Address of the President. 39 



year the attention of the Eev. George Gordon, of Birnie, was 

 directed to the subject, and several shell mounds, somewhat 

 resembling those found in Denmark, were discovered on the 

 shores of the Moray Firth. A description has been given of 

 those and some others, for the purpose of directing attention 

 to the subject, by John Lubboch, Esq.,* who had also visited 

 and examined the Danish heaps. In these Scotch mounds, 

 unlike the Danish, remains of pottery were seldom found. A 

 few ornaments of bronze have been discovered ; one or two 

 bones, apparently fashioned for some purpose ; some small bits 

 of flint ; the bones of domestic animals ; but the accumulation 

 of shells formed the chief contents of the mound, all edible and 

 common, and known, with one exception, to inhabit the 

 neighbouring seas.f 



These lake buildings and shell mounds, as far as discovery 

 goes, are just beyond tradition. Metal tools had then been 

 used, as the wood structures often plainly indicate ; but tradi- 

 tion, either oral or otherwise, is wanting, or so slight as 

 scarcely to be founded upon ; they form the link between the 

 older historic period and the time when stronger and more 

 elaborate buildings were erected ; and by endeavouring to join 

 these and to compare all together, and to hunt up such 

 traditions and relics as may stiU be in the possession or 

 recollection of parties ignorant or thoughtless of their interest 

 and value, we may yet come to find a reliable date for those 

 erections upon which so much is based. The field here is 

 most ample, and although history and antiquities have mostly 

 been looked upon as branches of study distinct entirely from 

 natural history or geology, it is far otherwise. The early history 

 of man and his habits, as well as that of the animals that 

 existed wild around him, cannot othei-wise be traced ; and the 



* Nat. Hist. Review, July 1863, p. 415. 



t Tlie exception is Tapes dectcsscUa, not known now in the Moray Firth, 

 and according to Mr. M'Andrew having Caernarvonshire as its most northern 

 range. 



