Bulletin of the Natural History Society . 
i 2 
beach, in and beneath the oldest kitchen-midden, of an ancient 
hre-place, so situated that it must have belonged to a hut whose 
foundation has been partly swept away by the sea ; and which 
was therefore erected and occupied when the bank extended fur- 
ther out than it now does, or when the inhabitants of hut-bottom 
A lived here. This older fire-place is marked on the plan as hut- 
bottom No. i. It was planted on a fresh layer of gravel appar- 
ently spread over the original land surface by a storm or by the 
surf when the land was lower than it is now, as it fills up the in- 
equalities between the stones which are scattered over the clay flat. 
There was but a film of vegetable mould between this gravel and 
the clay, from which it may be inferred that hut-bottom No. i 
marks a very early occupation of the site. The clay upon which 
the layer of gravel was spread, is the Leda or Champlain clay of 
geologists, and it does not seem likely that any very long time 
elapsed, after this portion of the land was raised above the sea, 
before it was occupied by man. 
The foot-hold thus obtained at the sea-side by the dwellers of 
hut-bottom No. i seems to have been precarious, and when 
their successors came they placed their camps further back, and 
found a permanent site, safe from the encroachments of the sea. 
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 exploration progressed it was found that this 
oblong depression did not mark the foundations of a single 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 (15) inches from the sur- 
face. This layer formed a ring around the fire-place, at a distance 
of from two (2) to three (3) feet from its centre, and was bordered 
all around by the shells of a kitchen-midden. The ring of gravel 
was about three (3) inches thick in its deepest part, and was con- 
tinuous except on the south side where a break about four (4) feet 
long marks the position of the door. Here the ends of the 
gravelly layer were upheld or bounded by a few large stones. 
