1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 15 



at the Nicobars I found it to be common. Spondylus aurantius 

 is also a rare shell now. All the other species of Molluscs above 

 enumerated, and many others not particularly alluded to, occur in 

 large quantities on the neighbouring coral-reefs, from which they 

 evidently were obtained, with the exception of the Neritae which, 

 as already noted, are generally found on the mangrove vegetation. 

 Of land-shells CyclopJiorus foliaceus and Spiraxis Hauyhtoni, both 

 extremely common in the jungles all round, were also numerous, 

 and evidently formed an article of food. 



Looking at the shell fauna, there is no difference to be observ- 

 ed in the size of the specimens found in the Kjokkenmodding and 

 those at present occurring near the islands. The Trochi gene- 

 rally have the top part of the shell broken off, the specimens of 

 Pteroceras and Murex are broken on the back of the last whorl, 

 where the shell is thin, and other species of Gastropods have 

 been treated in a similar, or slightly different, manner, in order 

 to facilitate the extraction of the fleshy portion of the animal. The 

 valves of Pelecypoda are simply opened, but as already mentioned, 

 they are not equally numerous. Thick shells like Tridacnce, and 

 others, like Ostrece and Spondyli which live more or less firmly 

 attached to rocks or corals, are not so easily obtained as Gastropods ; 

 and if obtained, the valves are sometimes opened only with the 

 greatest difficulty during the life of the animal. Species of Pinna for 

 instance, which are easily procured and posses a thin shell, but con- 

 tain comparatively very little fleshy substance, are hardly represented 

 in the mound ! This shews that the Andamanese made, if possible, a 

 judicious selection from the scanty materials available for their table. 



2. The large number of bones of the Andaman pig is remark- 

 able. A complete skull obtained from the mound did not exhibit 

 any difference from the living animal, it belonged though to a 

 very small but not a young specimen. Several of the thicker 

 bones which contained marrow, were split and broken up in the 

 usual manner, as has been the practice with ancient people in 

 Europe and elsewhere. I have not observed any other kind of 

 bones of fishes or birds, but they may occur. 



3. The fragments of pottery are of a rather thin kind, on the 

 surface roughly grooved or striated, and indicate by their form that 



