222 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



New Brunswick and New England. — Between the years 1869 and '73, Pro- 

 fessor S. F. Baird made several visits to New Brunswick and NeAv England, 

 during which he examined a number of shell-deposits in those districts ; but 

 the notes in which he details his observations have but lately been published. 

 I will single out some of the more important localities visited by him. 



The largest shell-mound was seen at Oak Bay, a narrow fjord extending 

 northward from Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick. The total thickness of 

 the bed, Avhich consisted of a number of distinct layers, amounted to five feet. 

 "A striking feature in this mound is the abundance of spikes and shells of 

 Echini, which evidently constituted a lai'ge portion of the food of tlie aborigines. 

 A careful examination of the ashes indicated that they were derived, for the 

 most part, from eel-grass {Zostera marina), and it is suggested that the cooking 

 of the shells was done b}^ wrapping them up in dry eel-grass and setting fire to 

 it. This would jirobably cook the animals sutficiently to enable them to be 

 readily withdrawn from the shell."* The principal shells here found were 

 Buccinum jdicosum, Natica heros, Pecten tenuicostatus, Pecten cardium, Mya are- 

 naria, Mytilus, and Helix alternata. 



Another interesting bed was seen on Frye's or Cailiff' s Island, New Bruns- 

 wick. " Here the shell-bed was a very large one, about fifteen feet above the 

 present high tide, and seemed to have been torn up by the tide and restratified 

 by the water, so that articles of the same kind and specific gravity were usually 

 found in association." 



Other points .in New Brunswick and several localities in Eastern Maine 

 were examined. Resuming his observations, Professor Baird says : — " They 

 are characterized in some cases by large beds of shells of the soft clam {Mya 

 arenaria) — never of the quahaug or Venus mercenaria — with a little admixture 

 of earth ; in others the shells are in a much decomposed condition, with black 

 earth scattered among them ; again, by the association of large bones, especially 

 of the moose and caribou, Avith but little mixture of anything else. Occasionally 

 these beds alternated with pure shell or pure bone, possibly the shells being 

 aggregated in summer and the bones of mammals in winter. Everywhere the 

 bones of the great auk were found, as also those of the beaver."f 



At Damariscotta, Lincoln County, Maine, the extensive beds consist almost 

 entirely of oysters. They cover many acres to a depth of from five to fifteen 

 or twenty feet. The oysters are large, and generally narrow or slipj)er-shaped. 

 Very few are now found living in the vicinity. 



* Baird : Notes on certain Shell-Mounds on the Coast of New Brunswick and of New England ; Proceedings 

 of the United States National Museum ; Vol. IV, Washington, 1882; p. 292. 



Remains of the Zostera marina, it will be remembered, also occurred in the Danish kjokkenmoddings, where 

 this sea-plant is supposed to have been used in the production of salt. See p. 35 of this work. 



t Ibid.; p. 296. 



