312 E. J. STATHAM. 
the down stream end as 1,500 cubic yards, or a total of 14,900 
cubic yards ; this heap extends about one-tenth of the length of © 
the existing oyster beds. I find from records of the Fisheries 
Department, that the yield of the Richmond River oyster beds 
for an average of six years has been 1,759 bushels, equivalent 
to about eighty-four cubic yards of shell per annum ; allowing 
that North Creek supplies the whole of this quantity, and that 
one-tenth of it was regularly devoted to the building up of the 
heap in question, it would take over seventeen hundred and 
seventy years to accumulate to its present dimensions ; the beds 
may formerly have been more prolific, but on the other hand 
modern dredging appliances give a much greater range of gather- 
ing ground and much larger catch than under conditions when a 
black gin had no better equipment than her toes and dilly bag. 
Regarded in this light I think it must be admitted the high 
antiquity of this heap is established, the state of preservation of 
the shell speaks neither for nor against its antiquity, for I found 
large oyster shells in a perfect state of preservation in the Whaler’s 
Bluff at Portland, Victoria, at a height of sixty feet above tide 
level, in a stratum of clay overlying the cretaceous beds, and over- 
laid by a sheet of basalt ; also in New Zealand I am informed on 
reliable authority that sea shells with even the delicate colours 
perfectly preserved are to be found far inland at elevations of over 
one thousand feet. 
That these shell heaps are no less ancient than those of Scandi- 
navia, which are said to be of Neolithic age, is highly probable ; 
in fact there are strong resemblances, both as regards components 
and mode of occurrence. Geikie describes the Kitchen-middens 
of Denmark as from three to ten feet high, and sometimes one 
thousand feet in length, (that at North Creek Ferry is one thousand 
six hundred and thirty-six feet in length, and from six to thirteen 
feet in height), “made up of refuse chiefly shells of mussels, 
cockles, oysters, and periwinkles,” so much of this description 
tallies exactly with what is found at North Creek. With regard 
to the components of the heaps, twelve specimens of shells are 
