178 SHELL- MOUNDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 



mound, and there seems no reason to doubt the statement of 

 the man who found it, we thus get an approximate date for 

 the accumulation of the mound itself. At St. Val.ery, close 

 to the mouth of the Somme, Mr. Evans, Mr. Prestwich, and 

 I found a large accumulation of shells, from which I ob- 

 tained several flint flakes and some pieces of rude pottery. 

 Mr. Pengelly and Mr. Spence Bate have recently described 

 some shell-mounds in Cornwall and Devonshire. Similar 

 remains have been observed by travellers in various parts 

 of the world, as, for instance, in Australia by Dampier,* 

 in Tierra del Fuego by Mr. Darwin, f and in the Malay 

 Peninsula by Mr. Earle. J 



The fact that the majority of the Danish shell-mounds are 

 found at a height of only a few feet above the sea appears to 

 prove that there has been no considerable subsidence of the 

 land since their formation, while on the other hand it clearly 

 shows that there can have been no elevation. In certain 

 cases, however,, where the shore is steep,, they have been 

 found at a considerable height. It might indeed be sup- 

 posed that where, as at Bilidt, the materials of the Kjokken- 

 modding were rudely interstratified with sand and gravel, 

 the land must have sunk ; but if for any length of time such 

 a deposit was subjected to the action of the waves, all traces 

 of it would be obliterated, and it is therefore probable that 

 an explanation is rather to be found in the fact that the 

 action of waves and storms may have been greater at that 

 time than they are now. At present the tides only affect 

 the Kattegat to the extent of about a foot and a half, and 

 the configuration of the land protects it very much from the 

 action of the winds. On the other hand, the tides on the 

 west coast of Jutland rise about nine feet, and the winds 

 have been known to produce differences of level amounting 



* Pinkerton's Travels, vol. ii. p. 473. f Journal, p. 234. 



J Ethnological Soc. Trans. New Ser. vol. ii., p. 119. 



