312 Boyndie Kitchen-midden. [cuap. Xvi. 
as the deer, the hare, and the rabbit; the remains of sev- 
eral species of fish, such as bones of the skate; a few of 
the crab family; fragments of pottery,.and small bits of 
charred wood and ashes. The ashes are just like those left 
from a wood or peat fire. Small ‘stones, also, were got, 
partially blackened, as if they had been used for cooking 
purposes. One very common ingredient among the fish 
was that part of the head known as the “lug been” —a 
bone usually given to the children of the family to pick. 
“A remarkable fact,” says Edward, in his account of the 
Boyndie kitchen-midden, “and one not mentioned in any 
account of a similar place is, that while some of the shells 
crumble to dust almost with the least touch, others are still 
so hard that they would require the fingers of a giant to 
pound them. The enameling of some of the limpet and 
mussel shells is still as beautiful as almost to persuade one 
that the animal had been but newly taken out. On the 
other hand, some are so far gone and so soft as to feel like 
a piece of wet blot-sheet. But what appears to be the most 
remarkable péculiarity in these two very opposite extremes 
is, that the shells thus spoken of may be found in the same 
handful and from the same spot. Another very striking 
feature is, that in handling the old ‘muck,’ one’s fingers 
soon get nearly as black as ink. Here, also, as in all the 
other shell-accumulations, the larger bones are broken—not 
cut, but broken up longitudinally, or what might rather be 
called splintered. This has been done, it is thought, to get 
at the fat or marrow, of which these early people seem to 
have been very fond. They broke the bone, just as we break 
up with some heavy instrument the large toes of a lobster 
or parten, in order to reach the food.” 
M. Engelhardt, in describing the kjékken-méddings of 
Denmark, says that no human bones have been found 
among the shell-heaps. Sir John Lubbock has also said 
that “the absence of human remains satisfactorily proves 
that the primitive population of the North were free from 
