ti4 Spencer, Kitchen Middens and Native Ovens, [vor'xxxv 



of shells is seen in fig. 2, Plate I. The foreground surface is 

 covered with shells which have been exposed by the shifting 

 of the sand. They may be of comparatively recent date, but 

 the layer on the left-hand side, which is seen projecting from 

 the surface of the sand-dune, must be of some considerable 

 age. Probably many of those in the foreground have been 

 derived from this layer by the gradual wearing back of the 

 face of the little cliff. 



There are doubtless many other layers of shells representing 

 old " middens " hidden away under the sand-hills — in fact, in 

 the few places where tracks have been made, as at the mouth 

 of the Darby River, cuttings through the sand and loamy 

 ground have revealed abundant remains of shells, and more 

 especially the opercula of Turbo nndiilatus, indicating the fact 

 that it is long ago since the aborigines first made their camping- 

 ground on the shores of the Promontory. 



There are, at the same time, two lines of jagged, rocky reefs 

 running out into the sea a little way to the north of the Darby 

 River, and evidently it was from these that the aborigines 

 derived their main supply of shell-fish. At the present time, 

 though but few shells are seen on the beach, this is strewn 

 with endless numbers of the opercula of Turbo nndiilatus. It 

 is a curious feature that, whilst these opercula are so plentiful, 

 there are very few shells, or even fragments of them, thrown 

 up on the sandy, shelving shore. It must mean that the 

 opercula are more difficult to destroy than the shells ; in fact, 

 one can imagine that they could easily, when detached from 

 the soft parts of the animal, be washed ashore and buried on 

 the beach, whilst the shells would become filled with sand, 

 and, weighted in this way, would easily be pounded into 

 fragments when dashed against the rocks or hurled on the sand 

 by the huge breakers that incessantly pound on the shore-line. 



The middens contain the remains of various species of 

 mollusca, together with very crude forms of stone implements 

 that the aborigines used for the purpose of smashing the shells. 

 These consist of fragments derived from the adjacent dune 

 sandstone, of small masses of quartzite evidently obtained from 

 the hills in the interior of the Promontory, and of very roughly 

 flaked pieces of chert, the nearest supply of which lies at least 

 40 miles away, so that it must have been carried here by the 

 natives. There is no doubt whatever that these stone imple- 

 ments, which are scattered about amongst the broken shells 

 on the little flats among the sand-dunes where there is no local 

 outcrop of rock, were made, carried here, and used by the 

 aborigines. They are of the crudest possible form, and, if 

 found away from such indubitable evidence of their actual 

 use, would be difficult to recognize as of human manufacture. 



