FEWKES] CULTURE AREAS IN THE WEST INDIES 167 



near the Salt Eiver settlement, about 7 miles from Christiansted. 

 Here there was a landing place for canoes. The hostility of the na- 

 tives led to the island being designated as a Carib island. 



The Salt Eiver settlement has in the past yielded many specimens 

 of aboriginal artifacts. In recent times it has been examined by 

 Dr. Christian Branch and Mr. A. Pinart, who obtained a small 

 collection of pottery fragments and stone objects; a few specimens 

 were also collected by the author from a low bluff eroded by the sea 

 at this place. The largest collection from this site was made by the 

 late Theodoor de Booy." 



The prevalence of petaloids and axes over grinding implements in 

 the collections at St. Croix suggests warlike rather than peaceful 

 pursuits; and as the island is climatically dry and not very fertile, 

 it may be sujjposed that agriculture was not as common among the 

 natives as in well-watered fertile islands like St. Kitts. Historical 

 accounts often speak of the Carib of this island, who made raids 

 from it on Porto Rico and other islands of the Greater Antilles.. 

 • Although St. Croix is distinctly called a Carib island, of the 

 1,000 specimens from that island examined by the author, not one 

 of the wing-shaped axes of St. Vincent was found, from which fact 

 it is supposed, on archeological grounds, that the culture of the 

 people who originally inhabited St. Croix was different from those 

 of St. Vincent. 



Salt River Midden 



The Salt River midden, tlie most important known prehistoric vil- 

 lage site in St. Croix, is situated on a slightly elevated point of land 

 on the right hand entering the river, and covers a considerable ex- 

 tent of the shore at that point; but as the whole moimd is now cov- 

 ered with bushes which cover the surface much of its extent is con- 

 cealed. The sea has made deep inroads on the edge of the bank, baring 

 layers of shells and debris which are nowhere more than 3 feet thick. 

 The author has been informed that a number of objects of stone, 

 pottery, and other artifacts have been gathered along the beach, and 

 that Dr. Christian Branch discovered human skulls in the lower 

 laj'er, but on my visit a few fragments of coarse pottery, broken 

 shells, with a few shell chisels, were all that was obtained."' 



There are one or two other shell mounds along the coast, one of 

 which is an obscure midden near the landing at Christiansted, but it 

 is much concealed by modern debris and rank vegetation, and quite 



15 yige Booy. .\rchfoIogy of the Virgin Islands, Indian Notes and Monogi-aiilis, vol. 1, 

 No. 1, 1919. 



'"This midden was partly exiavated by Di'- Branch, and earlier by M. A. Pinart. 

 Others have dug in it tor supposed buried treasure. 



