* 
314 Antiquity of Shell-mounds. [cHAP. XVII. 
cept in pretty deep water; and although no traces of any 
of their vessels have as yet been met with near the mound, 
still one, a canoe—very similar to the ancient Danish canoe 
—was dug up some years ago from a piece of marshy 
ground betwixt Portsoy and Cullen. 
“During a recent excavation of the mound in the pres- 
ence of a clerical friend, we came upon the two following 
species of shells not previously noticed —the flat-topped 
periwinkle (Littortna littoralis), and the gray pyramid shell 
(Trochus cinerarius). These shells are both very common 
among the rocks at the present day. -As the list indicates, 
the periwinkle was the most frequent shell in the mound ; 
but we went deeper down, and the farther we went into the 
bank, the limpet was most predominant, and, in fact, was 
almost the exclusive shell. 
“Taking all these circumstances into account, and weigh- 
ing the matter carefully over, we can not come to any other 
conclusion than that the kitchen-middens must be of a very 
remote age. We know nothing of the people who formed 
these mounds of shells and bones. Tradition and history 
are altogether silent. Archwology seems powerless to help 
us, and ethnology’s vision fails to penetrate the depths of 
obscurity. It would appear to be one of those mysteries of 
the past which baffle even the wisest.” 
Edward collected further samples of articles taken from 
kitchen-middens for the museum, including a series of shells 
—the oyster, the cockle, the periwinkle, and the brown 
buckie, or whelk— gathered from the shell-heaps on the 
farna of Brigzes, near Elgin. He had also several other 
fragments of antiquity collected in the museum, one of the 
most interesting of which was the joint-bone of some ex- 
tinct animal. The story connected with this bone is rather 
curious. 
Before Edward had any official connection with the mu- 
seum, he visited it one day in company with his master, and 
there he first saw this particular bone. He was struck by 
