while the trees in the more shaded part 
of the row will not be so far advanced. 
The earliest date that I have for the 
blossoming of the white maple, is in the 
warm winter of 1889-’90, when a tree 
was found in flower on the 16th of 
February. 
Mr. A. B. Skinner exhibited speci- 
mens of indian relics and read the fol- 
lowing paper: 
RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN INDIAN CAMP 
SITES AT MARINERS’ HARBOR. 
On the sixth of this month, while in 
the company of Mr. Chas. Benedict and 
Mr. Leavitt C. Parsons, I visited the 
old indian village sites, located in the 
vicinity of Arlington station, Mariners’ 
Harbor. We found nothing more than 
a few points,etc. upon the surface, until 
we came upon a railroad cut made from 
the B. & O. R. R. to the Shore Road 
near Bowman’s Brook. This cut 
runs directly through the richest of the 
Mariners’ Harbor sites, and exposes 
shell pits and fire places at intervals, 
for some distance. 
Scratching in the largest of these fire 
pits we found oyster and clam shells, 
split and charred deer bones, and a 
great quantity of fragments as large as 
the palm of a man’s hand, and even 
larger. 
The search was continued until the 
pit was entirely worked out and on 
completion we found we had portions 
of at least four vessels of different de- 
signs and workmanship. Unfortunately 
none of these can be put together to any 
extent on account of the fact that very 
little if any of the rims or bases were 
found, which statement holds true for 
the material from all pits in the vi- 
cinity, although Mr Parsons found, in 
one nearby, the bottom of a vessel which 
terminated in a curious little hump. 
Not satisfied with the results of the 
search, rich as they were, I visited the 
site the following day with Mr. Wm. T. 
58 
Davis, and we proceeded to work the 
remaining pits. On looking over the 
surface for indications, we found a frag- 
ment of a beautifully decorated pipe, 
and much pottery, in the sand that had 
been carried off and dumped to form the 
road bed farther down, where the 
ground is swampy. 
The first pit opened was quite near 
the Shore Road, and was very rich in 
split and cracked deer bones. This pit 
contained also portions of two arrow- 
heads, one of the bevelled-to-the-right 
variety, a hammer-stone, two pieces of 
cut antler, a fragment of bone showing 
notches made by a flint knife, a bone 
awl, a piece of the stem of a very finely 
ornamented clay pipe, fragments of pot- 
tery and other usual articles. 
This pit we christened Pit No. 1, on 
account of its close proximity to the 
Shore Road. It was upwards of 100 
feet north of the pit excavated on the 
previous occasion. It was about three 
feet deep by four broad, Between this 
pit and pit No. 2 were several small 
fire-holes, the majority of them being 
merely the edges of pits that had been 
dug out by the laborers and the con- 
tents thrown in the dump along with the 
sand. These ail contained potsherds, 
bones, etc., but were not large or rich 
enough to deserve special mention, with 
one exception. This was a pit (No.3,) 
situated a few yards southof No. 2, and 
it contained, besides the usual articles, 
a fine bone awl, made from one of the 
hotlow bones of a turkey or other bird. 
This awl unfortunately was broken, be- 
fore its value was recognized, but has 
been mended. While at work the good 
people of the vicinity flocked out to see. 
We were shown ‘an Injun axe’, and 
told that two others and ‘a arer head’, 
about 6 inches long and finely serrated, 
had been found there. 
SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 
Mr. Fred. F. Hunt exhibited two 
specimens of Drift bowilders, --hoth crys- 
talline rocks, —one from near Huguenot, 
containing graphite; the other from the 
vicinity of Silver Lake, containing 
garnets. 
