1892.] Shell Heaps of Florida. — 915 
ure of many feet for long periods of time, during which periods 
refuse organic matter was in quantities mingled with the 
shells; while other parts owe their existence to the dumping 
of masses of shell by natives not dwelling immediately upon 
them. 
The shell heaps may be divided into four classes in respect 
to construction : 
1. Heaps where shells broken and crushed with a large 
admixture of sand and loam are closely packed, showing that 
the mound, by slow accretion of refuse, grew up beneath the 
feet of the inhabitants. 
2. Heaps where unbroken shells with little intermingling of 
sand lie loosely together, and in which loam is wanting, indi- 
cating that the inhabitants living near by carried their refuse 
to a common dumping place. 
3. Stratified heaps, composed of alternate layers of unbroken 
shells and of crushed shells with sandy loam, testifying that 
the mound has at different times served as place of residence 
and refuse heap. 
4. Heaps where materials of the first and second classes 
closely adjoin, leading to the belief that the original heap, 
used for domiciliary purposes, has been supplemented by a 
contiguous pile of debris. 
To these might be added a fifth class, comprising perfectly 
symmetrical mounds of shell in the form of truncated cones, 
possibly constructed from materials of a shell heap for use as 
ceremonial mounds or as watch towers. Mounds of this class 
are found at Bluffton and at Huntoon Island, and still await a 
careful investigation. 
No effort will be made to demonstrate the existence of can- 
nibalism among the makers of the shell heaps, as the mass of 
evidence collected by the writer so entirely corroborates the 
theory of Prof. Wyman that further discussion on the subject 
would seem unnecessary. The writer, however, is strongly of 
the opinion that cannibalism was not practiced by the earliest 
makers of the shell heaps, for while bones of the lower animals 
are found at every depth throughout the shell heaps, human 
bones, treated in a manner similar to those of the edible lower 
