526 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



people of our northern Atlantic coast, but the evidence is not yet sufficient to jus- 

 tify the assumption. In the great shell heap at Newcastle a human skeleton was 

 found, a few years since, which was given me by Mr. Charles Metcalf ; and in a 

 shell heap on Fort Island in the Damariscotta River, Messrs. Gamage and Phelps 

 discovered portions of five skeletons, of which these two skulls and these bones 

 form a part. The skulls are long, like those of our New England Indians. 



" For the general consideration of shell heaps, I will refer you to the chapter 

 on the ' Danish Kjokken-moddings, or Shell Mounds ' in Lubbock's ' Prehistoric 

 Times ;' and for an account of the American deposits, to the memoir by Dr. Jef- 

 fries Wyman on the ' Fresh Water Shell Mounds of the St. John's River, Flor- 

 ida,' and to his papers in the Atnericcin Naturalist, Vol. I, January, 1868, and 

 Vol. II, 1868. A sketch of the Adantic coast shell heaps will also be found in 

 Dr. Abbott's recent work, entitled, 'Primitive Industry.' " 



The second lecture of the course was upon 



THE STONE GRAVES OF BRENTWOOD, TENNESSEE. 



" Brentwood is situated on the Little Harpeth River, fifteen miles from Nash- 

 ville. The central portion of the farm is a natural elevation, surrounded by low 

 land running off to the Little Harpeth. Two very cold springs rise on the side 

 of the hill. This beautiful spot was chosen by the Stone-Grave people for a vil- 

 lage site. Here they dwelt and cultivated the land, raising corn, squashes and 

 beans. 1 he character of their houses is not known, but probably these were 

 framed of upright posts, roofed with branches, and covered in with bark or clay. 

 Some such structures hive left, by their decay, circular ridges of earth, showing 

 the outlines of the houses. In the Annual Report for 1878 is a diagram of one of 

 these towns which I explored and a description of objects found at that time, 

 which are of the same character as those found since in this region 



"The distinguishing feature of these people is the burial of their dead in 

 stone graves. Stone graves occur from Kentucky to Alabama and Georgia, but 

 are more numerous in the Valley of the Cumberland than in any other part of 

 that great region. Occasionally similar graves have been found outside of these 

 limits, as in Ohio, Illinois, and even in New Jersey, but these isolated cases may or 

 may not be of the same people, since similar cists, or stone graves, are also com- 

 mon in various parts of the Old World. To open these graves and remove their 

 contents may seem like sacrilege, but there is no other way to study the history 

 of diis people, and again if they were not opened for science, their contents 

 would be turned over by the plough, as is now the case every year. From the 

 Cumberland Valley there have been brought to the museum the contents of sev- 

 eral thousand stone graves, forming by far the largest collection ever brought to- 

 gether. On the farm at Brentwood the graves covered a knoll or small hill; up- 

 on the top of the hill they were very numerous and close together ; on the sides 

 groups of graves were found, or here and there a single grave. 



" The bottoms of the graves were usually paved with fragments of rude pot- 



