Mound Northeast of Suarez Bluff, Amelia Island
About 1.5 miles from Suarez Bluff was a mound 5 feet 2 inches in height with a diameter at base of 68 feet. About one-half of this mound, which was kindly placed at our disposal by Mr. Jonathan Buzzell of Suarez Bluff, or Amelia City, as it is now called, was demolished by us. It was composed of yellowish sand with little, if any, intermingling of charcoal. A layer of oyster shells and midden refuse, such as fragments of bones of the turtle and of the deer, but apparently with no sherds, occupied a central position in the mound. This deposit began about 18 feet from the margin and was then a little over 2 feet from the surface, and apparently so throughout. Its thickness was about 2 feet (see diagram), increasing toward the center. There were no oyster shells in the marginal portion of the mound.
At one point in the marginal, or sandy portion, 1.5 feet from the surface, was a deposit of calcined fragments of bone, some belonging to the turtle. This mound was evidently not a shell heap covered with sand, since the mass of shells, when encountered, did not present a sloping surface but showed an abruptly vertical surface 2 feet in height, very much as though the shells had been thrown into an excavation.
No human remains or art relics, with the exception of one arrow head, were met with.
Light-house Mound, Fernandina, Nassau County
The Light-house[8] mound, in a shell field and in the neighborhood of others, about 150 yards south of the light-house, probably one mile east of the town of Fernandina, was kindly placed at our disposal by Mr. E. D. Lukenbill of the Fernandina Development Company. Our thanks are tendered for numerous courtesies also to Mr. H. L. Linville, port warden of Fernandina.
Fig. 6.—Section of mound northeast of Suarez Bluff.
The height of the mound, which was totally demolished by us, was 12 feet; the diameter of its base, 75 feet. It presented a very symmetrical appearance when stripped of the dense growth of vegetation which covered it, the ascent at some points being at an angle of 44°. Excavations 3 to 4 feet deep to the west and northwest of the base showed whence the material was derived. There had been some previous investigation on the immediate summit.