessive wear. Many of the 
bones gave evidence of having served in frames endowed with 
great muscular strength, the ridges being very noticeable. 
In the femurs the linea aspera was prominent, some with 
a tendency towards the “pilaster.” But two femurs of the 
many found possessed the articular portions sufficiently intact 
to allow measurement as to length. 
Of the two of which measurements were taken the length of 
one was 18 in. (tape) to the tip of the great trochanter and that 
of the other 164 in. (tape) to the upper margin of the head. 
Taking .275 as the ratio of the length of the femur to the 
entire stature it will be seen that no great height is indicated. 
Of course no general rule can be drawn from two cases but a 
large number of femurs exhumed from the Tick Island — 
mound with articular portions more or less decayed were at 
least in sufficiently good condition to allow a fairly close 
estimate and of these and of hundreds of others met with in 
burial mounds and shell heaps in Florida I can say that none 
indicated a stature of six feet. Four tibie exhumed intact 
measured respectively 143 in., 123 in., 12 5-6 in., and 14} in. 
in length (tape). 
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