_Cotuit Port_ is in the town of Barnstable, on the south side of Cape
Cod, and on the northern shore of a narrow bay. It is quite near to
the sea, but protected from it by a narrow spit of land, which forms
a natural breakwater across the bay at its mouth. Within the distance
of a few miles, a large number of shell-heaps are met with, and have
been estimated to cover hundreds of acres, sometimes having a thickness
of between one and two feet, and at others of only a few inches.
Oysters were formerly found in the bay in much larger quantities
than at present, and doubtless formed one of the chief attractions
which drew the Indians to this place. Our examinations were confined
chiefly to one of the larger deposits, about a mile to the eastward of
the village, situated on a sloping surface with a pleasant southerly
exposure. 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. The largest specimen of the _P.
carica_ was about seven inches in length, a portion of the spire having
been broken off, and this, according to Dr. Gould, is their maximum
size on the Coast of Massachusetts. It is, however, in remarkable
contrast with a shell of the same species from one of the shell-heaps
in Florida, which measured nearly fourteen inches in length.
Of the remains of vertebrates, the bones of the deer were the most
abundant; but those of the seal, the fox, the mink, of birds, including
those of a duck and the wild turkey, of turtle and of fish were found.
During a former examination of this locality by Mr. George G. Lowell
and Dr. Algernon Coolidge, a canine of a bear and a part of the skull
of a cat was obtained. 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. The writer would express his
obligations to Mr. George G. Lowell for the opportunity of examining
the locality at Cotuit Port, and for the gift of valuable specimens.