Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia . und. It was apparent that numbers of burials had been made upon therounded extremity of a shell ridge which doubtless considerablj antedated the super-ficial portion of the mound. The second visit to Raulersons was exhaustive. Two preliminary excavations,each 9 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet 3 inches deep to shell base showed quantities ofhuman bones, often broken and in the greatest disorder without the slightest anato-mical connection. In the first excavation not a fragment of a tibia was met with, afact clearly indicating the very unequ
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia . und. It was apparent that numbers of burials had been made upon therounded extremity of a shell ridge which doubtless considerablj antedated the super-ficial portion of the mound. The second visit to Raulersons was exhaustive. Two preliminary excavations,each 9 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet 3 inches deep to shell base showed quantities ofhuman bones, often broken and in the greatest disorder without the slightest anato-mical connection. In the first excavation not a fragment of a tibia was met with, afact clearly indicating the very unequal distribution of the bones. In a second ex-cavation, near a cervical vertebra were found 19 beads of glass. THE ST. .JOHNS RIVER, FLORIDA. 98 Next a considerable portion of the surface of the ground was carefully goneover with trowels, laying bare great numbers of split, broken and shattered humanbones, with fragments of pottery. With disconnected human remains was found ahandsome carved circular gorget of shell, with a diameter of 4-25 inches(Fig. 110).. Fig. lit). Shell gorget (full size). It consisted of a cross in the centre surrounded by a circle within an eightpointed star, the star surrounded by a circle scalloped at the edges. In the centreof the gorget was a perforation, while near the margin of the outer circle were twoothers, evidently for suspension. This beautiful ornament, unique for Florida,1 orat all events for the river, was slightly broken during the digging, while certainportions were wanting through earlier breakage. (iorgets of shell, with circles, stars and half moons were worn in historical 1 In this connection the reader is referred to Art in Shell, Second Annual Report of the Bureauof Ethnology, 1880-1881, page 185, et seq. Mr. Andrew JE. Douglass, whose familiarity with the antiquities of Florida and long continuedpersonal researches among the mounds of the east coast lend great weight to his opinion, writes as follows : I have quite a number of shel
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