76 The American Naturalist. [January, 
ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 
Certain Sand Mounds of the St. John’s River, Florida, 
by Clarence B. Moore.—The mounds of North America are docu- 
ments which, to be read, must be destroyed, and the only excuse for 
their destroyer is that he has translated their meaning. If he has not 
—if he has not scrupulously recorded the depth and tint of each super- 
posed layer and the position of each human trace, if he has not even 
gone farther and chronicled, for the sake of the future questioner, 
things that he sees no reason for chronicling, so much the worse for 
science. If, on the other hand, interested not in relics, but their mean- 
ing, he has carefully transcribed the facts observed he deserves the sin- 
-cerest thanks of the student. These should be given to Mr. Clarence 
B. Moore, for his recent exploration of mounds and shell heaps in 
Florida. His book (Certain Sand Mounds of the St. John’s River, 
Florida), is on the one hand an encouraging lesson to the investigator, 
while on the other it is a silent protest against much of the “ relic 
hunting” that goes by the name of exploration. Each chapter con- 
-demns by inference, the treasure of the collecting enthusiast who, for the 
sake of his card boarded specimens, obliterates the pages of the book 
no less hopelessly than did Spanish priests when they threw Mayo 
Codices into the fire, and the value’of specimens with a record, against 
the cheapness of those without one, increases as we read. 
An account of 75 mounds of shell and sand faithfully explored by 
Mr. Moore on the St. John’s River, Florida, catches the attention of 
the student at once, and he looks with particular interest for the re- 
sult. What does it all mean? What have these painstaking label- 
lings of specimens, fresh from the earth, these reiterated measurements, 
detailed minutiae, and laborious analyses, to tell us of the story of 
man? Are some explored sites older than others, so that we can prove 
-a series of epochs in time? Do older sites yield a different class of 
remains from the younger, so that we may infer a sequence in culture, 
and suppose that the maker of mounds had a pred in Florida or, 
at least, developed there through a lower stage of culture into a higher ? 
How long ago was it? Indians still live in Florida, Were these 
mound-makers’ Indians? The white man came in the sixteenth cen- 
tury—which mounds were built before, which after, his coming? 
Which Indian arts were derived from him, and which preceeded his 
suggestion ? 
‘This department is edited by H. C. Mercer, University of Pennsylvania. 
