224 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



Concerning the age of these shell-deposits, Professor Wyman remarks : 



" The shell-heaps we have here described yield nothing which indicates as 

 high an antiquity as those of the old world. The materials of them present 

 some variety in the degree of decomposition which has resulted from time and 

 exposure, the lower layers being much more disintegrated and friable, the shells, 

 in fact, falling to pieces, while those of the upper ones generally preserve their 

 original firmness. That there was a difference in time in which these layers 

 were deposited is further indicated by the fact that, in two of the heaps, a stratum 

 of earth is interposed between the earlier and later deposits, as if the locality 

 had been abandoned as a camping-place, and then after a prolonged absence of 

 the natives had been reoccupied. Each heap, too, is covered with a deposit of 

 earth and vegetable mould, of variable thickness, and in some cases, as at 

 Frenchman's Bay, supporting a growth of forest-trees, though these were nowhere 

 of such size as to indicate that they had lived a century. 



" On the other hand, it may be safely said that there is nothing in the con- 

 dition of these heaps which is inconsistent with the hypothesis that they were 

 begun many centuries ago. The examinations at Crouch's Cove, Eagle Hill, and 

 Cotuit Port were sufficiently extended to enable us to obtain a fair representation 

 of the objects they contain ; but in no case was there found, nor have we been 

 able to learn that there had been previously found, a single article which could 

 be regarded as having -been made by, or derived from, the white man, nor did 

 we obtain any evidence that these particular heaps had been materially added to 

 since the European has occupied these shores. Had intercourse with Europeans 

 been once fairly established, it were a reasonable presumption that we should 

 have found at least a glass bead, a fragment of earthenware, or an instrument 

 of some sort indicative of the fact, especially when we bear in mind that it would 

 be in just such places, where the savages collected around their fires and seething- 

 pots to cook and eat, that such objects might be expected to be broken or lost." 



In addition, there seems to be historical evidence that a heavy growth of 

 trees was found on the deposits of clam-shells near Mount Desert Island by the 

 first settlers.* 



Quite recently Professor Putnam has explored shell-heaps on Muscongus 

 Sound and the neighboring Damariscotta River, both inlets of the sea extending 

 into Lincoln County, Maine. These localities have been previously mentioned 

 in this publication, and the latter was noticed just now in connection with Pro- 

 fessor Baird's examination of shell -deposits. The substance of a lecture on these 

 shell-heaps by Professor Putnam was published in the " Boston Evening Tran- 

 script " of November 13, 1882. 



* "Wyman : An. Account, etc.; p. 671, etc. 



