On examining the carved head carefully it was found that the surface had been coated with a dark red pigment. This could hardly have been on the stone when it was dug up, if, as I was assured, it came from a depth beneath the surface of three feet or more; and for the following reasons I suppose it to have been painted after it was exhumed.
An examination of the bank or hillside where the relic was found revealed the presence of "Drift," a deposit of the glacial and post-glacial period, immediately below the surface loam, which is a foot thick. The point at which the stone was dug up is not more than about sixty feet above the Kennebecasis River, and it would thus for a long period have been below the sea-level in the time marked by the accumulation of the Ledalelay of which (or of the bowlder clay) the deposit containing the stone lay consisted. If buried by natural causes in this deposit the age of the relic would be carried back to a very distant period—a period so distant that one may question whether it could have had its present appearance at that time. And it seems more reasonable to suppose that if it possessed its present aspect when dug up, it must have been buried later than the Drift period, either by accident or design. The paint with which the face is covered appears to have been a subsequent embellishment, for long-continued exposure to the action of the elements would have removed the oil or other substance which serves to give body to the color, and the paint would have remained as a dry powder liable to be brushed off with the slightest touch.
The mode of burial of this stone cannot now be verified, owing to the crumbling condition of the bank, and its actual age as a work of art must remain to a great extent a matter of conjecture. The naturally rough features have been rechiseled, and (since the stone was dug up) coated with paint; so that in some respects the object is not in its pristine condition, and its value as an object or specimen of aboriginal art has been seriously marred by these changes.
ANTIQUITIES OF NOVA SCOTIA.
By Rev. George Patterson, D. D., of New Glasgow, N. S.
No earthworks, properly speaking, exist in this region, but shell heaps are to be found in various places. The shores of this county at various places give evidence of the former occupation of the country by the aborigines, particularly the shells, which are found in the soil as it is turned up by the plow, and the stone implements which were formerly picked up in abundance, and are still sometimes found, though more rarely. The principal places are, Middle River Point, Fraser's Point, both sides of the East River at its entrance into the harbor, Fisher's Grant, and the Beaches, all in Pictou Harbor, and almost every island
