Fresh-water shell mounds of the St. John's River, Florida / by Jeffries Wyman.

  • Wyman, Jeffries, 1814-1874.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fresh-water shell mounds of the St. John's River, Florida / by Jeffries Wyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    rattle for the Seminoles, and was sometimes attached to their dresses during O their dances. The bones of the bear were found but three times, comprising in all only five pieces, and one of these was a radius which had been sawed in two, apparently for the purpose of making a tool. The others were probably remnants of food. The bones of the wild turkey are very rare, having been found in one mound only, that on Huntoon Island, near the river. The bones of the opossum, rabbit and raccoon though found in several mounds, are represented by a very few pieces, notwithstanding these animals existed in great abundance. The entire absence of the remains of certain other species which might be expected to be occasionally found, is worthy of notice. The buffalo was an inhabitant of Florida, and it could have been no other than this animal which the French met with in their ill-fated retreat from Fort Caroline.94 The wolf has been quite common until recent times, but is now nearly extermi- nated. The puma, though much less common than the wolf, was in earlier times, and is now, occasionally killed, and the wild cat is still a pest to the settlers. We are not aware of any evidence leading to the supposition that the natives of the St. John’s ever possessed the dog as a domesticated animal. In his list of animals, Le Moyne mentions * canes sylvestres,” whatever they were, but we have failed to find a single bone belonging to the common dog. This is the reverse of what is seen in the shell heaps of New England, where the bones of this animal are quite numerous, and are broken up as if used for food, and it is a matter of history that they were so used. We have found no traces of the beaver, though their is evidence that it once lived within the limits of the peninsula.95 - 94 De Challeux, the carpenter of Ribout’s expedition, says, “near the break of day we saw a great beast, like a deer, at fifty paces from us, who had a great head, eyes flaming, the ears hanging, and the huger parts elevated. It seemed to us monstrous because of its gleaming eyes, wonderfully large, but it did not come near to us to do us any harm.” There is no other animal which corresponds with this description but the buffalo, though that animal is as unlike “ a deer” as possible. “ The bison appears to have ranged in considerable numbers through middle Florida a hundred and fifty years ago. It was considered in 1718 that the Spanish garrison at Fort San Marco, on a failure of stores, might subsist on the meat of the buffalo.”—Buckingham Smith, in a note to his translation of the Memoir of Fontaneda. pu 50. “The buffalo is found in the savannahs, or natural meadows of the interior parts.”—Stow, p. 19. See also Prof Spencer F. Baird, Pacific Railroad Reports, vol. VIII, p. G81. ye The following is Le Moyne’s list of animals said to be seen by the French: “ Quadrupedes istic vul- gatiories sunt Cervi, Cervue, Hinnuli, Damae, Ursi, Leopardi, Lupicervani, Lynces, Luporum varia genera, Sj lvestres canes, Lepores, Cuniculi; Aves Gallopavones, Perdices, Psittaci, Accipitres, Falcones, Aesalo- nes, Ardeae, Grues, Ciconiae, Auseres sylvestres, Anates, Corvi aquatici, Ardeolae albae, rubrae, nigrae, et cinex-eae, et aquatice quamplurimae Tanta est crocodilonam frequentia ut homines natentes saepenumen ab illii appetantur; serpentia varia genera, et animalis quoddam genus non multum ab Africanis leonibus diversum.”—De Dry. Americanae Historiae. Secunda Pars, p. 3. Roberts mentions the goat and the beaver as found in Florida. The former could only have been an in- troduced animal. See “An Account of the First Discovery and Natural History of Florida.” 1703, p. 4. Bartram states that “ there are yet a few beavers in East Florida and Georgia, but they abound most in the North of Georgia and in West Florida, near the mountains.”—Travels, p. 281. Le Moyne also describes the arming of the points of the arrows used at the time of his visit, as follows: “ Promucrone Sagittrum sunt piseium dentes, et lapides affabre adaptati.”—Pars II. p. 3. In Virginia Richly Valued by the Description of the main land of Florida, her nearest Neighbor, nearly the same description is found. “ Some [of the arrows] they arm in the point with the sharpe bone of a fish, like a chisel, and in others they fasten certain stones, like diamants.”—Force's Hist. Tracts, Vol. IV, p. 22.