CHAP. xvii. ANTIQUITY OF SHELL-MOUNDS. 3G5 



shells are both very common amongst the rocks at the 

 present day. As the list indicates, the periwinkle 

 was the most frequent shell in the mound ; but we 

 went deeper down, and the farther we went into the 

 bank the limpet was most predominant, and in fact 

 was almost the exclusive shell. 



" Taking all these circumstances into account, 

 and weighing the matter carefully over, we cannot 

 come to any other conclusion than that the Kitchen- 

 middens must be of a very remote age. We know 

 nothing of the people who formed these mounds of 

 shells and bones. Tradition and history are alto- 

 gether silent. Archaeology seems powerless to help 

 us, and ethnology's vision fails to penetrate the 

 depths of obscurity. It would appear to be one of 

 those mysteries of the past which baffles even the 

 wisest." 



Edward collected further samples of articles taken 

 from kitchen-middens for the Museum, including a 

 series of shells the oyster, the cockle, the periwinkle, 

 and the brown buckie or whelk gathered from the 

 shell-heaps on the farm of Brigzes, near Elgin. He 

 had also several other fragments of antiquity col- 

 lected in the Museum, one of the most interesting 

 of which was the joint-bone of some extinct animal. 

 The story connected with this bone is rather curious. 



Before Edward had any official connection with 

 the museum, he visited it one day in company with 

 his master ; and there he first saw this particular bone. 



