Notices of Books , 
125 
Peabody Academy of Science. Fourth Memoir, Fresh-water 
Shell-Mounds of the St. John's River , Florida , By Jeffries 
Wyman. Salem, Mass, : published by the Peabody Academy 
of Science. 
Zealous and praiseworthy attempts are being made in America 
to ascertain the history of the tribes who once occupied the 
Western Continent, but who have faded away, either since the 
arrival of European settlers or in far earlier periods. Much im- 
portant evidence it is to be feared has passed hopelessly away. 
The ignorant bigotry of the earlier Spanish settlers destroyed 
the most important monuments and inscriptions, and the sloth 
of their successors has allowed much more to perish. But much 
may be done by a diligent use of what remains, and we may yet 
learn no little of the nature and habits of nations who inhabited 
North America thousands of years ago, and who at first sight 
appear to have died and left no sign. 
u Shell-mounds ” are very widely distributed. In a certain 
stage of culture — or rather of the absence of culture — mankind 
seem to have established themselves on the shores of the sea 
and of certain lakes, and to have subsisted mainly upon “ shell- 
fish.” This was undoubtedly before the discovery of suitable 
tools had rendered agriculture possible — probably before weapons 
for the chase were invented. The peninsula of Florida contains 
numerous of this class, both on the sea-coast and along the 
banks of rivers, composed of a mixture of shells and bones of 
animals which have been used as food. These mounds contain 
fireplaces, and various tools made of stone, bone, or shell. The 
stone implements are rarely met with in the mounds themselves, 
but are more abundant on the surface, and are of a very rude 
character. The bone and shell tools are of superior workman- 
ship, but are believed not to have been made by the tribes who 
formed these heaps, but to have been introduced by immigrants 
from the north. In the more recent mounds, though not in the 
oldest, fragments of pottery of a very rude kind have been dis- 
covered. Evidences of the prevalence of cannibalism are 
unmistakable, as bones of human beings are found, broken up in 
the same manner as those of other animals. Bones and teeth 
of extindt animals are found, — such as the mastodon, elephant, 
horse, and ox, but these have undergone changes which show 
that they were not contemporary with the builders of the mounds. 
It may be approximately ascertained that some of these mounds 
were finished at least two or three centuries before the arrival of 
the first European settlers. The balance of evidence inclines to 
show that the formers of these mounds were not the people 
found in Florida b}^ the Spaniards and the French, but a more 
primitive race, having apparently no knowledge of agriculture. 
