89G PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



had good success in hunting for fragments of broken pottery near these 

 old fire-places. 



The shells composing' the shell heaps of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, 

 and Nantucket are mostly quahoags, oysters, clams, both the small kind 

 and the large sea clam, fragments of razor shells, conches, periwinkles, 

 a few scallops, and the large salt-water snail shell so commonly found 

 clinging on rocks. At Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, near the " Swim- 

 ming Place," and at one other place on Cape Cod, are found large numbers 

 of land snail shells in little piles in the midst of theshell heap, which leaves 

 little doubt that the Indians did not hesitate to eat even these when 

 they could collect them in large enough numbers. It is possible that 

 they were collected with a view to pierce and string them, for they would 

 make better ornaments when strung than ordinary periwinkles. On 

 Indian Neck, in South Wellfleet, Mr. Theophilus Rich, a few years siuce, 

 while digging, found the skeleton of an Indian which was apparently, 

 when first uncovered, well preserved, but soon crumbled all away ex- 

 cepting the jaw-bone and teeth and a double row of common periwinkles 

 which had hung about the neck and rested on the chest. The teeth were 

 worn down close to the base, or were, as the discoverer affirmed, "double 

 all the way around." Among the quahoag and periwinkle shells near 

 the oldest shell heaps lying to the north of Welltleet Harbor were found 

 some which had been perforated from within outward, ostensibly for the 

 purpose of stringing. It was possible to tell roughly which shell heaps 

 were the older, because some of them had the quahoag shells in them 

 dented on the edges or broken in pieces by hammer stones, while in 

 other piles which in other respects appeared equally old it could be seen 

 that the quahoag shells had been opened by a knife, which could be in- 

 serted to cut the strong adductor muscle and thus avoid breaking the 

 shell. One shell heap, a very short distance from the most western 

 large wharf, on the north side of Welltleet Bay, was especially interest- 

 ing from the fact that here occurred the shells of the long narrow native 

 oysters, now extinct on the New England coast, but whose shells make 

 up by far the larger part of the great shell heaps of Maine. It is a rare 

 thing to find these oyster shells so far toward the south, and a few of 

 them discovered some years ago in the mud about Back Bay, Boston, 

 are said to have created considerable comment at the Boston Natural 

 History Booms. The shells in the heap were very old, and the larger 

 ones crumbled so easily that only one was preserved. Soon after the 

 examination of this shell heap, Mr. Graham, living near by, showed a 

 very fine large specimen of this oyster's shell which he said he dredged 

 up in the bay. Both valves were perfect, and looked as if the occupaut 

 had just removed. The owner of it saw that it was very rare, and he 

 refused an offer for it of $5. If it is true that this variety of oysters was 

 once common along the coast of Cape Cod, and yet a thorough search 

 should prove that the shell heaps of Cape Cod contain very few of them, 

 will it not help to establish the fact that the Indians have not pleuti 



