■2-2 Loomis and Young — Shell Heaps of Maine. 



catch the cod and haddock, when they came in near shore for 

 the spring spawning, and were then in the greatest numbers 

 and most easily caught. That they were spring camps is also 

 confirmed by the condition of the horns on the crania of the 

 male deer, which were found in the heap. In the Sawyer's 

 Island heap, there were 54 male crania, of which only one had 

 an attached horn. The time when the horns are entirely lack- 

 ing is just after the shedding season, which is early spring, 

 and coincides with the spawning time of the cod, etc. From 

 these considerations, it seems almost a certainty that the camps 

 were fishing camps, established in the spring, and only occupied 

 by the Indian at that season of the year. 



The heaps are found along the shore and on islands adjacent 

 to the shore, often on very small islands, when there does not 

 seem to have been available drinking water. Many or rather 

 most of the heaps are being eaten into by the action of the 

 tides and waves, so that in many cases what remains is only a 

 fraction of the original area. This can only be explained by 

 the fact that the land is gradually subsiding. On this point 

 geologists are in general agreement, the outline of the coast 

 being exactly that typical of a sinking coast line. It is further 

 agreed that the coast, as far to the south as New Jersey, is also 

 sinking, and the fundamental problem is the rate of sub- 

 sidence. At New York City the rate has been determined, 

 by a long set of observations of tide levels, as l - 64 feet per 

 century.* In Maine the rate is probably somewhat more rapid, 

 say three feet a century. Other evidences of sinking are found 

 in the tide mills of early days, which are now so low as to be 

 no longer available as power plants. Then there are numerous 

 places where stumps and peat occur below tide level, the trees 

 having been killed by the rising water. Lastly these heaps 

 are also testimony to the sinking land, for the camps were 

 beyond doubt originally well above the tide's reach. 



In none of the heaps explored was any trace of iron imple- 

 ments found, showing that the heaps were completed before 

 the advent of the whites, which began for trading purposes 

 about 1627. The top of the heaps is therefore nearly three 

 hundred years old, at least, and probably somewhat more. 

 The length of time it took to accumulate the four or five feet 

 of many of the heaps (more in some cases) can only be esti- 

 mated, but as the camps were temporary, and the accumulation 

 of ashes and broken up shells must have been comparatively 

 slow, it would seem that not less than 300 to 500 years more 

 should be added to the estimate for the age of the base of the 

 heaps. 



* This Journal, vol. xvii, p. 333, 1904. 



