358 KITCHEN-MIDDEN AT BOYNDIE. CHAP. xvn. 



which we have any account. Numerous shell-heaps 

 had long been observed along the coast. They were 

 raised above the level of the highest tides ; and the 

 impression which prevailed was, that they had been 

 collected there at some early period by an eddy of 

 the ocean. The shelly deposits were also adduced in 

 proof of a raised sea-margin. 



The Kitchen-midden at Boyndie, near Banff, had 

 long been known as a famous place for shells. Hence, 

 probably, its name of Shelly-bush. About forty years 

 since, Edward's attention was drawn to it by a man 

 who had picked up shells from it when a boy. Edward 

 set it down in his mind as an old sea-margin, and 

 although often passing it in his journeys by the sea- 

 side, he never thought of it as anything else. When 

 Professor Macgillivray, of Aberdeen, was walking 

 with Edward along the Links, about the year 1850, 

 the latter pointed out to him the shell-bank. The 

 Professor remarked, that it did not look like any 

 other raised beach that he had ever seen. 



Years passed ; but what with cart-wheels going 

 over it, and rude hands picking at it, the shells and 

 bones which it contained at length became more 

 clearly exposed. Still it was held to be but an an- 

 cient sea-beach. Then came the news from Denmark 

 about the Kitchen-middens. A paper by Mr. (now 

 Sir John) Lubbock, appeared in the Natural History 

 Review for October 1861, which had the effect of 

 directing the attention of Archaeologists to the sub- 



