G. F. Eaton — Prehistoric Fauna of Block Island. 141 



cealed beneath the surface of some of the grassy hillsides 

 draining into the fresh-water ponds. Moreover, the shifting 

 sand-dunes now overlying much of the narrow parts of the 

 Island on the east and west sides of the Great Salt Pond may, 

 at some future time, uncover the sites of abandoned Indian 

 villages. Shell-heaps may again be exposed when roads are 

 constructed or repaired, and a careful search through the 

 ploughed fields would undoubtedly yield a rich harvest of 

 stone arrow-points and spear-heads. 



The Fort Island Shell-heap. 



The Fort Island Shell-heap originally covered the center and 

 highest part of the island, which is situated near the middle of 

 the small but deep Trim's Pond, now emptying into the Great 

 Salt Pond. The indications are that at one time this shell- 

 heap consisted of a circular deposit about fifty -five feet in 

 diameter and two feet or more in depth at the center, the layer 

 of shells, etc., thinning gradually toward the margin. 



About ten years ago, in constructing the " New Road " from 

 the Old Harbor to the Great Salt Pond, a cut several feet deep 

 was made in a northwesterly direction across the middle of 

 this shell-heap, and the thrifty workmen used the excavated 

 material for filling in the pond where the road should cross it 

 on each side of the island. If any confidence can be placed in 

 the account given by the laborers who were engaged in the 

 work, it would seem that archeological specimens of great value 

 were thus destroyed or lost. 



In April, 1897, the greater portion of what then remained 

 was explored. The deposit on the northeast side of the cut 

 was of small extent, and proved of little interest beyond 

 marking the boundary of the original heap. It was a layer 

 having an extreme depth of six inches, and composed of a 

 black soil in which were scattered a few shells and bone frag- 

 ments. On the southwest side of the cut was exposed a sec- 

 tion of the shell-heap fifty feet long and about eighteen inches 

 deep at the middle of the section, from .Inch point the depth 

 gradually diminished toward the i in both directions. 



Near the middle of the section the - ■ was composed princi- 

 pally of shells mingled with bone ii\ fluents, the color of the 

 mass being darkened by the intermixture of a fine black soil. 

 Toward the northwest, the color of the layer became darker, 

 and more fragments of bone were to be seen in proportion to 

 the number of shells, the margin of the shell-heap showing a 

 plentiful deposit of bones but no shells. At the other end of 

 the section, the layer was composed almost entirely of shells 

 and consequently was nearly white. When first seen from a 

 little distance, the layer appeared to have twice its actual 



