1895.] Anthropology. 1133 
ford’s excavation, and, in the interest of the Archzological Association 
of the University of Pennsylvania, make examinations and, so far as 
might be collections there. 
On reaching Florida, I found that it was impracticable to proceed 
beyond Punta Gorda, directly to the place Colonel Durnford and Mr, 
Wilkins had excavated. Procuring at this place a little sloop and two 
men, I therefore followed a somewhat round about course, exploring 
the greater number of keys or little islands lying along the way thence 
southward to the point in question, namely Collier’s, near Marco. At 
the first key examined, some fifteen miles south of Punta Gorda, I 
found to my astonishment, that all its heights had resulted from arti- 
ficial accumulations of shells, not irregularly piled up, like mere refuse 
heaps, but more or less structurally and regularly reared on a shallow 
reef in relatively shoal waters, to serve apparently as the core or central 
foundation of a village of enormous extent. These heights were fringed 
interruptedly by lower platforms and long, out-reaching winrows, so to 
say, of additional shell accumulations, some several feet high, others 
scarcely elevated above the level of high tide. Penetrating portions alike 
of these low shell embankments and of the central tumuli or cores, were 
openings long, narrow, and measurably straight through which the 
waters of the bay still to some extent ebbed and flowed. When seen from 
the highest points (for every portion of the key was covered with a tangled 
jungle of trees, vines and tropical plants, agaves and cacti, and when 
looked at from below was hidden by the dark, dense margin of mangoes) 
these openings seemed all to tend toward some central point or points ; 
and on descending and following one of them I was led into a veritable 
water-plaza around which clustered the gigantic mounds of shell— 
each set of them between its channel-like openings.: I then realized 
that this central space—which had an irregular extent of more than an 
acre—was the filled up basin of a shallow lake formed rather by the 
rearing of structures around it than by other artificial means, and now 
filled to high tide level by washings from these heights and by growths 
of aquatic plants. I further realized that the openings leading into 
this place were actual canals, preserved or kept clear between the shell 
mounds or platforms, ete., for the passage in and out of the canoes of 
the dwellers on and around the heights. An examination of the sides 
of the highest of the central shell mounds or cores surrounding this 
water-plaza or lake court, revealed ere long a fairly well preserved 
road-way leading up to near the summit of the mound, and with eyes 
thus opened, I soon found other, though less distinct roadways or trails 
on the shell slopes, leading up to lesser heights around. Following 
