ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS. 235 



Delaware Bay and River, prepared in 1654-'55 by Peter Lindstrom, Royal 

 Swedish engineer attached to Menewe's expedition. This map, now in the 

 Swedish archives, shows a sheet of water of considerable size, called Flower 

 River, that corresponds precisely with the present line of the mounds, and con- 

 firms the theory that the ground they occupy was selected for an encampment on 

 account of the facilities oifered by this inlet as an exit into the bay. The 

 northern end of the great sand-dune, spoken of as lying between the cape and 

 Lewes, has in its progress inland buried from view several hundred feet of the 

 deposit near its southeastern terminus. Emerging thence, they continue, and 

 enter the pine-forest northwest of the cape, where they terminate. 



" Half a century ago some portions of these accumulations were from fifteen 

 to twenty feet high, and the dazzling whiteness of the bleached shells made them 

 a conspicuous object far at sea. Now, they have an altitude that in places will 

 scarcely measure as many inches, except where sheltered by the timber. Atmos- 

 pheric action has done much to produce this change ; but the great factor in the 

 work of demolition has been utilitarian man, by whom tons of the decomposed 

 valves have been carted away for fertilizing purj^oses, and the elements are 

 gradually obliterating the remainder. 



" I made many excavations among the shell-hills at Lewes ; but in respect 

 to the number of implements found therein, they were as unproductive as the 

 mounds at Long Neck Branch. I dug out in one place, two feet below the sur- 

 face, three boulders of sandstone, which, from their relative position and cal- 

 cined appearance, I infer were once hearth-stones. Near these stones I found 

 a chisel of exquisite workmanship and two tubes of banded slate ; also a portable 

 corn-mill of conglomerate rock, weighing thirty-six pounds. On the surface of 

 the sand, however, near the accumulations, I picked up a large number of speci- 

 mens, comprising several axes, a well-polished gouge of seriDentine, arrow and 

 spear-heads, scrapers, many hammer-stones, and a flat piece of granite, on Avhich 

 there are three perfectly-executed grooves converging to a point, three inches 

 long, an eighth of an inch deej?, and the same in width. 



" In conclusion, I desire to say to future exj^lorers that if, in making exca- 

 vations directly among the shells, their object is the discovery of stone tools, 

 their search will by an unrequited one. My experience has taught me that 

 articles of real archaeological value are only to be found at some distance from 

 the mounds, where one would suppose the habitations of the Indians were placed." 



Maryland. — Dr. Elmer R. Reynolds, of Washington, D. C, kindly placed at 

 my disposition a large manuscript, descriptive of extensive explorations of shell- 

 heaps, carried on by him along the Maryland side of the estuary of the Potomac 

 River. But feeling reluctant to avail myself of this ample material, which Dr. 

 Reynolds intends to utilize himself in an elaborate account of these shell-deposits. 



