SHELL-MOUNDS IN SCOTLAND. 177 



evident that a nation which subsisted principally on marine 

 mollusca would never form any large inland settlements. In 

 some instances, indeed, Kjokkenmoddings have been found 

 as far as eight miles from the present coast, but in these 

 cases there is good reason for supposing that the land has 

 encroached on the sea. On the other hand, in those FIG. 124. 

 parts where Kjokkenmoddings do not occur, their 

 absence is no doubt occasioned by the waves having 

 to a certain extent eaten away the shore : an explana- 

 tion which accounts for their . being so much more 

 frequent on the borders of the inland fjords than on 

 the coast itself; and which seems to deprive us of 

 all hope of finding any similar remains on our eastern 

 and south-eastern shores. Shell-mounds have, how- 

 ever, actually been found on our coasts. They were 

 observed by Dr. Gordon, of Birnie, on the shores 

 of the Moray Firth. I have had the advantage of 

 visiting these shell-mounds with him. The largest 

 of the Scotch Kjokkenmoddings is at a place called 

 Brigzes on Loch Spynie. We did not find any im- 

 plements or pottery in it, although we searched for 

 several hours, but a labourer who had been employed 

 in carting it away for manure had previously found 

 some fragments of rude pottery and the bronze pin 

 (fig. 124). Loch Spynie has been partially drained, 

 and is shut out from the sea by a great accumulation 

 of shingle, so that the water is now perfectly fresh. 

 From ancient records it appears that the shingle bar- 

 rier was probably completed, and the lake shut out 

 from the sea in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 

 turies. On the other hand, I have submitted the Bro ' nze 

 bronze pin figured here to Mr. Franks, who gives Tsc^tS 

 it as his opinion that it is probably not older than mound. 

 800 or 900 A.D. If, therefore, it really belongs to the shell- 



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