ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS. 255 



layers of shells, bones, and charred timber. Numerous smaller heaps are scat- 

 tered around generally, i^rolonged or flattened out under the lee of the contiguous 

 sand-dunes. 



" Not more than a dozen varieties of shells appear in the remains. Very 

 large specimens of mussel-shells seem to predominate. Next in point of fre- 

 quency are the common clam and cockle-shell. The common sea-snail frequently 

 occurs. A conical shell is also quite numerously represented. A univalve with 

 spiral curve, very thick and semi-transparent, comes next in abundance. The 

 latter is generally broken at the side, the aperture forming a hole through the 

 centre at right angles with its mouth. This mutilation is noticed in nearly all 

 of the spiral-curved shells, and was probably made for the purpose of extracting 

 the mollusk ; but the shells may have had a subsequent use for ornamental pur- 

 poses by stringing them together. A great many fragments of the abalone-shell 

 [Haliotis) are also found. The mussel and snail-shells, especially the former, 

 are very much broken up, and exceedingly friable when found whole. 



"Numerous portions of whale-skeletons are met with, the jaw-bones of one, 

 fully fifteen feet high, forming an arch to the entrance of the Ocean House Hotel. 

 It was carried from the shell-heaps to its present position. There are no speci- 

 mens of pottery found in or in the vicinity of the shell-heaps. 



" This locality was not only resorted to for capturing and consuming the daily 

 food, but was also a workshop of the aborigines, where their implements of war 

 and the chase were manufactured, as numerous flint chips and imperfect arrow 

 and spear-heads prove. Within the radius of a mile these specimens are to be 

 found, more than a thousand of them having been picked up by the writer. 

 Business and pleasure must have been combined in no small degree by these 

 ancient coast-dwellers. Thousands of Indians must have helped to add to the 

 height of this immense mass of debris through many generations. 



" Several of the mounds were carefully examined. A trench was dug across 

 the apex, and then another at right angles with the first cutting. The largest 

 heap thus explored showed a combination of shells, bones of animals, and charred 

 timber to the depth of four feet. The shells and bones fell in pieces upon being- 

 exposed to the air. Other mounds showed a similar combination of material, 

 difi"ering slightly in the depth of the layers. 



" There are no shells of any description found along the beach for five miles 

 southward and three miles northward, excepting those on and in the mounds. 

 Careful examination of the rocks opjjosite the heaps at low tide only shows one 

 kind of shell-fish, namely, the conical-shaped univalve. 



" The flint chippings and arrow and spear-heads are not confined to the 

 immediate vicinity of the heaps, but may be found at numerous places for five 

 miles along the beach in a southerly direction, especially on the sheltered side of 

 a sand-dune or blutf. It would seem that the Indian sat down to manufacture 



