176 Our Food Mollusks 



world, and especially on sea shores, have always ex- 

 cited great interest, and have told many tales of 

 ancient peoples, as well as of the inhabitants of the 

 sea. 



The Danish Kjokkenmoddings, or " heaps of kitchen 

 refuse," among the first to be studied, were formerly 

 supposed to have been accumulated by wave action, and 

 some have suggested that our own " kitchen middens " 

 were also merely beach deposits thrown up in great 

 storms or by the action of ice. But the critical eye 

 would at once see that in the majority of cases their 

 form and position alone preclude the possibility of such 

 an origin, and examination has revealed among the 

 shells and rubbish not only the bones of many beasts and 

 birds, but also stone implements, pottery, and even the 

 charred remains of ancient fires. 



Such shell heaps are found all along the Pacific coast, 

 from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Florida keys on 

 the Atlantic, and nearly everywhere on the Gulf of 

 Mexico. Many of them are of immense size. In Flor- 

 ida, there are vast repositories, the accumulations of 

 ages. On the Chesapeake, single heaps often cover 

 many acres, in some places to a depth of twenty feet. 

 In the northern oyster field, there is a great kitchen mid- 

 den at the mouth of the Damariscotta River in Maine, 

 the contents of which are estimated at eight million cubic 

 feet. It, like other shell heaps, contains many relics of 

 the native peoples who formed it, and without doubt 

 marks the gathering-place of Indian tribes, many of 

 which probably came from a distance to attend great 

 feasts. 



So numerous are these shell collections along the 

 Maine coast that even the summer visitor, cruising in his 



