Discoveries at a Village of the Stone Age. 1 1 
Of the depressions marking the hut bottoms of the front row, 
which, as I have said, were more closely placed than those further 
back, one was much longer and deeper than the rest. This, at 
first sight, gave the impression of a long communal dwelling, and 
here we determined to begin our exploration. In digging a trench 
through a part of this depression we struck an ancient fire-place, 
which was made the centre of exploration for several feet around. 
It was found that at this point the deposit in the hut bottom was 
about two feet deep, but its fire-place rested upon an older kitchen- 
midden, or refuse-heap beneath. 
HUT BOTTOM NO. I. — ITS ANTIQUITY. 
The hut bottom of which the first named fire-place is the 
centre is distinguished on the plan as hut bottom A. The older 
shell-heap differs in several respects from that of hut bottom A ; 
there was much less charcoal mingled with the shells, and fish- 
bones were more plentiful. When also we had traced this lower 
kitchen-midden in different directions beneath and beyond hut- 
bottom A, we found stone chips or flakes, which had been struck 
off in the manufacture of weapons, differing in kind from any that 
were met with at the higher levels. The weapons found in 
the lower kitchen-midden were also larger, coarser, and of a 
different form from those exhumed from the hut bottom and waste 
heaps of A. Fragments of bone harpoons were more plentiful at 
the lower horizon, the pieces of bone more fragile, and the stone 
chips more abundantly coated with carbonate of lime than at the 
higher levels. There were also differences in the patterns of the 
pottery found in the two deposits. The ornamentation of the 
fragments of pottery found in this lower kitchen-midden was 
made with a pointed instrument having a smooth round point, 
but that of all the pottery obtained from the higher levels was 
impressed with a tool having a square or angular point, — all seem- 
ing to point to a want of continuity in the arts and habits of the 
men of the older kitchen-midden, and those who made the shell- 
heaps and occupied the hut bottom of A ; and it seems possible 
that the former belonged to a different tribe or race from the latter. 
I am the more confirmed in this impression that there was an 
older and independent occupation of this camping ground, from 
the discovery near the edge of the bank, overlooking the sea 
B 
