v2 ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS IN NEW JERSEY. 
oo 
shape of cast-away shells, arrow-points, and broken pottery, may be discovered 
almost in every field belonging to the farm. Their principal camping-ground, 
however, was situated close to the road already mentioned, and is indicated by 
the dark dotted space on the accompanying plan. Here we have a Kjoekkenmoed- 
ding in the real sense of the word. Seen from a distance, this place has almost 
the appearance of a snow-covered 
field, owing to the great number 
of bleached shells constituting this 
deposit, which spreads over an 
area of six or seven acres and 
forms several extensive heaps or 
mounds of an average height of 
about five feet. But these heaps 
donotexclusively consist of shells: 
the latter are mostly imbedded 
in sand, probably carried thither 
by the action of winds—by eolic 
action, as science calls it—and in- 
termingled with innumerable peb- 
bles representing various mineral 
substances, among which those of: 
the quartz family seem to pre- 
dominate. As in other localities 
of the neighborhood, the shells on 
this spot are the remains of oys- 
ters, hard-shell clams, and peri- 
winkles, the last-named kind of 
shell-fish being represented, as 
elsewhere, by a comparatively 
small number of Specimens. 
That considerable time was re- 
quired to heap up these shells is 
evident, and, moreover, indicated 
by the chalky, porous appear- 
ance and fragility of many ot the valves, while those that were cast away at later 
periods exhibit these signs of decay in a far less degree, and are even sometimes 
as sound as though they had but lately been left on the shore by high water. 
A great number of the shells are broken, especially those of clams, which seem 
to be more brittle than oyster shells. This breaking into fragments is caused by 
the sudden changes of temperature, in consequence of which the valves crack and 
ultimately fall to pieces. Concerning the depth of this deposit, I learned that 
about twelve years ago several hundred loads of shells were taken away from 
a certain spot for making a road. The excavation thus prodnced reached 
about eight feet downward, and the mass was found to consist throughout that 
depth of shells, sand, and pebbles. My own diggings, which were, however, 
ofa more superficial character, led to the same result. This shell-bed is about 
half a mile distant from the shore at low tide, and the intervening area con- 
sists chiefly of so-called salt-meadow. In transporting the shell-fish to the 
camping place it is probable that the aborigines availed themselves of a small 
nameless creek (marked a on the plan) running towards the sea, west of the 
shell-bed, and not very distant from it. This creek, though rather narrow, is 
suiliciently deep for canoe navigation during high water, and joins the mere 
considerable Conaskonck creek, which flows into the beach. There was, con- 
sequently, a water connexion between the sea and the camp. The space en- 
closed by a dotted line on the accompanying plan indicates the continuation, 
or rather the running out, of the shell-bed just described; for here the shells 
