1883. 141 7ya7ts. N. V. Ac. Set. 



Some rude pottery was taken out in fragments. The brown coloration 

 was probably derived from the decomposition of the bodies. 



Of the six skeletons found in the larger hole, three had already been 

 removed piece-meal, when he visited the spot on September 9th. They 

 were about two feet from the surface of the ground. He found three 

 still remaining in this hole. One was the skeleton of a very large man, 

 and measured six feet and eleven inches in length, as it lay in the 

 ground. The legs were drawn up, bringing the knees even with the 

 breast, and the hands were seemingly clasped at a level with the face. 

 This skeleton he secured and brought with him. 



A child lay to the left of this man, and a fully grown person to his 

 right ; the bones of both were badly decomposed. The bones had all 

 been removed from the smaller hole, and he was informed that these had 

 all belonged to adults. 



Shell heaps, composed of single valves of Venus mercenaria, the 

 hard clam, of Ostrea borealis, the oyster, and of Modiola plicattila, 

 occur all along the shore in the vicinity ; these are as much as three 

 feet in thickness in places, and twenty feet wide. 



His attention was first called to these skeletons by Mr. Wm. A. 

 Torrey. 



DISCUSSION. 



In answer to an inquiry, Dr. Britton stated that a tomahawk 

 and several arrow-heads had been dug up in the vicinity. 



Professor Martin remarked that the pottery showed the type of 

 incised ornamentation, effected by some small hard point. 



The President referred to similar collections of shells at 

 many other points along the Atlantic coast. Some on this side of 

 the peninsula of Nova Scotia were found to contain the bones of the 

 great auk and of the walrus. Walrus bones have also been discov- 

 ered further south, near Long Branch, but were partially silicified and 

 probably much older. Many kjoekken moeddens also occur on 

 the west coast of Florida, and have been described by Professor 

 Jeffreys Wyman and others. One of these near Cedar Keys, which 

 had been examined by Dr. Newberry, is half a mile long, twenty to 

 forty feet high, and covered with large live oaks and palmettoes. 

 Further west, along the Gulf coast, the shell mounds are largely 

 composed of Gnathodo7i, and have furnished the material for the 

 famous shell roads. They are also found in the interior, and one 

 on the Tennessee, near Chattanooga, gives its name to Shell 

 Mound Railroad Station. The shells which compose these are 



