THE ARCHEOLOGY OF MERIGOMISH HARBOUR, 
NOVA SCOTIA 
INTRODUCTION 
Merigomish harbour, on Northumberland strait, Nova Scotia, extends 
from about 4^ miles southwest to 6 miles northeast of Merigomish, a 
post office and station on the Canadian National railway 12 miles east 
of New Glasgow. It is in the section of Canada known to anthropologists 
as the Eastern Woodlands. The country bordering the harbour is a 
rolling lowland characterized by rounded hills and knolls. Three or 4 
miles southeast from the harbour, plateau-like uplands, locally called 
“mountains”, begin abruptly, and to the east attain a height of 1,100 
feet. 
The bedrocks of the lowlands are chiefly soft shales, sandstones, 
and limestones. The highlands are underlain by slates and quartzites 
with which are associated volcanic and intrusive rocks. All these rocks 
and the glacial debris afforded material for the prehistoric people of the 
harbour. Large sandstone concretions, broken along their concentric 
surfaces, are found on the beach and may have furnished ready-made 
mortars and material suitable for grinding. 
The larger streams start in the highlands, from 6 to 10 miles from 
the shore, flow through deep gorges cut into the gentle slopes of the plateau 
surface, and, even where flowing through the gravelly beds on the low- 
lands, are interrupted by rapids and falls which offer obstacles to canoe 
navigation. At low tide the harbour is largely mud flats and eel-grass 
shoals traversed by the narrow channels of the streams. The narrow 
entrance makes the rather extensive sheet of water enclosed in the harbour 
comparatively safe for canoe navigation. Clam and mussel beds are 
common, and a few oysters may be found. Crabs, lobsters, eels, and 
other fish are plentiful in the harbour, and wild geese, moose, and other 
game are still abundant on the mainland. 
The country was formerly wooded, and wild fruits and nuts are 
abundant. The soil is rich, and the climate suitable for agricultural 
pursuits. 
Several reasons combined to make Merigomish harbour a favourable 
site for archaeological investigations. Its shell-heaps were the largest 
not yet ransacked on the shores of the Maritime Provinces; they were 
large enough, indeed, to promise a full insight into the typical culture 
of the coast-dwellers along this part of the Atlantic seaboard. The 
coast culture again might differ from the culture inland, for no museum 
had separated the remains from the two regions, and one rich site on the 
coast would decide the point. Finally, it was desirable to compare the 
culture of the Iroquois Indians of Ontario, one of whose villages, Roebuck, 
had been excavated by the Division of Anthropology two years before, 
with the culture of the Algonkian Indians of the Maritime Provinces; 
and this could be done most readily by excavating some of the coastal 
shell-heaps, such as those at Merigomish harbour. 
There are few archaeological remains in this vicinity except shell- 
heaps. A small, prehistoric cemetery was excavated by the late Rev. 
Dr. George Patterson about 1874, and the most noticeable part, a circular 
