SHELL-HEAPS AND LAKE-DWELLERS. 263 



diameter, which have been preserved from decay partly by 

 the growth of vegetation, and partly by a thick crust of 

 carbonate of lime which has been formed on the surface by 

 the action of the rain. 



These great heaps contain charcoal, ashes, stones 

 blackened by fire, the bones of fishes and birds, especially 

 parrots, splintered human bones and stone axes, and are 

 evidently the refuse remains of countless savage banquets. 



Similar shell-heaps are found everywhere in the Fiji 

 islands ; others, which are probably relics of the Bushmen, 

 occur at the Cape of Good Hope, and contain limpets so 

 large as to be good drinking-cups. In Australia the shell 

 mounds left by the natives are so large and numerous that 

 white men have worked all their lives at sifting out the 

 undecomposed shells to be burnt for lime. 



Crows, and even vultures, do something towards raising 

 heaps of shells ; above a hundred of the former have been 

 seen together feeding on mussels, and Mr. Barrow says that 

 on one occasion, in a cavern at the point of Mussel Bay, he 

 disturbed thousands of birds, and saw heaps of empty shells 

 enough to fill some thousands of waggons. 



The ancient races inhabiting the pile-dwellings, whose 

 remains were first discovered about thirty years ago in some 

 of the Swiss lakes, instead of piling their rubbish around 

 them, which would have been inconvenient, threw it into 

 the water, where enough has been preserved in the mud to 

 give us a tolerably good idea of their manner of life. Piles 

 were driven into the bed of the lake and connected by 

 timbers, and upon this common platform each family had 

 its own hut, with a trap-door in the floor for the convenience 



