Fresh-Water Shell Mounds of the St. John's River, Florida - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ... it was given to the greatest boor (maiotru) meanest male present of the crowd; in truth some do not taste of the head, nor of the rest of the body except with horror. Others eat human flesh with a relish, and I have heard savages in our cabin speak with gusto of the flesh of an Iroquois, and praise its goodness in the same terms as they would the flesh of a deer or au elk." (Relation de Jean Rrebeuf. July, 1636, p. 121.) VII. REMAINS OF ANIMALS IN THE SHELL MOUNDS. We have mentioned, on u previous page, some of the more conspicuous animals, noticed by travellers and naturalists, which formerly inhabited or still live on the shores of the St. John's. The explorations of the shell heaps show to what extent these and other species were used as food by the earliest inhabitants. The accompanying table, based upon the pieces of bone found in the mounds, gives a complete list of the species recognized, the most of which are supposed to have been eaten; followed from side to side it shows the mounds in which the remains of one and the same animal have been detected, and from above downwards the different kinds of animals found in one and the same mound. The bones are not found however in equal numbers, for while some species are abundant there are others which are represented by a very few pieces, as the bear and the wild turkey, or even by a single piece, leaving the explanation of its presence somewhat doubtful. As the table shows, the species most commonly met with, that is in the largest number of mounds, are the deer, the hard and soft-shelled turtles, the alligator, gar-pike, cat-fish, and a species of whiting (Umbrina), and these, it may be stated, are also the most frequent in the individual mounds. The cat-fish are still frequently...