The Spaniards Of Florida

In this same yesterday of geologic time the historic coquina of Florida was but a shell sea beach until at the close of this epoch it was raised a few feet above sea level and consolidated by being cemented through natural processes, making it available for the adventurous Spaniards who, in the course of events, recognized its beauty as well as value and so built with it old Fort San Marco, now known as Fort Marion, and other structures in St. Augustine and at other points along the coast. During the Pleistocene period animal life of Florida was particularly rich. The life of this time has been likened to the present day life of the big game region of Africa. The fossils of this period are found widely distributed and are becoming increasingly better known. In all probability the animals present in Florida today, or their immediate predecessors, lived here during the Pleistocene but there are those represented that no longer inhabit the State and others that have become extinct.

Among the most spectacular of these prehistoric animals are the mammoth, mastodon, saber-tooth tiger, lion, cougar, wolf, bear, fox, camel, horse, tapir, deer, peccary, capybara, giant ground sloth, and giant tortoise-armadillo. With this Pleistocene fauna human bones and manmade implements have been found in such association as to lead some to the conclusion that they are an original part of the formation and that man was, therefore, present in Florida during the time these animals, whose remains are now found fossil, roamed here. The points at which careful investigations along these lines have, been made are particularly Vero Beach and Melbourne Beach, Brevard County. A mild earth movement of but a comparatively few feet closed the Pleistocene and brought in the Florida of today. Thus the recent period, including the present day reefs, bars, limey sediments, sand dunes, wind, lake and stream deposits and mounds, comes in for consideration.

There is evidence all through the State, along the coasts and up and down the rivers, of man's habitation in years long past. The artificial mounds, composed principally of the remains of shellfish, give mute evidence of a vanished race or races. The Indians, and perhaps a race preceding them, have known of Florida for ages. One of the most significant of these landmarks is Turtle Mound on the East Coast a few miles south and east of New Smyrna, standing some fifty feet above the plain and composed almost entirely of shell. Others are those at Caxambas on the southwestern coast, Collier County, and on Crystal River, Citrus County. These are mentioned for the reason that they are among the more prominent but almost in every part of Florida there are to be found these sentinels of the past.