1893:] Shell Heaps of Florida. 709 
therein cannot with certainty be attributed to the period of 
the formation of the shell heap. 
To the north of the shell heap is a small burial mound 
which, through its immediate association with the shell heap, 
is of the greatest interest. To it a number of additional days 
were devoted. 
Of all the shell heaps of the St. John’s, Mulberry Mound 
most richly rewards archeological research. So distant is the 
nearest solid ground and so contracted were the quarters of 
those who raised the shell heap that every article cast away or 
lost during certainly a very long period is contained within an 
area a mere fraction in comparison to that of many shell 
heaps of the lower river. 
On the summit of Mulberry Mound, not far separated, three 
excavations were made: 103 x 7 x 12 feet deep; 12 x 74 x 10 feet 
deep; 16 feet, 8 inches by 14 feet, 5 inches by 16 feet deep. 
Allthese excavations were subsequently increased in size by 
the use of the pick upon the sides. 
Pottery. 
While the sherds found throughout the excavations were of 
good quality and ornamented fragments of pottery were found 
even below water level, yet in numbers and in variety of 
design they by no means compared with the fragments of 
ruder material so plentifully met with in other shell heaps of 
the river and notably at Tick Island and at Orange Mound. 
No sherds were encountered of that coarse and porous mate- 
rial showing original intermixture of vegetable fibre save two 
or three specimens at- the very base of the mound. At a dis- 
tance of 83 feet from the surface was a fragment of pottery, 
colored a bright red, and three other sherds similarly decorated 
were encountered in various stages of the excavations. While 
pottery of this character is of frequent occurrence in the sand 
mounds its discovery is not on record hitherto in the shell 
heaps of the river. Pottery with stamped decoration, so com- 
mon on the surface along the St. John's, was fairly abundant 
in the upper portion of the mound, while specimens were met 
with at unusual depths, one sherd thus decorated being found 
