176 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 



cipal mound are several smaller ones, of the same nature. 

 Over the shells a thin layer of mould has formed itself, on 

 which the trees grow. A good section of such a Kjokken- 

 modding can hardly fail to strike with astonishment any one 

 who sees it for the first time, and it is difficult to convey in 

 words an exact idea of the appearance which it presents. The 

 whole thickness consists of shells, oysters being at Meilgaard 

 by far the most numerous, with here and there a few bones, and 

 still more rarely stone implements or fragments of pottery. 

 Excepting just at the top and bottom, the mass is quite 

 unmixed with sand and gravel ; and, in fact, contains 

 nothing but what has been, in some way or other, subservient 

 to the use of man. The only exceptions which I could see 

 were a few, very few, rough flint pebbles, which were pro- 

 bably dredged up with the oysters. While we were in this 

 neighbourhood, we visited another Ejokkenmodding at Fan- 

 nerup on the Kolindsund, which was even in historical times 

 an arm of the sea, but is now a freshwater lake. Other 

 similar deposits have been discovered on the Randersfjord 

 and Mariagerfjord in this part of Jutland, nor are the two 

 settlements at Havelse and Bilidt by any means the only 

 ones on the Isefjord ; in the neighbourhood of Roeskilde, 

 Ejokkenmoddings occur near Gjerdrup, at Kattinge, and 

 Kattinge Vaerk, near Trallerup, at Gjershoi, and opposite the 

 island of Hyldeholme ; besides several farther north, others 

 have been found on the islands of Fyen, of iloen, and of 

 Samsoe, and in Jutland along Liimfjord and Horsensfjord, 

 as well as on the Mariagerfjord, Randersfjord, and Kolind- 

 sund. The southern parts of Denmark have not yet been 

 carefully examined. Generally it is evident that deposits of 

 this nature were scattered here and there over the whole 

 coast, but that they were never formed inland. The whole 

 country was more intersected by fjords during the Stone 

 period even than it is now. Under these circumstances it is 



