292 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



NOTES Oy tEKTAIIV ABORIGINAI. SHEL,!. MOUNWS ON THE COAST 

 OF NE^V BRUNSWICK ANB OF NE%V ENGtiANB. 



BY S. F. BAIRD, 



During several successive visits made to New England and the Prov- 

 inces, I embraced the opportunity of examining a number of interesting 

 shell mounds, intending to continue the research and to prepare a de- 

 tailed account of them. Subsequent events, however, have prevented 

 my doing this, and I now publish some fragmentary notes on the subject, 

 for the purpose of calling attention to the localities and inviting further 

 examination. 



In general, it is possible to determine beforehand the existence of shell 

 heaps by the physical surroundings. Thus, whenever on the sea-coast 

 the shore sloped gently to the south, witli fresh water in the neighbor- 

 hood, shell mounds or beds could always be inferred, especially if in the 

 vicinity of flats where clams could be obtained. Here were generally 

 established the sites of villages or of temporary encampments. 



Prof. F. W. Putnam, in one of his papers upon shell mounds in New 

 England, has remarked upon the comparative absence of stone imple- 

 ments therein. This I did not And to be the case in Maine and Ne\v 

 Brunswick ; indeed, in some cases, the abundance was quite remarkable. 



The examinations of the shell beds in New Brunswick and Eastern 

 JNIaine were mostly made in the summer of ISGO ; of those on Cape Cod, 

 in 1870 and 1871; and of those on Casco Bay, in 1873. All the speci- 

 mens collected are in the National Museum at Washington. 



Xo. 1. — OaJc Bay, *SY. Croix River, St. Bavidh Parish, New Brunmcicl;. — 

 This locality is on the eastern side of Oak Bay, and is about eight miles 

 from Calais, on the farm of Josiah Simpson. This is the most extensive 

 and in fact one of the richest mounds I have ever examined. The total 

 thickness of the bed is about 5 feet, and the different layers occur in a 

 succession indicated in the accompanying diagram. 



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

 of Echini, which evidently constituted a large j)ortion of the food of the 

 aborigines. A careful examination of the ashes indicated that they were 

 derived, for the most part, from eel-grass {Zoster a marina), and it is sug- 

 gested that the cooking of the shells was done by wrapping them up 

 in dry eel-grass and setting fire to it. This would probably cook the 

 animals sufliciently to enable them to be readily withdrawn from the 

 shell. 



Oak Bay is a narrow fjord, extending northward from Passamaquoddy 

 Bay, the water being entirely salt. The tides are very high, and a vast 

 extent of flats is exposed at low water, still abounding in the soft clam. 



