ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS. 223 



The shell-beds at Eagle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts, are of considerable 

 extent, and consist largely of the Mya arenaria, a species still abounding in the 

 neighborhood. It forms an important article of commerce, being used as bait 

 for codfish. Bones of the great auk* were frequent at this place. 



On the whole, stone implements were found to be comparatively rare in the 

 shell-deposits of Southern Massachusetts. 



The collections made on these occasions (shells, bones, chipped and ground 

 stone implements, and fragments of pottery) are on exhibition in the National 

 Museum. 



In company with a number of associates, Professor Jeffries Wyman exam- 

 ined in 1867 some shell-heaps on the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts, and 

 published in the following year an account of his explorations in the " American 

 Naturalist" for 1868. It has already been quoted in this work. 



He examined deposits on Frenchman's Bay, between the main-land and 

 Mount Desert Island, and on Crouch's Cove, situated on Goose Island, Casco Bay, 

 in Maine. His explorations in Massachusetts were confined to deposits at Ipswich 

 (Eagle Hill), Salisbury, and Cotuit Port in the township of Barnstable (Cape 

 Cod). The mammalian fauna of these shell-accumulations represents seventeen 

 species, all still living, and including man, whose presence was only indicated 

 by the discovery of a bone of the foot at Cotuit Port. The bird-remains were 

 referable to the great auk, razor-bill, duck (three species), wild turkey, and 

 heron. Two kinds of tortoise have been met with. The fish-remains are those 

 of the shark, cod (Morrhua americana), and goose-fish (Lophius americamis) ; and 

 of shell-fish, the whelk (Buccinum undatum), two species of conch (Pyrula carica 

 and Pyrula canaliculate/,), oyster (Ostrea borealis), clam (Mya arenaria), quahaug 

 ( Venus mercenaria) , mussel (Mytilus edulis), scallop (Pecten tenuicostatus and Pec- 

 ten islandicus) , and hen-clam (Mactra) are mentioned. These mollusks probably 

 were all used as food ; several other species, likewise found in the shell-deposits, 

 are supposed to have been accidently introduced. The bones of deer and of 

 birds were the most numerous, and of the former " not one was whole, all having 

 been broken up for the double purpose of extracting the marrow, a custom almost 

 world-wide among savages, and often practised by hunters, and of accommodating 

 them to the size of the vessel in which they were cooked."f In the bird-bones 

 the ends had mostly disappeared, and many bore traces of having been gnawed 

 by animals. The discovery of fire-places is repeatedly mentioned. 



Fragments of pottery and stone implements were rare, but articles of bone 

 (piercers, harpoon-heads) of more frequent occurrence.! 



* Now considered as entirely extinct. See p. 36 of this publication. 



f Wyman: An Account, etc.; p. 575. 



J Fig. 221 on p. 142 and Fig. 242 on p. 160 represent bone dart-heads found at Crouch's COVB. 



