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a very long and ancient track leading from an obscure past into an equally 

 obscure future. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL FEATURES 

 Just as geological features give insight into geological time, 

 archeological features allow greater appreciation of historical time. 

 Two features have been recognized in this study. 



Prehistoric Sites . The habitation of the Bay region by man long predates 

 discovery of the area by Western Europeans. Indian middenheaps, shellmounds , 

 and village sites dot the region. When carefully probed by trained workers, 

 a great deal of information can be obtained not only about the people, 

 their culture, and its relationship to other cultures, but the environment 

 which existed at the time. Fish and mammal bones, plant parts, shells — 

 all are indications of past environments, often the only evidence we have 

 in a given area. The preservation of these sites and their careful analysis 

 is an important concommitant to the full understanding of nearby natural 

 areas. All known sites have been plotted on topographic maps. 



Historic Sites . The long history of European settlement in the Bay region 

 is recorded in the deserted townsites, silted harbors, manor houses, 

 primative roads, canals, and mills that abound in the area. While not 

 all are worth preserving, representative samples in each category should 

 be preserved and restored after careful research (as has been done so 

 well at Williamsburg) so that today's public can have some appreciation 

 of the kind of environment that settlers of another age encountered and 

 the way in which they coped with a virgin wilderness they considered 

 hostile. Since much of the blame for environmental degradation in the 



