The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-01
------'------------------- FLORIDA CANNIBALS.
One of the Discoveries of Professor Moore, an Enthusiast on Floridian Antiquities.
 From the Florida Citizen

One of the Discoveries of Professor Moore,
 an Enthusiast on Floridian Antiquities.
 From the Florida Citizen.
 As field for the scientific research of archaeologists and anthropologists Florida has been fruitful from the time of Le Moyne, who escaped the St. Johns river massacre in the latter part of the sixteenth century, to the present date. Le Moyne was among the first, if not the first, explorer of Florida antiquities, and he came under the many disadvan- tages of three centuries ago, and in country full of hostile tribes and infest- ed with more hostile white men, The latest follower of this daring explorer is a gentleman who is about to start from this port on a tour of investigation of Florida's antiquities, in vessel built and equipped for the special purpose, and accompanied on the voyage by small coterie of congenial friends This gentleman is Professor c. B. Moore, representative of the Philadel-
 
 his vessel is the Gopher, which has | been built by the Merrill-Stevens Engi- neering company of this city, and | which has been built specially adapted | to floating in shallow waters. It also combines all the comforts of a winter | home, library study rooms and labo ratories, dark rooms for photography, and all the paraphernalia necessary in the study of natural history, wherever the chance for such study may be l found.
 The Gopher is stern wheel vessel, one hundred feet in length and of twen- ty-one feet beam. She is equipped with two one hundred horse power engines and all the necessary boiler capacity. These occupy large portion of the main deck, on which are also located the cooking arrangements, the quar- ters for the crew of six, and the storage of small boats and ship supplies. The upper deck is fitted with the cabins and staterooms of those who make the boat their home during the next five or six months. The deck-house is divided | into five large sleeping rooms, store | ACpiii lpl tiG Spl ol SCltlIliltC lHSllu- ments and the extra baggage of the party, and a. dark room for the devel- opment of photographic exposures and | other work connected with the prepar- ing of the pictorial reports of the work that is to be accomplished. The for ward end of the house is one large room, neatly furnished, which will be used as the dining and working room | of the scientists of the party.
 l The party was made up of Professor 1 Moore, who Is at the head of the work, and from whose pen will come the re- | ports to the scientific world of the re- 1 searches that are made here. His as- l sociates are Dr. M. G. Miller, Dr. B. Henry and pr. c. S. Walker, each of whom will make a, study of some par ticular branch of the general subjects that are to be investigated Professor Moore was called upon yesterday after noon in his commodious quarters on the 1 Gopher, just as the boat was about to leave for trial trip up the river. She 1 has made but a few short runs, and it was considered necessary to prove the machinery before any extended trips of l l "T have spent twenty-one winters in Florida" he said, "and I have made quite a study of her extinct races as well as of her present inhabitants. I carry crew of six men, besides the en- gineer and captain, and all of these men I have had with me for several seasons before. They are all trained mound diggers, and they know what kind of work is required of them in ! that branch. I have made a special study of the mounds of Florida, and I have opened at least one hundred shell mounds, and nearly two hundred sand mounds in this state. The collection of Florida anthropology and relics in the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sci ences is the best in the world, and is larger than all others combined.
 '"The shell mounds of Florida are de- posits of the shells of fish that were eaten by the early inhabitants of this | country, and are really refuse heaps. Above Palatka the shells are those of 1 fish that could live in fresh waters, and resemble what should call aperikinkle. l From Palatka to Jacksonville there are a few of these mounds, and below here and nearer to the ocean the shells are 1 those of the oyster. The extent of these mounds is sometimes marvellous, and shows that they must have been the &C., cumulation of great spaces of time. | That mound from which c. H. Curtis of Bluffton has been sending some sam | ples for paving your streets in Jackson vile, covers about thirty-five acres, and I have dug into it to a maximum depth of twenty-five feet. You will see that they are not mounds of conical shape, | like the sand mounds, but were formed las think. by the throwing aside of the