which was found by a laborer in the meadow directly west of my residence. I have not known of any similar relic found in this region.
I have several times visited the locality where was found that remarkable ancient implement of wood, which I described in the Smithsonian Report for 1876, p. 445. It lies so low that it is usually covered by the water of the river. I had a good view of it last September, but made no discoveries, and found nothing to modify the inferences set forth in the report. Undoubtedly the place was an ancient swamp, lower than the present average water level of Connecticut River. The soil was very wet with springs, some of them issuing from holes an inch in diameter. In seasons of low water many springs appear along the banks, most of which are ephemeral. The banks being previously filled with water, partly from the river and partly from the accumulations of rain, drain off in a low time.
A great deal of fine quicksand was issuing from the springs above mentioned, and I found more of this minute sand in the clay than I detected when it was in a frozen state. The natural color of the bed where untinged by vegetable material is very blue—quite different from the browns of the loam and sand now deposited by the river. The grooved log described in the report was unchanged. It inclines downward, as it enters the bank near the low-water line, and lies very firmly in place. Prying upon it with a lever ten or twelve feet long did not change its set in the least. I was deterred from attempting to dig it out by the certainty that the hole would immediately fill with water.
I visited the place again on the 18th of this month. The water was low, and appearances were not much changed. I traced the blue clay formation thirty or forty rods farther north than I had previously discovered it, and found it there containing much less vegetable material. Walking about twenty rods south of where I found the mallet, and near the water's edge, on a gently sloping beach of loamy sand, I noticed a portion of a buried stone, about two inches in length and half an inch in width. The pecked and rubbed surface looked familiar, and on being taken out it proved to be a pestle of gneiss 11½ inches long and 2 inches in diameter. It is round and smooth, well made, and perfect, with the exception of a small piece broken from the handle end.
SHELL HEAPS IN BARNSTABLE COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
By Daniel Wing, of South Yarmouth, Mass.
On both banks of Bass River, which separate the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, are ancient shell heaps and stone hearths. They are particularly numerous in the vicinity of the Old Colony Railroad bridge and below the village of Georgetown; in both cases upon the Yarmouth side of the river. They are
