Note 13 — The Base of the Mound.

Shellmounds in the bay region are mostly in localities where there is fresh water, a creek or a spring, generally the former. W. H. Dall (Contributions, p. 34) observes that for the formation of shellmounds on the Aleutian Islands two conditions are necessary, as a rule: running water or a spring, and a site suitable for boat landing; one or the other of these conditions lacking, no shellmounds are to be found. In Oregon the shellmounds are generally to be found near a creek (cf. Schumacher, l. c., p. 28). The same rule probably governs the shellmounds of the East. D. G. Brinton found shellmounds in Florida generally near running water (Smithson. Rep., 1866, p. 356), but he supposes as the cause of this the greater abundance of shells near the mouths of rivers, while it is certain that the presence of drinking water was the main attraction.