90 NOTES ON i'HE SHELL-MOUNDS AT SEAFORD. 



of Denmark were raised beaches, directed attention to the 

 circumstance that " the shells belonged entirely to full-grown 

 or to nearly full-grown individuals, and that they consisted 

 of four species which do not live together, nor require the 

 same conditions, and would not, therefore, be found together 

 in a natural deposit ; and thirdly, that the stratum contained 

 scarcely any gravel, but consisted almost entirely of shells " 

 (pp. 224-5). This reasoning applies exactly to the shell 

 mounds at Little Swanport : for not only is there an absence 

 of anything like stratification or admixture of much sand or 

 gravel with them, but the whole of the oyster shells that 

 have come under my notice are of mature growth, and are 

 mixed up with other species that do not live together. In 

 connection with this negative evidence I may throw out the 

 consideration that if these deposits were merely the indica- 

 tions of an upraising it would only be reasonable to anti- 

 cipate that many of the shells would be found in natural 

 pairs. Such, however, is not the case at Little Swanport, the 

 shells that I noticed during my recent visit to that very 

 pleasant and interesting spot being, in every instance, single 

 shells scattered just as we might expect to fiiid them in 

 refuse heaps. Another noticeable feature in the mounds at 

 Little Swanport is the fact that a very large proportion of the 

 shells are broken at one particular part, as if they had been 

 broken there to assist in the process of opening them. It is 

 also noticeable that many of them have undergone the action 

 of fire. To turn to the more direct evidence. The encamp- 

 ments of the Aborigines were always formed on the margin 

 of streams or lagoons. Possessing no appliances for digging 

 or sinking wells, it was a matter of importance to them to be 

 near fresh streams or springs. On the spot where the shell 

 mounds are thickest, at Little Swanport, there is a splendid 

 fresh water spring, which bubbles up within a few yards of 

 the bay, yielding a plentiful supply of the sweetest fresh 

 water. Their place of encampment depended also upon the 

 food obtainable, and as the daily food of those living near the 

 Coast consisted largely of shell fish, such as oysters, turbos, 

 and haliotis or mutton fish, they would naturally resort to 

 such a favoured spot as Little Swanport, where these, together 

 with the crayfish, another article of their diet, could be found 

 in abundance. As a matter of history, it is known that a 

 very large tribe of natives, known as the Oyster Bay tribe, 

 frequented the spot, and during my recent visit to it I was 

 able to discover some very interesting indications of the 

 primitive conditions under which they existed. When I first 

 decided to turn the shell heaps into lime of commercial value, 

 it struck me that many articles of ethnological interest might 

 be discovered, and I gave strict instructions to the parties 

 employed to send me all bones or remarkable stones that they 



