360 CONTENTS OF SHELL-MOUND. CHAP. xvn. 



nished by its contents having been carted off from the 

 centre of the heap, as manure or top-dressing for the 

 adjoining fields. The mound or rather couple of 

 mounds, for it has been cut into two parts must 

 have been of considerable extent. It measured about 

 a hundred yards in length, by about thirty in breadth. 

 The most abundant shell found was the periwinkle, 

 or the edible " buckie," as it is usually called. Next 

 in order was the oyster ; and magnificent natives 

 they must have been. The bay of Spynie was then 

 a productive dredging-ground. On the extensive flat 

 around it, wherever a canal or ditch is dug up, the 

 shells of oysters are yet to be met with, seemingly 

 on the spots where they lived. Yet the pyster, as 

 well as the primitive people who fared on it, have 

 long since passed away. 



The third shell in order, in this bank of shells, is 

 the mussel, and then the cockle, all edible. " There 

 is evidence enough in these mounds," says Dr. Gor- 

 don, " to show that they have been the work of man, 

 and not the effect of any tidal current, or any other 

 natural cause. The shell-fish which the remains 

 represent are, with scarcely an exception, edible, and 

 continue to be eaten to this day. In all deposits by 

 the sea, there is abundance of species that have ever 

 been rejected as food. The shells are full-grown, or 

 adult shells. In collections made by the sea, the 

 young animals are abundant, and often predominate. 

 Now, no movements of wind and water could have 



