Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-01-09
Written for The Evening Star
SHELL HEAPS OF THE POTOMAC.
Interesting Things Which the Bureau OF
Ethnology Has Got Out of Them Recently.

Interesting Things Which the Bureau Of
Ethnoiogy Has Got Out of Them Recently.
THE BUREAU CT ETHNoLoGY HAS RE-
Il Gently been engaged in an investigation of
the great beds Of oyster shells which mark the
sites OF ancient Indian fishing villages along
the tide waters OF the Potomac. Susquehanna
and Delaware rivers.
In the Potomac the ocean tides reach 40 far
up as Georgetown, but the water is not salt
enough for oysters until one gets about eighty
miles down the stream below Washington
From that point on the ancient beds of bivalves
are found along the shores, in many places
some Of them being of enormous extent. In
days gone by there were plenty Of oysters
somewhat farther up the Potomac than is now
tho case. as ia shown by the shell mounds on
the banks. Since then the freshening of the
water and the sncroachments of mud have
driven the nlollusks southwark.
INDIANS AND OYSTERS.
Savages generally seem to have found in oys-
tiers . sustaining and palata5le food supply.
At all events those tribes which have lived near
the sea have usually resorted to them as q diet
wherever found. Consuming the meats they
left the shells behind them, scattering them
about their dwellings, and thus forming in the
course Of time vast accumulations As the
heaps grew the moro or less temporary dwell
ings were uplifted upon them, and one finds by
digging into them stratum after stratum of the
remains of generations gone by. In such shell
heaps the archsologist traces the history OF
peoples. The debris of their food supply for
many hundreds of years perhaps composes a
mass covering often hundreds of acres. in
which are mingled remnants OF the most varied
descriptions-fiint weapons. implements OF
many kinds. objects OF prehistoric art and
frapynaDta IN
oysters were cooked.
TRACES OF ANCIENT DWELLINGS.
On all the shell fields of the oyster region Of
the Potomac are visible to this day traces OF
ancient dwellings. In many cases the sites OF
hundreds Of houses are marked by depressionl
in the surface, the shells having been piled W
around the lodges as fast they were emptied.
Throughout the beds, which are sometimes ten
and even twelve feet in depth, the shells from
the top to the bottom Of the mass are excel
lently preserved, so that they might almost be
imagined to have been opened within a few
months. This fact is very interesting in itself.
inasmuch as it proves that the oysters were
not opened by breaking the shells, butby cook
ing.
there is reason for surmisng that steaming
process was generally resorted to. by heating
stones and placing the bivalves upon them,
covering the whole with moist seaweed. This
method is followed at the present day at So
called clam-bakes, which illustrate a process OF
cookery that was undoubtedly learned from the
Indians originally. The latter were accus-
toned for centuries before Columbus discov.
cred America to indulge in clam-bakes of their
own on a great scale, whole Tribes coming TO
the seacoast for that purpose periodically and
making such occasions as joyously festive al
possible.
FISHING STATIONS.
The shell-heap villages referred to were, in
fact, fishing stations, some of them occupied
permanently and others only temporarily.
From the remains found in the beds, such as
deer antlers, turtle bones and fish bones, it is
evident that these people OF antiquity were
hunters also and got other food from the
waters besides oysters. 1t is believed that
from these fishing stations not merely the local
population WAS supplied, but tribes inland
also.
The Indians are thought to have had q
process for drying oysters, which they dis
posed Of in great quantities by trading. 1t is
easy TO imagine that the savages OF tine inte-
rior would have relished such sea food quite as
heartily as the people of western cities today
enjoy canned oysters and clans.
NOT ALL 80 ANCIENT.
1t would be a mistake to suppose that all Of
these shell remains are of great antiquity, in
ssmuch as the heaps were occupied as fishing
otoooho W VIC AHoAoAS up w d
recent period. In fact, they are so in some
instances, even to the present day. On the
Potomac there is at least one such settlement
now. Before the white man came to America
all this great oyster producing region belonged
to the great confederacy Of Algonquin gov
erned by the powerful chieftain PowRatan,
whose daughter Pocahontas rescued Capt.
John Smith and whose blood runs red in the
veins Of SO many proud families in this coun.
try at present This was the most extensive
and by far the most numerous confederation
of savages that ever existed, spreading as far
west as the Mississippi river and cover
ing an area equal to half that
of the United States. But Powhatan
and his people, whose settlements in and about
Washington and along the Potomac numbered
many thousands of inhabitants, we're compelled
to yield to the palefaces, who, with an instinct
for destruction which is their dominan. char
acteristic, are now fast wiping out the oyster
beds with dredges.