Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-02-12
NO. 81.

meat, and evidently used for that purpose.
1t was nicely smoothed, sharpened at the
edge and left at the upper part thick and
so as to be held easily by the fingers.
curiosity OF another sort, well worthy
of examination, was a powder horn pre-
sented to the society by Joseph F. Smith
of Chicago, formerly of Wiscasset, ex-
hibiting rare ingenuity and suggestive of
many facts and ideas. The horn is COW
cred with geographical, Typographical and
other delineations wrought with knife
Upon it is the following inscription:
Robert Thomas, Jr., His Horn, Made at
Ft. Edward, Jan. I'd, 1859" 1t contains
a sketch of New York city, the Hudson
river and some of its tributaries. Albany,
Schenectady and other places, many of
the forts then in existence, and extending
on the north as far rs Lake Ontario. The
English coat of arms is handsomely cary
ed, but the American does not appear,
the date on the horn being seventeen years
before the commencement of the Revolu-
ton. The accuracy and beauty with which
the sketchng and lettering is done, con-
sidering that the engraver probably had
no map to work by and nothing but knife
to carve with is truly wonderful, making
this a marvel of art in addition to its val
ue as relic of oldcn times
At late hour the Society adjourned to
A., Ga. IT =. a.
EVENING SESSION.
The attendance at the State House in
the evening was better than in the after
noon. Judge Bourne, who arrived dur
ing the afternoon session and took the
chair upon his arrival at the place of
meeting, occupied the chair in the even
ing. Immediately upon coming to order,
Mr.. Ballard commenced to read 50 much
of the report of the investigating commit
tee chosen last year as relates to the
OYSTER SHELL DEPOSIT AT DAMARIsCoTTA
The report was prepared by Mr.. Il. X.
/. Sewall, of Wiscasset 1t was long and
the descriptions were livery minute. The
oyster deposits are found at the head of
an inlet which makes in from the sea.
where the fresh water from the stream
coming down meets the briny tide. The
deposits are offal remains of the oyster in
its mature stage, and Of large size The
shells are heaped, and among them were
found bones of beasts, birds and men, and
the remains of other shell fish. These
heaps are entirely covered with grass
grown soil. Fragments of stone hatch
st, and bits of pottery have been found in
them. DR.. jackson, of Boston, measured
them in 1888, and made them to be 10S
rods in length so to 100 rods in width,
and from 25 to 60 feet deep; giving not
less than A, 900, 400 cubic feet of shells,
warranting an estimated consumption of
more than 35,000,925 bushels of oysters.
If the shells were converted to lime they
would make about 100000 casks. At
some distance below the surface of the
shells there is second layer of earth
apparently indicating that the depositing
must have stopped at some time sufficient
to allow the layer to accumulate. No
oysters are found in the waters of that
vicinity now, and where the shells came
from is Il mystery. The writer of the re-
port says that tradition speaks of oysters
having existed there, and that mention is
made of them in accounts of the Popham
colony. The first obvious, rational deduc-
ton is that these she'll heaps are the work
of human hands the second is that the
original and principal deposit is the offal
remains of a central and permanent popu-
lation; third, that these heaps mark the
site of homes of a long lost people; fourth,
that they were a people who did not eat
their food raw fifth, that succession of
races has been there the latter more
nomadic in their habits than the earlier;
and as vestiges these shell remains indi-
cate a race European in its habits, or origin.
The author then cites evidence that such
deposits have been found in Denmark.
, They indicate seataring people. Then
, he advances and sustains the idea that
f there was at one time great settlement
t upon the site near Damariscotta, and that
, the people were more civilized than the
savages around them, and closes the re-
port by suggesting that we must look to
the shores of Norway and Denmark, for
; a rational solution of the mystery; to the
voyages of the Northmen and their CO.
lonial incursion to the wilds of Maine in
periods contemporaneous with or anterior
to the Icelandic voyages, of which history
has left authentic records now coming to
light and to the lost race of the Waw-
enocks. A race combining in itself the
features of an exotic and European ori-
gin upon native stock had their seat of
power here, and these oyster shell heaps
not only support the theory of such an ORR
gin, but mark the site of their deserted
homes, and are the remains of an aban-