Professor Wyman told me that, before leaving the States, I ought to visit the shell mounds at Damariscotta in Maine and also those near Concord. The latter were considered to be remarkable on account of their being composed of fresh-water shells. Mr. Emerson had offered to help me in my examination of them, but not wishing to occupy his time in this unusual manner, I went down to Concord and tried to find them by myself. In this attempt I failed, and, finally, I decided to obtain his help. Fortunately, he was at home and at once put the harness on his pony and drove me down to the place. We crossed some fields and found the shell heaps near a sharp bend of the river. They were about a hundred and fifty yards long, twenty yards wide and twelve feet high, and were chiefly composed of mussel shells. For more than an hour we worked zealously and made slight excavations at different parts of the banks, and found some fragments of bones which had been shaped by hand, but we were not successful in seeing any stone celts. We then went to an adjoining hillock upon which the Indians were accustomed to encamp and there we picked up three rudely-made arrow heads which had been formed out of hard porphyritic stone.
After finishing the inspection of the middens, we went back to the house, and remained for an hour or two in the library where we had tea. Mr. Emerson told me that in order to pass through, with comparative comfort, the long winter, he and others had formed a society of twenty-five members and arrangements were made for meeting at their respective houses. Each member gave a reception in turn upon Tuesdays. When the time was at hand for going to the train he went to the stable, and again harnessed the pony, and drove me to the station. When saying “Good-bye,” he expressed many kind wishes with regard to my projected journey.
Americans must naturally feel interested in whatever relates to the past history of the native races who were the original inhabitants of their country, and who possessed, in combination with their savage nature and cruel practices, certain qualities of honour and fortitude which seem to point to the existence of latent conditions of mind placing them upon a different footing from other ordinary savage races. Theories which relate to the migrations of the tribes who entered Mexico from the North have also much attraction. As years roll onwards, and the events, that then occurred, are more distant or obscure, the causes of those movements and the origin of the influences that created the subsequent advance in civilisation amongst those Indians are becoming almost incomprehensible.
On the way from Concord towards Canada I stopped at Portsmouth for the purpose of seeing the Navy Yard,[8] which was the last naval establishment that I had to visit on the eastern coast, and then proceeded to the remotely situated village of Damariscotta.
The shell mounds near the adjacent river far exceeded in magnitude what I had expected to find. They were placed about twelve miles from the sea within the limits of the ebb and the flow of the tides, and formed the banks of a small promontory round which the river made a sharp bend. Within these banks was a flat space of land which had been used by the Indians for their camping ground, and which is known to have been visited by small bands of them as late as the end of the last century. The heaps extend along the shores of the river and round the promontory for a length of about six hundred yards, and vary in height from fifteen to thirty-five feet. It was difficult to estimate their average width, but in many places it was not less than twenty-two yards.
The mound that I chiefly examined rose directly from the beach close to the line of the present high water mark. It was thirty-three feet high, sixty feet wide and one hundred and fifty feet long. Looking from the river, it presented the appearance of a steep cliff formed of compact layers of large oyster shells. In consequence of the face of this cliff being exposed, it was possible to trace all the horizontal strata. Beginning from the top of the bank there was, in the first place, a deposit of shells closely packed about eighteen inches thick. Then there was a well-defined layer of earth or mould, averaging a thickness of half-an-inch throughout the whole length of the bank without any break or change in its width. The next layer was not so deep as that on the top, and was one foot thick. Then came another deposit of mould, half-an-inch in thickness, resting upon another layer of shells. In this manner, the alternating deposits of earth and shells succeeded each other down to the base.
There were not any signs of kitchen midden refuse amongst the shells, but in the intermediate layers of earth I saw fragments of broken pottery, charred wood, several rounded stones, small quantities of bones of animals, and one bone awl which had evidently been much used. A portion of the cliff which had been undermined by the action of the river had slipped down upon the beach, consequently the interior of the mound was exposed. I made an excavation into this new face and found a stone knife, or scraper, and a small stone chisel. In another part of the bank I discovered a plank lying flat upon the third layer of mould below the surface. It was made of fir, and was four feet six inches long, six inches wide and half-an-inch thick.
These shell heaps, the relics of the feasts and food of the Indians, although interesting as evidences of the habits of life of the savage races that once occupied this part of America, prove but little more than the fact that those races have existed and passed away. The successive layers of earth in the heaps would enable an estimate to be made of their age, if the length of the intervals of time that elapsed between the encampments could be known. The saw-cut plank, resting upon the third layer is an evidence that the two upper deposits of shells were made since the arrival of the English colonists. The Indians then dwelling on these lands were called the Abenakis. These oyster heaps may have been raised by them when they visited the coast of Maine after leaving their hunting grounds.[9]