571.93(42.25) 40 [Jury 
IV 
Primeval Refuse Heaps at Hastings 
HEN we reflect upon the abundance of refuse heaps left 
by early man on the eastern coast of the North Sea, as 
compared with similar accumulations on our own shores, we are 
tempted to seek a reason for the remarkable difference. In the 
former region these relics of man exist for many miles upon the 
shores as enormous heaps, hundreds of yards long and hundreds of 
feet in width, usually varying from three to six feet, but sometimes 
attaining as much as ten or twelve feet in thickness; while in 
England they are practically unknown. 
There are several facts in connection with these old refuse piles 
which may assist us in our search for them in the British Isles. 
In the first place they are the relics of a people who lived upon 
fish, supplemented by such animal food as they were fortunate or 
clever enough to obtain. Darwin, in his “Journal” (p. 284), 
draws a picture of the shellfish-eating Tierra del Fuegians which, 
though a very dismal one, would doubtless equally well describe 
what might have been seen on the shores of the Baltic in the 
period under consideration :—“ The inhabitants living chiefly upon 
shell-fish are obliged constantly to change their place of residence, © 
but they return at intervals to the same spot, as is evident from 
the pile of old shells.” Obviously, the refuse and rubbish of these 
people would be confined to the coast, for had they penetrated into 
mid-country their relics would necessarily be in the main of a 
different nature. It is also evident that the comparative stability 
of a coast line is essential to the existence of the “ Kitchen- 
Middens”; and this idea is supported in Denmark itself, where 
these accumulations are found far more plentifully around the more 
permanent and protected fjords than upon the ever-varying sea- 
board. On the eastern side of England the cliffs have been 
wasting practically ever since the incursion of what we call the 
North Sea, and the breach by the Straits of Dover. It thus be- 
comes obvious, that searching for these deposits in these or 
similarly circumstanced localities would be hopeless. If, on the 
other hand, we can get a firm unwasting coast line, furnished 
with convenient rock-ledges, which at once offer shelter while 
in use and immunity from destruction of deposits formed upon them, 
we have all the necessary conditions for the existence of Kitchen- 
Middens, and there they will doubtless be found all round the coast. 
