ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS. 233 



will rise upon the site of the Indian wigwam, and every trace of the aboriginal 

 character of the spot will have disappeared before the march of improvement."* 

 Mr. Jordan has kindly communicated to me in writing the results of further 

 explorations of shell-deposits in Delaware, and I herewith give his account in 

 his own words : — 



" The little bays and inlets of the Lower Delaware, famous for the abun- 

 dance and fine quality of oysters and other mollusks, w^ere especially attractive 

 to the Indians. The artificial shell-deposits — some of them of considerable 

 magnitude — that occur in the vicinity of Cape Henlopen and elsewhere along 

 the coast of Delaware, and which furnish in their construction the evidence of 

 their aboriginal character, testify to their appreciation of a locality possessing 

 numerous eligible encamping-sites as well as a remarkably equable climate and 

 inexhaustible fisheries. It is difficult to arrive at an accurate computation of the 

 age of these deposits ; but from their extent and the nature of their formation, 

 it is fair to assume that they represent the accumulations of centuries. It is a 

 well-ascertained fact that the aborigines visited the coast j^ei'iodically, and hence 

 these remains are the debris of their temporary encampments, and are generally 

 to be found on the banks of an estuary which gave their occupants safe connection 

 with the open sea. 



" Three miles north of Rchoboth, and a mile and a half west of Cape Hen- 

 lopen, is Long Neck Branch, a narrow strip of land, as its name implies, which, 

 within the memory of living inhabitants, projected into a shallow inlet of the 

 sea, where now only an immense salt-meadow exists, that may be safely crossed 

 on foot. On this jDeninsula, which is triangular in shape, half a mile long and 

 about a quarter of a mile wide at its base, and on an elevation far removed from 

 inundating tides, are shell-heaps which occupy the entire length of the neck, 

 and form, with one or two trivial breaks, a continuous mound. In the narrowest 

 parts of the peninsula the shell-deposits completely cover the surface, but else- 

 where their average width is thirty feet. A large portion of the deposit is 

 covered with a grove of pine-trees, wdiicli must have sprung up since the place 

 w^as deserted, as in manj' instances they have taken root directly upon the 

 summits of the heaps ; and among them are a number whose cortical rings 

 denote an age of two centuries. The trees and undergrowth have largely 

 contributed to the preservation of the deposit, and where the roots have arrested 

 disintegration and kept the mass compact, the composition of the accumulations 

 can be studied as accurately as if their abandonment had been a recent event. 

 Numerous excavations established their depth to be from two to six feet, but 

 did not reveal characteristics differing materially from those observed in the 

 deposits at Rehoboth. They consist of hard-shell clam, oyster, and conch- 



* Jordan : The Remains of an Aboriginal Encampment at Rehoboth, Delaware ; Philadelphia, 1880; p. 2, etc. 



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