332 
Recent Shells on the 
Thus, if after a shower there should be seven-tenths of water 
found in the horizontal , and three-tenths in the perpendicular 
rain-guage, under the No. 7, and opposite No 3, will be found 
92. To the quantity found in the horizontal rain-guage add two 
cyphers, thus 7-00; which divide by the number just found, and 
the result will be .762, the true quantity fallen. 
George Town, March 17, 1845. 
Art. XIV. On the Heaps of recent Shells which exist along the 
shores of Tasmania . By Ronald C. Gunn, Esq. 
The aborigines of Tasmania have left behind them such faint 
traces of their existence—so few indications by which their hav¬ 
ing so long inhabited this island could be known—that it may 
not be deemed altogether uninteresting or unimportant, to- draw 
attention to the only permanent memorials they have left us ; 
namely, the large heaps of shells formed by them along the shores 
of our coasts, bays, and estuaries, wherever testacece abound; 
being the accumulated remains of their feasts. 
Some years ago, when I first observed the immense quantity of 
comminuted shells, mixed in the soil of certain portions of the 
Government Garden, at Hobart Town, I could not be informed 
by those of whom I enquired how they had arrived there; and I 
was led to infer that they had been artificially and recently ap¬ 
plied as a manure. It was not until long after, when I had an 
opportunity of observing some lately formed heaps of shells on 
the west coast of the island, that I ascertained the truth. As 
some persons, otherwise well-informed, still believe that changes 
in the relative levels of land and sea may have led to the ap¬ 
pearance of the shells in their present places, I have thought it 
best to record my observations on the subject. 
The aborigines of Tasmania appear, at all times to have derived 
a considerable portion of their food from the sea; and as they 
seem to have had no effectual means of catching fish in any 
