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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    height of two feet above the surface, and at such times could be readily ob- tained. The Unios are the least abundant of the three species and are sometimes associated with the two others, but are also living on separate beds. But even with such resources as these it seems impossible that an adequate supply could be obtained for rearing such vast structures as those at Silver Spring, on Lake George, at Orange Bluff and on Huntoon Island, unless it is assumed, the supply being the same as now, that the building of the mounds extended through very long periods of time and were the result of very slow accumulation, or that the shells existed formerly in much greater quantities than now. Neither supposition is improbable. The first of these views is sustained by the fact that the area of the mounds was such as to afford dwelling places only to a very small number of inhabitants, especially if we suppose these led a hunter’s life, and that in consequence the consumption of shell fish and the accumulation of shells was comparatively slow. That the shells were more abundant formerly than now is not improbable, as this would agree with what has been observed in other places. It is well known that animal and vegetable life in certain localities is for a period ex- tremely prolific, and then gradually becomes less and less so. The oyster beds from which the vast accumulations at Damariscotta, Maine, were ob- tained have wholly died out. Col. Dancey describes a large mound on Crystal River, on the Gulf coast of Florida, which as far as examined by him was composed of oyster shells, though there are no oysters growing at this time within four or five miles of it.” It is most probable that at the time the mound was built oysters were abundant in its immediate neighborhood, but, as at Damariscotta, have in the course of years gradually disappeared. (See Brinton, Floridian Peninsula, p. 179.) The disappearance of the oyster from the shores of Denmark along the region of the ancient Kjoekenmoedings is well known. Here there are two natural causes which have exerted a combined influence, the freshening of the water and the ravages of the starfish. At CotuiF Port, Cape Cod, there are very extensive shell heaps, made by Indians, consisting almost exclu- sively of oysters, and of unusual size. The original oyster beds in the neighborhood from which they were obtained have entirely disappeared since the shell heaps were formed, but it is uncertain whether from natural or artificial conditions. I am informed by George G. Lowell, Esq., that be- tween 1770 and 1780 they began to reappear again in large numbers, had become abundant, but in the early part of the present century again began to decrease and again became practically extinct. Within the last ten years the beds have been artificially restocked. The causes which led to the disappearance during the present century are unknown, but possibly the starfish may have been one of them. The shell-fish of the St. John’s may have undergone analogous but less complete changes. In some of the Swiss lakes, certain edible plants, as the water chestnut,”