230 DESCRIPTION OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 



have been embodied in six Keports, presented to the Academy 

 of Sciences at Copenhagen.* 



It is from these Eeports, and from the excellent Memoir by 

 M. Moiiot, that the following information has principally been 

 derived. Being, however, anxious to present to my readers a 

 complete and accurate account of these interesting shell- 

 mounds, I have more than once visited Denmark; first in 1861, 

 with Professor Busk, and again in the summer of 1863. On 

 both these occasions, through the kindness of Professor Thorn- 

 sen and Herr K. Herbs t, every facility has been afforded me of 

 examining the large collections made in different Kjokken- 

 mb'ddings, in addition to which I had the great advantage of 

 visiting several of the shell -mounds under the guidance of 

 Professor Steenstrup himself especially one at Havelse in 

 1861, and those at Meilgaard and Fannerup in 1863. 



Mr. Busk and I also visited by ourselves one at Bilidt, on 

 the Isefjord, close to Fredericksund ; but this is one of the 

 places at which it would seem that the inhabitants cooked 

 their dinners actually on the shore itself, so that the shells 

 and bones are much mixed up with sand and gravel ; and we 

 were not very successful in our search for flint implements. 

 At Havelse, on the contrary, the settlement was on rather 

 higher ground, and, though close to the shore, quite beyond 

 the reach of the waves ; the shells and bones are, therefore, 

 almost unmixed with extraneous substances. At this place 

 the Kjokkenmodding is of small extent, and is in the form 

 of an irregular ring, enclosing a space on which the ancient 

 dwelling or dwellings probably stood. In other cases, where 

 the deposit is of greater extent, as, for instance, in the cele- 



* Untersogelser i geologisk-anti- excellent abstract of the Reports in 



quarisk Retning af G. Forcliham- the Mem. de Ja Societe Vaudoise, 



iner, J. Steenstrup, og J. Worsaae. t. vi. 1860. 

 M. Morlot also has published an 



