As we have said, exhaustive work was not done by us on the east coast and as various lists of the earthworks of that section have already appeared, we shall not go into a detailed account but shall give results obtained in certain of the mounds examined by us which, so far as our investigation has extended, were typical of the whole.
Stone House Mound.
Mounds at Courtenay (2).
Mound at De Soto.
Mound at Tropic.
Gleason Mound.
Low Mounds near mouth of Banana river (2).
Mound near St. Lucie river.
Stone House Mound, Volusia County
Spruce Creek enters the Halifax river opposite the town of Ponce Park. About 1 mile up Spruce Creek, turning into Murray’s Creek and following the stream about 1 mile, the Murray dwelling is reached, from which the mound is distant about 1.5 miles inland, in a southwesterly direction. The mound, in thick “hammock,” and covered with palmetto and other trees, has a height of 20 feet, a diameter at base of 144 feet. The trench made by Mr. Andrew E. Douglass,[5] was the only previous investigation apparent on the mound.
Parts of two days, with nine men to dig, were devoted to investigation. Neither burial nor artifact rewarded our labors—a result similar to that attained by Mr. Douglass.
Two feet beneath the surface, such parts of the mound as were dug into by us, were encased in heavy slabs of coquina. This curious feature was noted also by Mr. Douglass in the portion investigated by him.
Mound at Courtenay, Brevard County
The settlement of Courtenay, on Merritt’s Island, which here forms the eastern shore of the Indian River, is about eight miles north of the town of Cocoa.
On the property of Mr. John H. Sams, at Courtenay, is a mound which was cordially placed at our disposal for investigation by the owner. The mound, entirely surrounded by a trench, presents a striking appearance, giving the impression of greater altitude than it really possesses. Its height is 11 feet; its diameter at base about 100 feet, making allowance for a certain amount of sand evidently washed from the mound.
An excavation 28 feet in diameter and from 5 to 6 feet deep, was made in the central portion of the mound. A few scattered human bones were present immediately below the surface. At a depth of 5 feet was a sherd of considerable size. Loose in the sand was one fragment of chipped chert. Beyond these, nothing was encountered and the sand, coarse and yellow, had the raw look peculiar to mounds containing no organic remains.