SCIENCE 



KEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 1, 1893. 

 i 



rSTDIAlsr RELICS IN SOUTH JERSEY. 



BY JOHN GITFOBD, SWATHMOEE COLLEGEj PA. 



It was the custom of the Indians to visit the seashore 

 at certain times of the year. The trails they followed 

 have been traced across the State of New Jersey. 

 "Beach-day" and "clam-bakes" are customs learned from 

 the Indians. The enormous quantities of shells in heaps 

 along the shore are indications of these migrations and of 

 their fondness for the oyster, clams and other mollusks. 

 A certain kind of clam is still known by its Indian name, 

 quahog. Many tons of these shells still remain in spite of 

 the fact that large quantities have been used for roads, 

 for farms and, long ago, for a flux in the manufacture of 

 iron from bog-ore. The size and number of these heaps 

 indicate that the bays and thoroughfares were then liter- 

 ally full of clams and oysters of considerably larger size 

 than those of to-day. There is little else of interest in 

 these heaps besides a few scattered potsherds. 



Owing, perhaps, to the lack of fresh water, the inclem- 

 ency of the weather and the noxious insects which infest 

 these marshes, the seashore was but a transient resting 

 place for the Indian. Tradition says that in spite of their 

 endurance they were unwilling to bear, for any length of 

 time, the bites of those pestiferous flies and mosquitoes. 



From the physical geography of the region one may 

 quickly judge where they would locate their permanent 

 settlements. The sands of the interior offered few attrac- 

 tions. Water was their highway and the source of much 

 of their food, so the majority of their villages were situ- 

 ated on prominent points of the rivers, not far from the 

 bays and ocean, not far from fresh water, near faii'ly good 

 soil, since he cultivated maize and perhaps pumpkins, 

 beans and tobacco, near fresh-water "flats" where the 

 "golden orontium" grows, the rootstalks of which were 

 an important food, where he could find "snajjpers" or 

 "logger-heads," as well as near a region of berries and 

 game. 



In many places in South Jersey the charcoal and grease 

 of his kitchen-middens still blacken the ground. Here, 

 too, are the bones of deer, turtle and other animals, bits 

 of shells, pieces of Indian jDipes, charred stones and other 

 relics. 



The largest rivers of that region are the Great and 

 Little Egg Harbor or Mullica. On each of these there is 

 the site of what must have been a very large permanent 

 village. Vestiges are found in many other places in the 

 neighborhood, but they are of little consequence in com- 

 parison with the region of Catawba on the Great Egg 

 Harbor and of Chestnut Neck on the Mullica River. Two 

 of the tributaries of the latter river are known as the 

 Nescochaque and Mechesactauxin Branches. Another 

 branch, called Edgepeling Creek, was the last resting 

 place of the Indian in South Jersey and before their re- 

 moval westward. Yv ith gratitude and frankness unlocked 

 for in such barbarians, the_y credited the authorities with 

 honest dealings toward their fathers and themselves. 



The word Catawba, although an Indian name, is no 

 way connected with the Indians who once lived there. It 



was named from the Catawba River, between the Caro- 

 linas, which received its name from the Catawbas who 

 once lived along its banks. 



Near Catawba, at South River, there are vestiges of an 

 Indian village. Up the main river a short distance there 

 is another at Goose Point. Throughout the whole region, 

 in fact, there are signs of Indian habitations. 



Catawba is a deserted sandbluff. Opposite are the 

 fastnesses of a swamp forest. The river winds southward 

 through many miles of marsh. So wild and deserted is 

 the region that it requii-es but a little stretch of the im- 

 agination to see squaws picking berries along the banks 

 or digging the rootstalks of the "Indian club;" others 

 bringing clay from the beds near by, kneading and mix- 

 ing it with bits of pounded quartz and sherds; others 

 weaving moulds of grass and twigs; others ornamenting 

 the finer grades with dots and lines; others working im- 

 plements of jas2Jer, and, perhaps, wampum, from shells. 

 A group of wattled huts, thatched, perhaps, with the 

 leaves of corn and calamus, surrounding a fire, on which 

 there is a very large j)ot in which the rootstalks of the 

 golden orontium are boiling, belongs to the picture. 



Orontium aquaticum, so often spoken of by old writers 

 as an important food plant, covers the flats of these riv- 

 ers. It is believed by some to have been introduced by 

 the Indians. It might be profitable to cultivate this 

 plant, since it is not bad food, although it needs to be 

 cooked full half a day to be palatable. 



In the light and durable wood of the white cedar they 

 found excellent and abundant material for their canoes. 

 At Chestnut Neck, so caUed because of the chestnuts 

 which once grew there, a canoe of chestnut wood was dug 

 out of the marsh. 



Chestnut Neck is much nearer the sea and is not so 

 desolate as Catawba. The soil is richer, and the inhab- 

 itants well-to-do bay-men. Few Indian bones have been 

 found in South Jersey in spite of careful searching. It 

 may be that they carried the bones of their ancestors 

 away, as did the Nanticokes. 



Of all that they left behind them sherds are the most 

 abundant, and fortunately, most valuable. Pottery is an 

 unmistakable evidence of man. Natural formations simi- 

 late his handiwork, but pottery, no matter how coarse, is 

 a sure sign of human habitation. It marks best the prog- 

 ress of culture, since that was one of the first, the most 

 lasting and the easiest method of expressing his artistic 

 fancies. The mud-pie was the germ of art. The cultus 

 of a people is often too quickly judged by the coarse 

 sherds which cover almost every campsite. They made 

 common vessels for common purposes. "\Yith the distinc- 

 tion of vessels began the separation of artist and artisan. 

 We must measiu-e ability, therefore, by the finest speci- 

 mens found. Thousands of these bits must be collected, 

 and from these the finest must be selected. 



No whole pots have been found, to my knowledge, in 

 South Jersey, but from the eurvatiu-e of the bits some of 

 them were of very large size. Some of these sherds are 

 not decorated at all, others show signs of more artistic 

 ability than is usually accredited to the Indian. The ma- 

 jority are soft, coarse and mixed with bits of quartz and 

 sherds. Some are hard and fine. Some contain holes 



