10 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
HUT BOTTOM A — ITS FORM AND THE HABITS OF ITS OCCUPANTS. 
As I have already remarked, the site of hut bottom A and 
its associated dwellings had on the surface the appearance of 
a communal dwelling, which was eight feet in breadth by 
thirty long. As our explorations progressed it was found that 
this oblong depression did not mark the foundations of a sin- 
gle hut but of several placed close together in a row. The 
exact form and size of the typical hut was disclosed by a layer 
of clean beach gravel, which we met with about fifteen inches 
from the surface (J). This layer formed a ring around the fire- 
place, at a distance of from two to three feet from its centre, 
and was bordered all around by the shells of a kitchen-mid- 
den (H). The ring of gravel was about three inches thick in 
its deepest part, and was continuous except on the south side, 
where a break about four feet long marks the position of the 
door. Here the ends of the gravelly layer were upheld or 
bounded by a few large stones. 
This gravelly stratum was found to form the boundary of 
a hut bottom, less than one-third of the length of the whole 
depression occupied by the row of hut bottoms; the hut bot- 
tom had a diameter of eight feet. Around the margin of this 
foundation there were imbedded stones (I) of various sizes that 
appear to have been used as supports or wedges for poles of 
which the frame work of the hut was composed. No remains 
of these poles or of any wood work was discovered which 
could be referred to the time when this village site was occu- 
pied by an aboriginal people. 
There are two pecularities in the foundation of this hut 
which would lead to the inference that the hut was conical. 
The first is the relation of the kitchen-midden to the gravel of 
the sleeping-bench. In making a trench through this hut 
bottom, and others adjoining, sections of several layers of 
gravel marking such sleeping-benches were passed through at 
various depths in the deposit; and in all, the outer edge of the 
gravel of the sleeping-bench was found to be overlapped by 
the shells of the kitchen-midden, as though the shells had 
fallen in upon the gravel after the decay of the poles which 
had supported the walls of the hut. This overlapping of the 
