MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 673 



On examining the carved head carefully it was found that the surface 

 Siad been coated with a dark-red i)igmeut. This could hardly have 

 "been on the stone when it was dug up, if, as I was assured, it came 

 •from a depth beneath the surface of three feet or more ; and for the fol- 

 lowing reasons I suppose it to have been painted after it was exhumed. 



An examination of the bank or hillside where the relic was found 

 revealed the presence of " Drift," a deposit of the glacial and post- 

 glacial period, immediately below the surface loam, which is a foot thick. 

 The point at which the stone was dug up is not more than about 

 sixty feet above the Kennebecasis Eiver, and it would thus for a long 

 period have been below the sea-level in the time marked by the accu- 

 mulation of the Ledalelay of which (or of the bowlder clay) the deposit 

 containing the stone lay consisted. If buried by natural causes in this 

 ■deposit the age of the relic would be carried back to a very distant 

 period — a period so distant that one may question whether it could 

 have had its present appearance at that time. And it seems more rea- 

 sonable to suppose that if it possessed its present aspect when dug up, 

 it must have been buried later than the Drift period, either by accident 

 or design. The paint with which the face is covered appears to have been 

 a subsequent embellishment, for loug-coutinued exposure to the action 

 of the elements would have removed the oil or other substance which 

 serves to give body to the color, and the paint would have remained as 

 a dry powder liable to be brushed off with the slightest touch. 



The mode of burial of this stone cannot now be verified, owing to the 

 crumbling condition of the bauk, and its actual age as a work of art 

 must remain to a great extent a matter of conjecture. The naturally 

 rough features have been rechiseled, and (since the stone was dug up) 

 -coated with paint ; so that in some respects the object is not in its pris- 

 tine condition, and its value as an object or specimen of aboriginal 

 -art has been seriously marred by these changes. 



ANTIQUITIES OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



By Rev. George Patterson, D. D., of New Glasgow, N. S. 



No earthworks, properly speaking, exist in this region, but shell heaps 

 are to be found in various places. The shores of this county at vari- 

 ous places give evidence of the former occupation of the couutrj^ by 

 the aborigines, particularly the shells, which are found in the soil as it 

 is turned up by the plow, and the stone implements which were formerly 

 picked up in abundance, aud are still sometimes found, though more 

 rarely. The principal places are. Middle River Point, Fraser's Point, 

 both sides of the East Eiver at its entrance into the harbor, Fisher's 

 >Grant, and the Beaches, all in Pictou Harbor, and almost every island 

 S. Mis. 109 43 



