34 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



the level of the land was lower than at present. It was noticed, however, that 

 the shell-heaps showed no trace of the stratification which always characterizes 

 marine deposits, and that they, instead of inclosing shells of mollusks of every 

 age, contained merely those of full-grown specimens, which, moreover, belonged 

 to a limited number of species not living together under natm-al conditions. 

 Upon further examination there were found among the shells the broken bones 

 of different species of wild quadrupeds and birds, and the remains of fishes ; also 

 implements of flint, horn, and bone, fragments of a rude kind of pottery, char- 

 coal, and ashes, but no objects of metal whatever. The artificial origin of these 

 accumulations being now established, they were recognized as the amassed 

 remains of the repasts of a population that dwelled in early ages on the shores of 

 the Baltic, pursuing the chase, but chiefly the capture of fish and shell-fish. 

 The Danes denominate shell-heaps of this description Kjokkenmoddinger* a word 

 meaning "kitchen-refuse;" but the term " kitchen-.middens " is often employed 

 in English, midden being a name still used in the North of England to designate 

 a refuse-heap. A large number of kitchen-middens have been examined 

 conjointly by Messrs. Forchharnmer, Steenstrup, and Worsaae, distinguished, 

 respectively, for their proficiency in the departments of geology, natural history, 

 and archaeology ; and the results of their investigations, contained in several 

 reports addressed to the Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen, have added in a 

 great measure to our knowledge of prehistoric man in the North of Europe. 



Artificial shell-deposits, however, have also been discovered in other parts 

 of Europe, as for instance, in Sweden, Norway, England, Scotland, and on the 

 coasts of France, both north and south. Yet nowhere in Europe are they so 

 numerous and well characterized as in the country to which my account refers.f 



One of the largest kitchen-middens is that of Meilgaard, in the Northeast 

 of Jutland. It is more than a hundred metres long, and in places three metres 

 deep. Very extensive accumulations sometimes present an undulating surface, 

 the refuse having been heaped up more abundantly in some points than in others ; 

 and occasionally the heaps surround an irregular free space, where the coast- 

 people doubtless had built their huts, which may have been of the most 

 primitive description, probably poles stuck in the ground and covered with skins. 

 Rude hearths consisting of a kind of pavement of pebbles, not exceeding the 

 size of a man's fist, have been discovered in the refuse-heaps. These fire-places 

 are more or less circular, only a few feet in diameter, and surrounded with 



* In English publications the plural form " Kjokkenmoddings " is generally applied. 



f As may be imagined, shell-deposits of artificial origin are not confined to Europe, but also occur along the 

 littoral districts of other continents. Coast-tribes, deriving their means of subsistence chiefly from the sea, neces- 

 sarily will leave there the tokens of their presence. In America such shell-heaps are frequent, and have been 

 observed from "West Greenland to Tierra del Fuego, and also on the western sea board. 1 shall devote a section 

 of this publication' to North American shell-deposits. 



