LUBBOCK ON THE ANCIENT SHELL-MOUNDS OE SCOTLAND. 417 
possibly have resulted from the manner in which the bone was cut 
open for the sake of its marrow. 
Kg. I. 
Between Burghead and Findhorn the coast is a shingly plain, 
elevated only a few feet above high-water mark, and divided into 
about twenty ridges, which, though somewhat irregular, run approxi¬ 
mately parallel with the coast. They are from three to ten yards 
broad, occasionally bifurcate, and are from ten to fifty yards apart. 
The coast has a somewhat desolate appearance, the shingle being for 
the most part quite bare, though in places there are large patches of 
gorse and heather. Along this stretch of coast Dr. Grordon pointed 
out to me several small accumulations of shells, besides which there 
were some places where we found traces of fire, but no shells, or, at 
least, very few. The largest shell-mound which we saw in this neigh¬ 
bourhood was near Mutton Hole Farm. It was on a hillock about 
six feet high and sixty-five yards in circumference. The mound itself 
was composed of stones and sand, covered by a layer of shells. 
This layer was only a few inches thick. We found no pottery, and 
bones seemed to be much rarer; we did not, however, dig much in 
this shell-mound. 
I picked up a small fragment of a bronze ring, and we found also 
several minute bits of flint of irregular shapes. 
Though the species of shells present in these shell-mounds is 
nearly the same, still the proportions of each kind vary very much. 
In the first heap we examined, periwinkles were by far most nume¬ 
rous and cockles w T ere almost entirely absent; in some of those 
nearer Findhorn, on the other hand, as, for instance, in the one near 
Mutton Hole Farm, cockles were the predominating shell, and next 
to it the Mya was perhaps the most frequent. In this neighbourhood, 
again, oysters seemed to be altogether absent, while with the peri¬ 
winkle they form the main part of the kjokkenm6dding near the old 
margin of Loch Spynie. 
This small lake, which is bisected by the Elgin and Lossiemouth 
Bailway, at present occupies but the central portion of the plain 
which it once covered. Indeed, it is evident that the high land to 
the north was once an island, and that Loch Spynie must then 
“ have been an arm of the sea, open in breadth at the east nearly 
“ from the Hill of Grarmach to the headland behind Lossiemouth, 
“ and stretching westward over the plain till it again joined the 
“ Frith at the town of Burghhead. The general elevation of this 
“ tract does not exceed four feet above the level of the sea.” * Owing 
* A Survey of the Province of Moray. 
