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.
The former dwelling-places of the Aborigines of the United States are
nowhere more plainly indicated than along the seaboard, where some
of the tribes passed a portion, at least, of each year, in hunting
and fishing; some no doubt living there permanently, while others, it
appears, made visits only at stated periods.[1] The clam, the quahog,
the scallop, and the oyster, entered largely into their food, and the
castaway shells of these, piled up during many years, have not only
become monuments of their sea-shore life, but have largely aided in the
preservation of the bones of the animals on which they fed, and also of
some of the more perishable implements used in their rude arts.
The shell-heaps on the Atlantic coast long since attracted notice.
Dr. C. T. Jackson, and afterwards Professor Chadbourne, visited the
remarkable one at Damariscotta, in Maine; Sir Charles Lyell has
particularly described another on St. Simon’s Island, in Georgia,[2]
and quite recently Mr. Charles Rau, of New York, has given a full and
instructive account of the examination of another at Keyport, New
Jersey.[3] We have ourselves examined two on the sea-coast of East
Florida, and still others in considerable numbers on the banks of the
upper St. John’s, in the same State. These last-mentioned heaps consist
wholly of the shells of fresh-water species. We may have something
to say of them hereafter, but at present shall only speak of such as
were visited on the coast of Maine and Massachusetts during the summer
and autumn of the year just passed. Of the localities where these are
situated, and of the structure of the heaps, we shall speak as briefly
as possible; but shall enter somewhat fully into details, in connection
with the implements and the remains of animals found in them. It is to
be understood, however, that the heaps here described are only a very
small portion of those to be seen along the coast of these two States,
and which offer an ample reward to any who will take the trouble to
examine them.