420 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
unusual expression is used, “ buried in gravel at low water mark. 5 ’ 
It is just possible that these northern specimens may have been 
dead. However this may be, and even if we must ascribe to T. de- 
cussata a more northern range than that which Mr. McAndrew 
appears to assign to it, still the interesting fact remains, that it is 
no longer to be found in the Moray Frith nor on the neighbouring- 
shores. 
I engaged a labourer to assist me, and spent about four hours 
in the examination of this mound. Marks of fire were abundant, 
but I found not a single bone, not a trace of pottery, nor an imple¬ 
ment of any kind. In this respect Dr. Glordon’s experience agrees 
with mine. The absence or rarity of bones, may perhaps be attri¬ 
buted to the insular position of this shell-mound, and at any rate we 
may certainly infer, that meat was a luxury seldom enjoyed by these 
“ Mound-builders.” The absence of pottery and of implements is 
still more puzzling. In the Danish Kjokkenmoddings, fragments of 
rude pottery are not uncommon. During my visit to the shell- 
mound at Havelse with Prof. Steenstrup and Mr. Busk, we obtained 
nine rude axes, besides flakes and other fragments of flints. Again, 
implements and fragments of implements occur in similar abundance 
on the sites of the ancient Swiss Lake habitations. I was therefore 
surprised and, it must be confessed, a little disappointed to find these 
Scotch shell-mounds so poor. The difference may perhaps in part be 
accounted for by the absence of flint in the North of Scotland. In 
Denmark, on the other hand, it is so plentiful that if an axe was 
broken, the pieces would often be thrown away, while in a flintless 
country they would in all probability have been worked up again. Still 
it must be remembered that in many of the Swiss Lake habitations, 
the flint must have been brought from a distance, and, under any 
circumstances, if flint implements had been much used by these Scotch 
mound makers we ought to find fragments and chips still; but though 
I looked carefully, I found nothing of the kind. How far this fact 
is an evidence that the Shell-mounds of the Moray Frith belong in 
a great measure to the metallic period, farther researches will show. 
In the mean time, it is an interesting fact, that a bronze pin which 
I shall presently describe, was found at this spot and apparently in 
the shell-mound itself, while on one of those between Burghead 
and Findhorn, we found a small fragment of bronze, apparently a bit 
of a ring. 
But if the absence of stone implements is explicable on the as¬ 
sumption that these shell-mounds belong to the metallic period, the 
rarity of pottery is thereby rendered still more remarkable. I say 
the rarity, because, though neither Dr. Glordon nor I in our visits to 
this spot have been so fortunate as to find any, Dr. Taylor, of Elgin, 
obtained two small pieces, which are now in the Museum at that 
place. They are red on the outside, black within, and of rude manu¬ 
facture, containing large grains, apparently of quartz. 
