Jeffries Wyman

“ Shell-heaps have become intimately associated with the question of the age of the human race, a question which has passed out of the domain of the written, into that of geological history. It can only be satisfactorily answered by following the method of the geologist, when he attempts to determine the period when a given animal13 existed in former geological times, viz., by a careful comparison of the remains of such animal with those of existing species, and by an accurate study of the geological and other physical conditions under which they are found. ”

“ Human remains have not been found in the shell-heaps of Denmark, except in the case of casual burials, as of a shipwrecked sailor, or of burials from some other unusual occurrence, and these are of a modern date. The same absence of human remains marks the shell-heaps we are describing, with a single exception. At Cotuit Port an unequivocal metatarsal bone from the great toe of the human foot was discovered. ”

“ Josselyn, who, of all the earlier writers, has given the most complete account of the animals found on the coast of New England, states that “the Indians, when weary with travelling, will take them (the rattlesnakes) up with their bare hands, laying hold with one hand behind their head, with the other taking hold of their tail, and with their teeth tear off the skin of their backs, and feed upon them alive, which, they say, refresheth them.” ”

“ Had intercourse with Europeans been once fairly established, it were a reasonable presumption that we should have found at least a glass bead, a fragment of earthenware, or an instrument of some sort indicative of the fact, especially when we bear in mind that it would be in just such places, where the savages collected around their fires and seething-pots to cook and eat, that such objects might be expected to be broken or lost. ”

“ Mount Desert is the largest of the islands on the indented coast of Maine, and forms the western shore of Frenchman’s Bay. Many shell-heaps are scattered over this and the adjoining islands and the main land. ”

“ Implements of bone made by the Indians dwelling in New England have rarely been mentioned, and are seldom seen in collections, but if one may judge from the number of specimens we have obtained, must have been in quite common use. ”

“ A savage tribe, dwelling for a long period on one and the same place, would inevitably leave vestiges of the manner in which they lived, though these would, of course, be fewer in kinds just in proportion as the people were nearer to a primeval condition. ”

“ At Mount Desert only two arrow-heads were found, at Crouch’s Cove Mr. Swann found a pestle, and Mr. Morse a rude chisel, both picked up on the shore, but probably washed out from among the shells. At Eagle Hill, Mr. Putnam found a spherical stone with a groove around it, but at Cotuit Port not a single piece of worked stone was discovered. In regions adjoining the different shell deposits, especially at Cotuit Port, an abundance of stone implements have been found, and those who have preceded us have occasionally obtained some from the heaps. ”

“ Excavations by four persons during a whole day were made near the shore, and at various points inland, and brought to light the shells of the oyster, clam, scallop, and quahog, in large numbers, but quite unequally distributed; the clam being plentiful in some places, the quahog in others, and the scallop in others, while the oyster abounded everywhere.
Two species of Pyrula, viz.: P. carica and P. canaliculata were found, the first in considerable numbers. Neither of these species was found in any of the other heaps. Dr. Gould states that they are not known to exist north of Cape Cod. ”

“ Precisely where the line is to be drawn between those which are and are not edible, or what animal an Indian would absolutely refuse to eat, it is impossible to say. Although the kinds of meat used were in the main palatable, the natives certainly did not hesitate to make use of some which do not commend themselves to the taste of civilized people. ”

“ They seem not to have been attractive to the dogs. They are characterized by their much flattened shape, thick walls, narrow cavity, and the absence of an opening for the entrance of air. Well-preserved specimens of the coracoid bone were also found entire.
The catalogue we have given of the animals found in the shell-heaps shows that the elements of variety in food certainly existed, especially if we add to these the maize, beans, squashes, and various kinds of roots Indians are known to have used. ”

“ No stone implements, but a few worked pieces of bone were dug up, and also some fragments from which portions had been sawed off. The tine of a deer’s antler, from which the tip had been sawed off, is represented on Pl. 15, fig. 14. About two-thirds of the metatarsal bone of the great toe from a human foot was found, in company with the bones of the animals already mentioned, and is the only portion of the skeleton of man which we have discovered while examining the heaps here described. ”

“ In a word, it consisted of a mixture of fish and flesh of all sorts. “Shad, eels, alewives,” “venison, beaver, bear’s flesh, moose, otters, raccoons, or any kind that they take in hunting,” are cut into pieces, bones and all, and stewed together. ”

“ Morse has called attention to the abundance of Helices, or land14 snails, which were exhumed at Crouch’s Cove, and to the fact that these require a hard-wood growth for subsistence, while at present the island, on which this cove is situated, is covered with spruces. It is also noticeable that there has been in all the localities, except at Salisbury, a disintegration of the shores, the sea undermining and destroying the deposits. ”

“ It16 was so deeply buried, and its appearance was such, that no doubt exists that it was of the same age as the heap itself; we have therefore assigned it a place in the following table, which gives a list of the species of animals uncovered and identified by their bones, or shells, in the different heaps, and shows their relative distribution through them. ”

“ The inhabitants of the North-west Coast, and the Esquimaux, are largely dependent upon this material, and Messrs. Squier and Davis found a few bone instruments in the mounds of Ohio. The accompanying figures, drawn by Mr. Morse, represent the forms of the more important ones discovered in the different heaps, which form the subject of this paper. Except the first, which is reduced one-half, linear measurement, all are represented of the natural size. We are unable to assign any uses for the larger part of them, and of the others can only offer a conjecture.
25
Pl. ”