1883. 143 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Set. 



minished ; and as nutrition is measured by action, and growth by 

 nutrition, the jaw of civiHzed man is shorter, and the posterior molar 

 (wisdom-tooth) appearing last, is cramped for room, imperfectly 

 developed, and usually temporary. In the jaws of the shell mound 

 people, the wisdom-tooth was one of the largest and most service- 

 able of the series. 



The Far Rockaway skeletons were evidently many hundred 

 years old — how many, none can say. The bones were extremely 

 light and friable ; but this is as often the result of special conditions 

 as of time. From the relations of the skeletons to the shell heaps, 

 it may fairly be inferred that they were the remains of the shell 

 mound builders, and were consequently cannibals ; but if so, the 

 conditions of the bones indicate that they were rather the eaters 

 than the eaten. The skeleton procured by Mr. Britton was that 

 of a man fully six feet in height, well-proportioned, and with good 

 cranial development. 



Mr. B. B. Chamberlin referred to a shell-mound which existed 

 some years ago at Tarrytown, on the Hudson river, 28 miles from 

 the coast. It was mostly made up of oyster shells, containing 

 many arrow-heads, but has since been removed by the extension of 

 a neighboring brickyard. 



Prof. Martin stated that the late Mr. Leavitt had spoken of a 

 shell-mound which formerly existed near Inwood, on New York 

 Island. In New England large shell-mounds occur, such as 

 one at Damariscotta, Maine, thirty feet in height above the river, 

 but which was quarried several years ago for lime. In this the 

 common shells were those of the oyster, but very large, long and 

 narrow, a species which no longer exists there. 



Dr. Britton remarked that there was formerly a shell-mound, 

 which was a constant resort for collectors of arrow-heads, at Old 

 Bridge, N. J., ten miles up the Raritan and four miles distant from 

 the river. 



Dr. JULiEN referred to the very numerous shell-mounds upon the 

 salt-marshes all along the New Jersey coast, and some of which had 

 been partially or wholly submerged, in the progress of the subsidence 

 of that region, forming shell-banks beneath the bays and salt-creeks, 

 as near Barnegat, Manahawkin, Tuckerton, etc. In the early 

 settlement of that country, tribes of Indians were known to make 



