14 



Peevious History of Swanport. 



Mr. Bot*. whose name has been mentioned in connection 

 with these remains, has been a resident at Swanport far the 

 last thirty years. His predecessor lived there one year, and 

 before him, again, was a resident of twenty years' standing. 

 This takes us back for a period of fifty-one years or to 1860. 

 During the whole of that time the fact that the place had 

 been used as a native burial-ground was completely unknown 

 to any of the residents, and, certainly, no interment had 

 taken place during those years, though, since the memory 

 of the white man, it has been constantly used as a favourite 

 camping-ground. < 5) 



If, therefore, some of the interments took place after the 

 great accumulation of the kitchen-midden material — and that 

 this happened in some cases at least is shown by the leads of 

 this layer into the subjacent sand — it betokens a very ancient 

 occupancy of the site. 



MONTEITH. 



Before passing on to the consideration of the question 

 whether the presence of so many skeletons in one limited 

 area is due to any special cause, I may mention that, on the 

 occasion of my second visit to Swanport, I was able to examine 

 a spot about 1J miles lower down the river, on the left bank, 

 where I was informed that many skeletons had been exposed 

 by the drifting of sand some years ago. 



The site was at the top of a high sandy bluff which, 

 pushing itself right up to the river bank, separates the 

 reclaimed flat, formerly known as Monteith's Swamp, from 

 an unnamed and unreclaimed swamp to the north of it. 

 From the facts of its exposed situation, the sandy nature of 

 the ground, and the thriftless way in which it has been 

 denuded of vegetation 5 or 6 ft. of the superficial soil has 

 been blown away to accumulate elsewhere as drifts over a 

 considerable area, leaving exposed the underlying surface of 

 indurated sand. On this floor, and over a considerable area, 

 occur very numerous and, sometimes, very large heaps of broken 

 Unio shells and many blackened cooking-stones, indicating 

 long occupancy by the natives. The age of these cooking- 

 stones was indicated by the fact that their surface had become 



(5) For some years a ferry - boat service was maintained at 

 Swanport (formerly known as Thompson's Crossing), and in the 

 course of the removal of the bank it was found that the lower 

 end of a buried portion of one of the wooden slabs used in the 

 construction of the ferryman's house had come into close contact 

 with a skeleton. The house was, in fact, built right upon the 

 burial site, and some of its chimney-stones still remain upon the 

 spot (see plate iv.). The native name of the locality was Kon- 

 gorong (31, 123). 



