1893.] Shell Heaps of Florida, 723 
the spire and body whorl above the periphery as though held 
in the hand. 
From all this it is evident that while certain perforated ful- 
gurs may have served for war clubs the great majority did 
not. Mr. Douglass, who is so familiar with the east coast of 
Florida, believes some of them to have served as hoes, and in 
this he is doubtless right. Probably, as is the case with most 
aboriginal implements, their use was various. 
Conclusions. 
At no point in the excavations at Mulberry Mound were 
whole shells found in any numbers, the heap having grown 
apparently from the beginning by the slow accretion of refuse 
from the meals of the few families living upon it and been 
solidly packed beneath their feet. It is apparent that such 
should be the case, since solid ground is too far distant to 
admit of the hypothesis that the mound was made through 
contributions of others not living upon its immediate surface. 
That a considerable time was required to pile so great a mass 
of shell to such a height through the agency of comparatively 
few there can be no reason to doubt. And yet the writer is 
convinced that of all the shell heaps investigated by him and 
by Professor Wyman the shell heap at Mulberry Mound is the 
most recent, and that it was still in process of formation when 
many others were abandoned, at least for use as refuse heaps. 
This belief is based upon the marvelous variety of the imple- 
ments of bone, so infrequent in the other mounds, and patterns 
heretofore unreported from other localities on the river. The 
presence of delicately wrought lance heads near the base; of 
colored and of stamped pottery at considerable depths; of ful- 
gurs at a distance from the surface; of a carefully made gor- 
get of shell; the discovery of an implement of polished stone, a 
fact previously unheard of in the river shell heaps, and frag- 
mentary human bones a number of feet from the surface, 
found only superficially by the writer in numerous other shell 
heaps, when taken together, argue for Mulberry Mound 
an origin posterior to other shell heaps of the St. John’s hith- 
.erto explored. It will be noted, however, that nothing found 
in this shell heap indicated a knowledge of Europeans or in 
any way pointed to its formation in post-Columbian times. 
