1 88 1 -82.] Edinburgh Naturalists^ Field Club. 13 



11th March 1872, there is an accovmt by Mr David Grrieve of a 

 kitchen-midden on Inchkeith examined by him in the year 1870. 

 He says : " The locality is within a gunshot of the landing-pier on 

 the east side, and in the slope or talus inclining from the cliffs to 

 the beach." The bones obtained by him were portions of skull 

 and a cervical vertebra of grey Seal ; eleven bones of Sheep ; one 

 bone of Pig; seven bones of Ox {Bos) ; cannon-bones, parts of jaw, 

 and several teeth of Horse ; jaw-bones and other bones of Eabbit ; 

 also many portions of bones, chiefly of Sheep and Ox (some 

 split). The shells found were^ — Littorina littorea, Patella vul- 

 gata, Buccinum imdatum, Ostrea edulis, Tapes pullastra, Purpura 

 lapillus, Pecten varius, and Pecten maximus. Mr Grieve states 

 that the Rabbit burrows and is in a wild state on the island at 

 present. On Mr Sprague's visit to the island no traces of the 

 Eabbit were to be seen, and it was stated that it had been ex- 

 terminated by the workmen engaged in building the fortifications 

 upon the island. On comparing the lists of bones and shells found 

 by Mr Grieve with those found by Mr Sprague, a very marked 

 difference is observed. Almost all the bones found by the former 

 were those of domestic animals, whereas in those found by the 

 latter a very small number of bones belonged to domestic animals, 

 and the great majority to the grey Seal. Mr Grieve does not 

 appear to have found any bones of birds, whereas Mr Sprague found 

 a large niimber of bones of sea-fowl of different kinds. It seems to 

 be a fair inference that the kitchen-midden examined by the former 

 is of a much later date tlian that examined by the latter — or, at all 

 events, that it was accumulated by men further advanced in civilis- 

 ation, and whose animal food was furnished more by their own 

 domestic animals than by sea-birds and beasts. This conclusion is 

 supported by the shells. Mr Grieve found shells of the Oyster and 

 Scallop, whereas the shells found by Mr Sprague consisted entirely 

 of Limpet and Periwinkle, and other shells which can be obtained in 

 great abundance upon the rocks at low water. Some kind of dredg- 

 ing apparatus is essential to procure the former ; and it seems a 

 fair inference that the men who accumulated the kitchen-midden 

 examined by Mr Sprague had no dredging apparatus svich as 

 must have been possessed by those who accumulated Mr Grieve's 

 kitchen-midden, and to that extent they were in a lower stage of 

 civilisation. 



