22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF 



converted many thousand bushels of them into lime. Before any 

 excavation of the mass was commenced, I had directed the atten- 

 tion of Mr. Downing — one of the partners concerned — to the 

 doubtful nature of their origin, requesting that all facts tending to 

 throw liglit upon them should be carefully observed and preserved. 

 When iVIi-. D. first went into the countiy, he was in favor of the 

 views of Mr. Conrad ; it was only by the examination of the mass 

 at Pickawaxent, of another not remote from that one, and from sub- 

 sequent observation in the city of Baltimore, showing the amount 

 of shells which there accumulates, that he was assured that their 

 origin was to be referred to man, and not to other or more ele- 

 mentary powers of nature. 



The first and most important fact there observed was, that neither 

 he nor any of the hands employed in getting out the shells had 

 been able to find any two valves which fitted each other, excepting 

 in one instance ; a waterman having brought the specimen to liim. 

 The deposits had the nature of a mass or heap composed of shells 

 whose valves were separated before being thrown together. 



That in many parts of the mass, arrow-lieads and fragments of 

 pottery have been found in the progress of excavation — these in no 

 wise different from those found in old settlements of the Indians. 



That the bottom of the bed is formed of the yellow loam or soil 

 of the country, and that the roots and other parts of the cedar of 

 the country have been met with at the bottom of the bed, showing 

 a growth upon the surface, before the shells were deposited upon it 



That these deposits are at the mouths of the creeks, extending 

 up the creeks, and rarely extending along the river shore, owing, as 

 Mr. Downing conjectures, to the excellent fishing which the creeks 

 furnish, and which would give to those who accumulated the shells, 

 a two-fold advantage. 



That the shore is low on that side of the river where they are 

 found, and the recent oyster is in great abundance on that shore, 

 whilst the channel is on the Virginia side, and no deposit of oyster 

 shells existed in that section of the country. 



That these deposits arc of some comparative antiquity, is to be 

 inferred from the soil which is found upon them, from the existence 

 of an exceedingly old cedar growing upon the top of a mass, and 

 from the silence of history or tradition respecting them. 



Against these facts, which show an undoubted human origin for 

 these deposits of oyster shells, there are others cited by Mi'. Conrad, 

 which he has made me acquainted with, since this paper was writ- 

 ten, which either 1 had not known or they had escaped my memory, 

 and are equally conclusive as to the opposite opinion. The facts 

 are, that masses exist composed of whole shells, as at Easton, on 

 the eastern shore of Maryland. That in some localities fragments 

 of older fossils are found with them, and which must have been 

 thrown amongst the oysters, by the waves of the estuary, from their 

 position below. And again, that deposits of the shells exist in situ- 



