An account of some kjoekkenmoeddings, or shell-heaps, in Maine and Massachusetts

BY JEFFRIES WYMAN, M. D.
REPRINTED FROM THE ELEVENTH NUMBER OF THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.
SALEM, MASS.: ESSEX INSTITUTE PRESS. 1867.
SHELL-HEAPS IN MAINE AND MASSACHUSETTS.
Crouch’s Cove, Casco Bay, Maine.
Any one who would take the trouble on going to a strange city, to examine the rubbish in its suburbs and streets, and carefully collect and compare the fragments of pottery, pieces of cloth, of paper, cordage, the bones of different animals used as food, worked pieces of stone, wood, bone, or metal, might gain some insight into the modes of life of the inhabitants, and form a fair conception of the progress they had made in the arts of civilization. Even after a city has become a ruin, and centuries have passed by, such examinations have been attended with fruitful results. 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.
Crouch’s Cove. This is situated on Goose Island, in Casco Bay, about fifteen miles north-east of Portland. The whole island is at present covered with a growth of spruce trees ( Abies nigra ), excepting a narrow strip on the seaward side, and on this, at the southerly end of the island, are several shell-heaps of different sizes. The longest of these is about one hundred and fifty feet in length, forty in width, and varying in thickness from a few inches to nearly three feet. Considerable portions have been washed away, and the contents scattered along the shore. The shells are mostly deposited evenly, but here and there are raised into small knolls, and all are covered with turf. This deposit has been carefully examined by Mr. C. B. Fuller, of Portland, by whom large collections have been made, and a portion of which were unfortunately destroyed by the great fire of 1866. Mr. Edward S. Morse has more recently made a partial examination, and obtained many valuable specimens, which will be mentioned farther on.