teeth presented distinctive appearances throughout, in the absence of the pointed canines; the incisors, canine, cuspides, and bicuspides all presented flat crowns, worn to smoothness by the attrition of sand and ashes eaten with the half-cooked food. A bi-section of some of these teeth showed the dental nerve to be protected by an unusual thickness on the surface of the crown. Not one carious tooth was found among the hundreds in the mound. Many were entire in the lower jaw, the whole compactly and firmly set. In some the second set was observed; while one jaw had evident signs of a third set, a nucleus of a tooth being seen beneath the neck of a tooth of a very old jaw, whose alveolar process was gone, and the whole lower jaw ossified to a sharp edge; none showing the partial loss of teeth by caries and decay. Some of the skulls showed evident marks of death by violence, as from the hands of the enemy in war. In one instance the flint arrowhead was seen sticking in the left parietal bone. A number of skulls were broken in, mostly at the vertex, seemingly by that rude weapon, the stone battle-ax, which was so effective on the skulls of the Spaniards in the early periods of their settlement of Florida. It is evident that sanguinary conflicts often took place between tribes of the mainland, in their disputations for those enviable islands of the sea-coast, abounding then in spontaneous productions and surrounded by fish and oysters. No remains of these, much below adult age, were found; the weak and slender frame had returned to dust. All that could be traced of their mortality was a carbonized deposit in the clean sand, with here and there a small fragment of bone. Pursuing my investigations, and excavating farther toward the southeast face of the mound, I came upon the largest-sized stone ax I have ever seen or that had ever been found in that section of the country. Close to it was the largest and most perfect cranium of the mound, not crushed by the pressure of the earth, complete in its form, quite dry, and no,sand in its cavity; together with its inferior maxillary bone, with all the teeth in the upper and lower jaws. Near by the side of this skull were the right femoris, the tibia, the humerus, ulna, and part of the radius, with a portion of the pelvis directly under the skull. All of the other bones of this large skeleton were completely or partially decayed. Contiguous to this was nearly a quart of red ocher, and quite the same quantity of what seemed to be pulverized charcoal, as materials of war-paint. Anticipating a perfect specimen in this skull, I was doomed to disappointment; for, after taking it out of the earth and setting it up, so that I could view the fleshless face of this gigantic savage, in the space of two hours it crumbled to pieces, except small portions. According to the measurement of the bones of this skeleton, its height must have been quite 7 feet. There were three distinct rude ornaments in this mound. First, the vertebræ of a fish, painted with red ocher, and well preserved. Second, an hexagonal bead, made from the tooth of the alligator, (not painted.) Third, the internal lamina of an oyster-shell, cut into small circular spangles, pierced with a hole in the center, and threaded with the fibrilla of the tendon of some animal, closely strung, and painted with red ocher. Coal was freely diffused throughout the mound, which contained but little pottery. Two stone hatchets were found, and a small stone ax, in addition to the large one described. This instrument bore evident marks of fire. There is one large mound on the eastern end of Amelia Island, Florida, and two mounds on the central portion of Cumberland Island, Georgia, likewise most of the islands on that coast, from which could be obtained large collections of materials for the advancement of ethnological science. ANTIQUITIES OF FLORIDA. [Extract from the journal of John Bartram, of Philadelphia. London, 1769. ] "About noon [25th January, 1766] we landed at Mount Royal and went to an Indian tumulus, which was about 100 yards in diameter, nearly round, and near 20 feet high. Found some bones scattered on it. It must be very ancient, as live-oaks are growing upon it 3 feet in diameter. What a prodigious multitude of Indians must have labored to raise it, to what height we cannot say, as it must have settled much in such a number of years; and it is surprising where they brought the sand from, and how, as they had nothing but baskets or bowls to carry it in. There seems to be a little hollow near the adjacent level on one side, though not likely to raise such a tumulus the fiftieth part of what it is; but directly north from the tumulus is a fine straight avenue about 60 yards broad, all the surface of which has been taken off and thrown on each side, which makes a bank of about a rood wide and a foot high, more or less, as the unevenness of the ground required, for the avenue is as level as a floor from bank to bank, and continues so for about threequarters of a mile to a pond of about one hundred yards broad and one hundred and fifty long, north and south, seemed to be an oblong square, and its banks four feet perpendicular, gradually sloping every way to the water, the depth of which we could not say, but do not imagine it deep, as the grass grows all over it; by its regularity it seems to be artificial ; if so, perhaps the sand was carried from hence to raise the tumulus, as the one directly faces the other at each end of the avenue. On the south side of the tumulus I found a very large rattlesnake sunning himself; I suppose this to be his winter-quarters. Here had formerly been a large Indian town. I suppose there are fifty acres of planting ground cleared, and of middling soil, a good part of which is mixed with small shells; no doubt this large tumulus was their burying-place or sepulcher. Whether the Florida Indians buried the bones after the flesh was rotted off them, as the present southern Indians do, I cannot say." CONTENTS OF SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1874. Order of Congress to print extra copies..... Letter from Professor Henry, transmitting report to Congress. List of Regents, committees, and members ex officio of the Institution... Failure of First National Bank...... Statement of the condition of the funds.. Safety of funds secured by deposit in United States Treasury. Page. 23566 Historical manuscripts from Mrs. Dundas and General Lefroy.. APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.. Entries in Museum record-books in 1873 and 1874...... Distribution of duplicate specimens to the end of 1874... Additions to the collections in 1874.... List of articles deposited by the Institution in the Corcoran Art Gallery. List of Indian vocabularies received from the Wheeler expedition. 8655 Agents, number of boxes sent, size and weight.. Packages received by the Institution from Europe for distribution in For institutions, libraries, &c.. For individuals .... |