KIl CHEN MID DINGS OF MAINE. 525 



many chips of stone were found in the heap as to lead to the inference that the 

 implements were made upon the spot. It is seldom that we find in a shell heap 

 anything exhibiting a great amount of labor in its manufacture. From this heap, 

 however, I procured one polished celt, which had been carefully chipped and 

 pecked, and then rubbed on a coarse stone, like sandstone, to sharpen and polish 

 the edge. In the shell heaps of Maine I have found more objects of stone than 

 have been found in the explorations of heaps south of this point, stone imple- 

 ments being usually scarce in shell heaps. Implements made of the bones of 

 deer and of birds are comparatively common in all heaps, and here I have found 

 bone points or perforators and bone spear points in shape like huge crochet nee- 

 dles, which is the primitive form of harpoon the world over. Another harpoon 

 in bone, the only one of its kind which I have seen from the Atlantic 

 coast, but a common form upon the Northwest coast, is this specimen found and 

 presented by Mr. A. T. Gamage of Damariscotta. It is a harpoon point having 

 a hole in its shank through which a string was passed attaching it loosely to the 

 shaft of wood into which it was inserted. When a fish was speared, the shaft would 

 be set free by the struggles of the fish, and floating its line's length upon the water, 

 would guide the fisherman to his prize. The discovery of the art of pottery seems 

 to have been made during the immense time these heaps were being formed, as I 

 have not found fragments of pottery in the lower portions of the older and larger 

 heaps, while such fragments are common in the upper beds and in the more re- 

 cent heaps. The specimens from Maine are of a rude type, thick and heavy, 

 and composed of a mixture of clay and pounded clam shell. The lines of fract- 

 ure show that the pottery was made by the coil method, common not only among 

 our Indians, but among the primitive potters in various parts of the world. The 

 ornamenta ion is of the rudest character, made up of incised lines or by the im- 

 press of twisted cord. The last method is instructive, as it shows that the people 

 understood the art of twisting fibres into threads and cords. Few personal orna- 

 ments occur in shell heaps, but I hold here a canine tooth, grooved about its 

 root as if for suspension as a pendant. 



" While the Keene's Point shell heap is made up largely of clam shells, other 

 heaps occur v.hich are composed almost entirely of oyster shells, as, for instance, 

 the immense heaps at Damariscotta and Newcastle, situated opposite each other 

 on either side of the Damariscotta River. I would call your attention to the 

 fact that this is an old-fashioned oyster, for which one might now hunt for days, 

 although it was once abundant on the New England coast. It is slender and 

 long, many being even fourteen inches in length. Old men at Damariscotta say 

 that their fathers have sometimes seen one, but it has probably never been abun- 

 dant since the time of the earliest settlement, so that we must believe that these 

 great heaps were formed long before that time. 



"Human remains are not comm:)n in the shell heaps of the Atlantic 

 coast. In Horida, however, Prof. Wyman discovered in the shell heaps masses 

 of broken human bones, which are considered to be the remains of a cannibal 

 feast. There are some indications that cannibalism existed among the shell-heap 



