218 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



" We landed on the northeast end of Saint Simon's Island, at Cannon's 

 Point, where we were gratified by the sight of a curious monument of the 

 Indians, the largest mound of shells left by the aborigines in any one of the sea- 

 islands. Here are no less than ten acres of ground, elevated in some places ten 

 feet, and on an average over the whole area five feet, above the general level, 

 composed throughout that depth of myriads of cast oyster-shells, with some 

 mussels, and here and there a modiola and helix. They who have seen the 

 Monte Testaceo, near Rome, know what great results may proceed from insig- 

 nificant causes where the cumulative power of time has been at work, so that a 

 hill may be formed out of the broken pottery rejected by the population of a 

 large city. To them it will appear unnecessary to infer, as some antiquaries 

 have done, from the magnitude of these Indian mounds, that they must have 

 been thrown up by the sea. In refutation of such an hypothesis, we have the 

 fact that flint arrow-heads, stone axes, and fragments of Indian pottery have been 

 detected throughout the mass."* 



Shortly after Sir Charles Lyell's visit to this country, the reports on Danish 

 kjokkenmoddings by Messrs. Forchhammer, Steenstrup, and Worsaae (published 

 in 1850-'56) became known on this side of the Atlantic, and, of course, stimu- 

 lated naturalists and antiquaries to a closer examination'of similar refuse-heaps 

 along our sea-boards. Indeed, since then such investigations and printed accounts 

 of them have become so numerous that I can barely refer in this publication to 

 a number of examples sufficient to illustrate the character of deposits of shells, 

 both of marine and fluvial origin, in different parts of North America. I avail 

 myself of the copious literature on the subject as well as of several written 

 communications setting forth the results of personal observation. 



Greenland. Having found no references to shell-heaps in Greenland, either 

 in Egede's or in Cranz's descriptions of that country the subject, as stated, 

 being one which has only in later years attracted the attention of investigators 

 I will record here some of the observations made by the distinguished scientist, 

 Baron A. E. Nordenskiold : 



"As a Grreenlander now seldom resides at any distance from the Danish 

 trading-stations, one finds in numberless places along the coast old deserted 

 dwelling-places. They are recognizable at a distance by the lively verdure 

 arising from the rich vegetation, which the remnants of fishing and hunting-prey 

 scattered round the cottages or tents have produced. On taking a few spadefuls 

 of earth, or on examining the walls of the new houses, generally built with 

 turf taken from these spots, one everywhere finds the earth and grass-roots 

 mixed with the bones of the animals which the Greenlanders hunt. The animals 



* Sir Charles Lyell : A Second Visit to the United States of America ; New York, 1849 ; Vol. I, p. 262. 



