THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 175 



for instance in the celebrated shell-mound at Meilgaard, 

 the surface is undulating, the greater thickness of the 

 shelly stratum in some places apparently indicating the 

 arrangement of the dwellings. When the shell-mound 

 at Havelse was previously visited by Professor Steen- 

 strup, the shells were being removed to serve as manure, 

 and the mound, presenting a perpendicular section, was in 

 a very favourable condition for examination. The small 

 pit thus formed had, however, been filled in; so that we 

 were obliged to make a fresh excavation. In two or 

 three hours we obtained about a hundred fragments of 

 bone, many rude flakes, slingstones, and flint fragments, 

 together with nine rude axes of the ordinary "shell- 

 mound " type, several of which, however, were picked up 

 on the surface. 



Our visit to Meilgaard in 1863 was even more success- 

 ful. This, which is one of the largest and most interesting 

 shell-mounds hitherto discovered, is situated not far from the 

 sea-coast, near Grenaa in north-east Jutland, in a beautiful 

 beech forest called "Aigt," or " Aglskov," on the property of 

 M. Olsen, who with a praiseworthy devotion to science, has 

 given orders that the Kjokkenmodding should not be de- 

 stroyed, although the materials of which it consists are well 

 adapted for the improvement of the soil and for other pur- 

 poses, to which, indeed, they had already been in part applied 

 before the true nature of the deposit was discovered. Arriving 

 at his house without invitation or notice, we were received by 

 M. Olsen and his family with kindness and hospitality. M. 

 Olsen immediately sent two workmen to clear away the rub- 

 bish which had fallen in since the last archaeological visit, so 

 that when we reached the spot we found a fresh wall of the 

 shell-mound ready for examination. In the middle, this Kjok- 

 kenmodding has a thickness of about ten feet, from which, 

 however, it slopes away in all directions; round the prin- 



