ETHiNOLOGY. 



FROM THE LONDON ATH^NEUM, 



Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 21. 1863. 



During the last winter's session of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural 

 Science, the llev. John Ambrose, rector of the parish of St. Margaret's bay, a 

 district lying on the Atlantic seaboard of this colony, brought to the notice of 

 the Institute the existence of extensive beds of refuse shells and bones, mixed 

 ■with fragments of rude pottery, and perfect and imperfect flint arrow and spear 

 lieads. Gifted Avith an inquiring mind, the gentleman in question naturally 

 considered that their occurrence was not a matter of chance ; and, following up 

 the subject, he ascertained that similar beds had been known to exist on the 

 shoi^es of Denmark and the adjacent isles, and that they had received the name 

 of hjoihlicn-moidding, or kitchen-middings, from being heaps of refuse shells, 

 bones, &c., thrown aside by the primitive race of men who, in days of remote 

 antiquity, visited annually, or dwelt continuously, in such positions. On perus- 

 ing an article published in the report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1860, 

 which gave an interesting account of the kitchen middinga of Europe, as sur- 

 veyed by the Danish archeologists, a perfect resemblance to those of the Nova 

 Scotian coast was at once perceived, in so far at least as the few specimens then 

 obtained from these heaps proved. 



To endeavor to make a thorough search, and prove the nature of these de- 

 posits, the Council of the Institute of Natural Science decided upon having a 

 field meeting on the spot where the kitchen middings lay; and, accordingly, on 

 the 11th of June last, a large party proceeded by land from Ilalifex, the capital 

 of the province, to St. Margaret's bay, which is distant, in a S.SW. direction, 

 about twenty-two miles. This bay is exceedingly spacious, runs inland some 

 eight or ten miles, and is in breadth, perhaps, five or six miles. A few islands 

 stand at the entrance as well as at its head, and long, low, promontories, clothed 

 with spruce, birch, and maple, stretch into the water at the NE. corner, forming 

 snug coves and sheltered strands. It is on the shore of one of these minor 

 bays, having a sandy beach, where canoes could be hauled up easily and safely, 

 that the principal lcjoikTxcn-in(nddhig, found by Mr. Ambrose, lay, on a rising 

 knoll some twenty feet above the bay at high-water mark. It forms part of a 

 grass field belonging to a farm-house hard by, and according to the statement 

 of the farmer, and the appearance it presents, has been submitted to little, if 

 any, disturbance at the hand of man. The deposit appears to have extended 

 about fifty yards or more in length by a well-defined breadth of eight yards. 

 Its surface is irregularly depressed and dotted over, on its western extremity, 

 with granitic boulders of no great size. The soil which covers the mass is 

 similar to that of the field in which it occurs, though, perhaps, a little darker in 

 color. It grows common meadow grass and the ordinary field plants, and its 

 cl;';)th does not exceed two or three inches when the shell deposit appears, pre- 

 senting a layer of compact shells, perfect and imperfect, in which lie bones of 

 animals and birds, flint and quartz arrow and spear heads, large and small teeth, 

 and broken pieces of very roughly made pottery, bearing evident traces of 

 attempt at ornament. This pottery was very dark in color, and contained in 

 its substance grains of granitic sand, and mica in quantity. From the pieces of 

 rim obtained, judging from their curvature, the earthen vessels could scarcely 

 have exceeded the dimensions of a quart bowl. These bowls or cups must 

 have been in common use, as the fragments occur in some plenty. No traces 



