III.
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.
Our examinations[6] were begun on the bank and carried inland, until about 375 square feet of surface, and more than 700 cubic feet of material had been moved. Mr. Morse has given the following account of the shells found in this, and some of the smaller deposits near by. He enumerates the following species: “Common Clam (Mya arenaria), Quahog (Venus mercenaria), Large Scallop (Pecten tenuicostatus), Large Mussel (Mytilus modiolus), Cockle (Purpura lapillus), Beach Snail (Natica heros), Whelk (Buccinum undatum), Periwinkle (Littorina litoralis); and also the following, for which there are no common names: Nassa obsoleta, Natica triseriata, and Macoma fusca. The following land snails were also met with: Helix albolabris, Sayii, alternata, lineata, striatella, indentata, multidentata, Zua lubricoides, and Succinea Totteniana.”
“The heaps were almost entirely composed of the shells of the common clam, which appeared longer and rougher in texture than that now dug near by. In some of the heaps the shells of the quahog were abundant, and marked for their size and solidity. This species, though no longer found in the same cove with the heaps, may be had in the neighborhood of Goose Island, but localities in which it lives are quite rare north of Cape Cod. The common mussel, whelk, cockle, and scallop, were probably used as food, while the other species were doubtless carried there by accident. The presence of so many species of land snails would seem to indicate that the island was once covered with hard-wood trees, among which these animals alone flourish. The occurrence of the little snail, Zua lubricoides, is inconsistent with the view that it is an introduced species.”
The shells were deposited in two different layers, very much as on the island in Frenchman’s Bay already described. The older was separated from the more recent deposit by a thin stratum of earth, extending through the largest portion of the heaps. Pieces of charcoal were scattered everywhere among the shells, but in some places the larger quantity and the blackened earth showed where fires had been made. The number of the fragments of the bones of edible animals was quite large, belonging to no less than fifteen species. Besides these, many bones of other species, bone implements ([Pl. 14], figs. 1, 2; [Pl. 15], figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13), and pieces of bone from which portions had been sawed off were found; no implements of stone were exhumed, though Mr. Swan found a small pestle, and Mr. Morse a chisel lying on the surface near the shore.