112 
EISENHAUER SHELL-HEAP 
This shell-heap, which is about 25 by 80 feet in extent, with a maximum 
height of 22 inches, is situated on a small knoll on a narrow bench, sloping 
to the east, south, and west, a few hundred feet from the shore of Andrew 
cove (Plate XXII B). The site has a southern exposure and is well shel- 
tered from west and north winds. Most similar sites that the writer has 
seen in the Maritime Provinces have southern or eastern exposures 1 . 
The place was cleared, but not ploughed. A channel-like depression at 
the west end of the heap, judging from the nature of the soil and the char- 
acter of the vegetation, may have been the bed of a small stream having 
its source in the hill at the back. The shells extended into a marshy 
area at the east. 
About 1908, in making a new road from Kaulbach cove to Indian 
point, a cut several feet deep was made across the south side, exposing 
the shells throughout the east and west length of the heap, and about 
one-fourth of the heap was removed. 
There was no evidence of different periods of deposition of shells. 
The deposit was mainly a homogeneous mass of shells and black refuse, 
except for small pockets, streaks, and layers of sand and ashes. In 
one spot near the centre of the heap were two layers of ashes separated by a 
thin layer of black soil, the lower layer about 15 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 
4 inches thick. The shells were all chalky in appearance and some were 
very fragile. Most of them, especially those near the surface, were crushed 
and somewhat disintegrated. The shells rested on a layer of black soil 
from 2 to 6 inches deep and this in turn lay on the hardened yellow drift 
on which the heap was formed. The accumulation of shells and other 
refuse — even if the place had been occupied for only a short time during 
several successive years — was a matter of only a few years. Groups of 
stones were found at the bottom in places that may have been the floor of 
fire-places, but very few of them exhibited any signs of having been sub- 
jected to fire. Even in the ash beds none of the stones appeared to have 
been burnt. Stones scattered elsewhere through the heap were discoloured 
and appeared to have been burnt, but they were not as numerous as burnt 
stones at village sites in Ontario. 
This site was probably a temporary camp occupied only during the 
spring, summer, and autumn, for the purpose of gathering and drying 
shell-fish for winter consumption at a village in the interior. Lescarbot 
states that the Micmacs were in the habit of retiring to the interior in winter 
and encamping on the shores of lakes 2 3 , but more will have to be learned 
of the archaeology of the region before it is known whether or not there 
were such inland camp sites. 
1 Dr. Henry C. Mercer, referring to shell-heaps on York river, Maine, says “they invariably front the water 
to the south or east”. ("An Exploration of Aboriginal Shell-heaps Revealing Traces of Cannibalism on York 
river, Maine,” reprinted from Publications of the University of Pennsylvania (1S97), vol. VI, p. 128.) 
3 Lescarbot, Marc: “La Conversion des Savvages qui ont est6 Baptises en la Nou voile France”, cette anne 
1610, Jesuit Relations (Burrows edition, vol. I, p. 83). Also, by the same author, “History of New France”, Publi- 
cations of the Champlain Society (Toronto, 1914, vol. XI), vol. Ill, p. 220. 
