■284 Hardy 071 the Great Auk. [October 



dent, and also taking the formation of the shell-heaps into 

 account, it is quite as probable that these were summer speci- 

 mens. For, the popular opinion to the contrary, I can show the 

 best of reasons for believing that nineteen-twentieths of all the 

 clams and oysters represented by our shell-heaps were taken and 

 shelled during the summer months ; that the Indians, instead of 

 living on the spot the year round, came down the rivers in the 

 summer in large numbers and made a business of gathering 

 clams and oysters ; and that, instead of eating these on the spot, 

 they dried them in large quantities and carried them back up 

 river and into the country for winter food. If this be the cor- 

 rect solution of the formation of the shell-heaps, these heaps 

 must have accumulated rapidly during the summer, and slowly 

 (for undoubtedly some Indians remained there the year through) 

 during the rest of the year. Hence, most of the bones found in 

 the heaps are the kitchen refuse of those engaged in shelling 

 clams for winter use ; hence, also, if the bones of the Great Auk 

 are ;found in numbers proportionate to the bones of other kinds 

 of animals, they are, presumably, the remains of birds taken by 

 summer occupants of the kitchen middings and were not fall 

 and winter specimens. That this is not mere theorizing the 

 statements of Archer and Josselyn show: for if the birds were 

 on the coast in summer at a date when the shell-heaps were ap- 

 proaching their completion, it is not illogical to suppose that 

 they were at least equally abundant at the same season while the 

 shell-heaps were growing most rapidly ; and if the shell-heaps 

 received nearly all their additions during the summer months, as 

 can be shown to be true of the Maine heaps, the majority of the 

 Great Auk bones found in them may be confidently set down as 

 the remains of birds who had bred or were breeding on the 

 coast. It will yet be conclusively proved that the Great Auk 

 was resident the year round on the coasts of New England. 



