Loomis and Young — Shell Heaps of Maine. 17 



Art. III. — On the Shell Heaps of Maine ; by F. B. Loomis 

 and D. B. Young. 



During the summer of 1909 a party of five from Amherst 

 College spent two months working in the shell heaps of the 

 Maine coast, one half of the time being devoted to a careful 

 survey of one heap on Sawyer's Island, near Boothbay, the 

 second month being spent in a more rapid investigation of sev- 

 eral heaps for comparison. 



These shell heaps are found all along the coast from Staten 

 Island, Long Island, and the adjacent shore (there being some 

 thirty of them in the neighborhood of New York City), scat- 

 teringly along the Connecticut and Massachusetts shores, and 

 in ever increasing abundance along the coast of Maine, there 

 being in that state a thousand or more in all, when big and 

 little are counted. For over forty years some work has been 

 done in them, mostly sporadic, and without real system ; so 

 that there are considerable collections in the Peabody Museum 

 at Harvard, in the American Museum in New York, in the 

 hands of Mr. Dwight Blaney on Ironbound Island, Maine, 

 and belonging to Prof. J. T. Bowne of Springfield, Mass., not 

 to mention a number of scattered collections. The abundance 

 of the material and the widespread distribution of the heaps 

 make it very desirable that systematic collecting and recording 

 of the collections should be carried on. The vast number of 

 the heaps indicate that they represent an important phase of 

 the life of a large number of Prehistoric Indians. 



The heaps vary greatly in size, from the one at Damariscotta, 

 covering two or three acres, and some 20 feet thick, to tiny 

 accumulations covering only a few square yards and only inches 

 deep. In general, they are composed of the shells and refuse, 

 which have been thrown away on a camp site, mixed with the 

 ashes of camp- and cooking-fires, the bones of animals eaten, 

 and bits of broken pottery, broken and lost tools, or anything 

 which may be included in camp left-overs. The major part of 

 the heap consists of more or less broken shells of the soft-shelled 

 clam, though other mollusca may occur in great numbers; for 

 instance, quahogs, blue mussels, or oysters, the great heap at 

 Damariscotta being entirely composed of oysters : and there 

 are usually bands in each heap composed entirely of other 

 forms. 



The heaps are located apparently with reference to camping 

 convenience; nearness to drinking water, food supplies, and 

 protection from storms, all being considered ; so that near any 

 big clam flat a shell heap may be looked for. 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XXXIV, No. 199.— July, 1912. 



