G. F. Eaton — Prehistoric Fauna of Block Island. 137 



Art. XIII. — The Prehistoric Fauna of Block Island, as 

 indicated by its Ancient Shell-heaps ; * by G. F. Eaton. 

 (With Plates II and III.) 



Introduction. 



Block Island is well known to New England people, both 

 as a healthful summer resort and as a fishing station of great 

 importance. Its fame, moreover, dates back to the remote 

 years before the coming of the first white men, for the legends 

 narrated to the settlers by the former Indian inhabitants, the 

 Manissees, tell of long-continued wars of conquest waged for 

 the sake of the highly prized fisheries. Little is known of 

 this Manissean colony except that they were originally of the 

 same stock as the warlike Narragansett tribe, and that, at the 

 dawn of New England history, they had already occupied the 

 Island during a period of time so long that they themselves 

 had no idea when their ancestors came. A conquered race, 

 they have passed away with the advance of civilization, until 

 now their very name is almost forgotten. Few records are 

 extant which give any information about the manner of life of 

 these aborigines. What food could they procure upon a bleak 

 storm-swept island, and what were their arts? With a view to 

 obtaining some answer to these interesting questions, careful 

 exploration has been made of the shell-heaps of the Island, and 

 the results of the work are embodied in this paper. 



The first scientific notice of the Island appeared in 1S40, in 

 the State Geological Report of Rhode Island. Since then 

 many discussions of its geological formations have been pub- 

 lished, and chief among recent writers on this subject is Prof. 

 Marsh of Yale University. His papers entitled " The Geology 

 of Block Island" and " The Jurassic Formation on the Atlantic 

 Coast," lately published in this Journal, have done much to 

 remove the stumbling-block long offered by the basal clays of 

 the islands off the New England coast. From the first of these 

 papers (vol. ii, p. 297, 1896) is taken the following quotation, 

 which was apparently the first notice of the Block Island shell- 

 heaps to appear in any scientific publication : 



" On some of the glacial hills near the shore, or around the 

 Great Pond, shell-heaps of considerable antiquity may be 

 observed, but so far as I could ascertain, none of them have 

 been explored. One may be seen on the south side of the road 

 recently cut through a low hill near the new steamboat land- 

 ing on Great Pond. The deposits are several feet in thickness, 

 indicating a long occupancy of the place by some of the early 

 inhabitants of the island. The short examination I was able 



* A Thesis presented for the degree of Ph.D. at Yale University, June 1, 1898. 

 Am. Jour. Sct.— Fourth Series, Yol. YI, No. 32. -August, 1898. 

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