NOTES ON THE SHELL - MOUNDS AT SEAFORD, 



LITTLE SWANPORT: 



By Alfred J. Taylor, F.L.S., F.R.G.S.,E. 



Among the many interesting relics of the Aborigines of 

 Tasmania that yet remain, not the least interesting are the 

 shell- mounds that mark the spot where they formed their en- 

 campments and feasted before the intrusion of a white race 

 had disturbed their simple and peaceful modes of living. 

 Such shell heaps as that to which I am about to refer occur 

 in other parts of the world, and for some time they were sup- 

 posed to be nothing more particular than ordinary " raised 

 beaches." Even now in Tasmania there are many well-in- 

 formed people who cannot bring themselves to believe that 

 the shell heaps noticeable in many places on our shores are 

 the kitchen-middens, or " refuse heaps," of the Aborigines of 

 the colony ; and it is for the information of such sceptics that 

 I place on record the following evidence as establishing 

 beyond all reasonable doubt the fact that they are this, and 

 nothing more. One has only to examine these remarkable 

 accumulations to obtain evidence of an intensely interesting 

 and convincing character, and the results of a personal ex- 

 amination of the extensive shell mounds to be found on the 

 estate leased by Mr. Samuel Drake at Little Swan port have 

 induced me to hope that a few notes on the subject may be 

 of some interest to the Fellows of this Society. It may be as 

 well, I think, to prelude what I have to advance as direct 

 evidence in favour of my contention by briefly referring to 

 one or two of the reasons why the accumulation of shells at 

 Little Swanport cannot be regarded as having been due to 

 the upraising of oyster beds, or as having been due to the 

 wash of surf upon the spot. In the first place, although it 

 can be shown that at some places where shell mounds occur 

 in the colony live and dead shells are thrown up by the surf, 

 at Little Swanport there is no wash or surf to cast up shells, 

 for while the plunging seas roar on the bar outside, the waters 

 within are, as a rule, as still and as peaceful as the waters of 

 a mill pond. The conclusion that the shell beds have been 

 upraised from the sea is disposed of by the natural features 

 that distinguished true raised beaches from kitchen-middens 

 or refuse heaps. Sir John Lubbock, in his " Prehistoric 

 Man," has drawn attention to the fact that raised beaches 

 contain species the individuals of which are of different ages, 

 and that the shells are, as a matter of course, mixed up with 

 a large amount of sand and gravel. He also quotes Professor 

 Steenstrup, who, in combating the idea that the shell mounds 



