Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 3 OcTOber 2017

This old outhouse: Privy tied to Paul Revere is excavated

By WILLIAM J. KOLE On Friday, organizers said
Associated Press on Instagram that they
BOSTON (AP) — No. 1 if by were surprised to discover
land, No. 2 if by sea? the outdoor toilet is only
Archaeologists are exca- three feet deep — half
vating what they believe what they expected — but
was the site of an outhouse they planned to punch
next door to Paul Revere’s through a concrete bot-
home — and the privy, as tom apparently added
the colonists politely called around 1850 to see what
their potties, could be flush might lurk beneath.
with artifacts. The house — one of the
People typically dumped earliest remaining brick
trash and household goods structures in Boston — was
in their outhouses. Volun- built around 1711 next to
teers with the City of Boston the Paul Revere House, one
Archaeological Program of the city’s most promi-
already have pulled frag- nent historic sites and a
ments of pottery, bottles huge tourist draw. Archae-
and a tobacco pipe from ologists timed their dig to
the bricked yard of the coincide with drainage im-
Pierce-Hichborn House in provements being made
the heart of Boston’s North to the property. Colonial-
End. So far, there’s been no era outhouses tend to yield
sign of mummified human surprises, said Nina Zannieri,
excrement. That would be executive director of the In this Nov. 24, 2004 file photo, tourists visit the Paul Revere House in the North End neighborhood
the telltale evidence of Paul Revere Memorial As- of Boston.
an outhouse at the home sociation that owns and Associated Press
once owned by a cousin of operates the homes. tell scholars more about of the house. It was later — is immortalized in a line
Revere, Boston city archae- “They’ve excavated other the colonists’ diet. bought by Nathaniel Hich- in “Paul Revere’s Ride,” a
ologist Joe Bagley told The privies and they were full of And bones left over from a born, a boat builder and Henry Wadsworth Longfel-
Associated Press. stuff,” she said. “It’s always 1700s supper could speak a cousin of Paul Revere, low poem: “One if by land,
“Paul Revere might well a treasure trove. For us, to the occupants’ financial famed for his midnight ride and two if by sea ...”
have come over here for it’s an opportunity to get health, Bagley said. “We’ll on April 18, 1775, warning Did one of America’s most
dinner and used the bath- at a source of information learn what they were eat- that the British were com- celebrated patriots use the
room,” Bagley said. “He that’s literally buried under- ing, how much money they ing. outhouse? The experts con-
had 12 kids in his own little ground.” had, whether they bought Revere’s backup plan — cede they may never know
house next door. It’s easy Any fossilized unmention- good or cheap cuts of preparations to light either for certain.
to imagine they didn’t stay ables will be analyzed for meat,” he said. one or two lanterns as sig- “If it happened,” Zannieri
cramped up in there all the seeds or the remains of par- Moses Pierce, a glass work- nals from the steeple of said, “we hope he left a
time.” asites — clues that could er, was the original owner Boston’s Old North Church marker for us.”q

Warm weather keeping Lake Champlain from spawning runs

WINOOSKI, Vt. (AP) — The be moved to a truck that opened Sept. 6. Before cross in a single season was
summerlike weather at the would carry them to a spot the recent summerlike 189 in 2011.
end of September is keep- in the river in North Williston, weather, 24 fish had been By the end of October and
ing some of the landlocked where they are released. moved, Staats said. into November, the fish are
Atlantic salmon in Lake “Right now they are prob- Over the last seven years, expected to start spawn-
Champlain from making ably not thinking about an average of 49 fish had ing, using their tails to dig
the runs up the Winooski coming up the river till crossed the dam by Sept. nests, or redds, in gravel
River to their traditional things cool off a little bit,” 29, from a low of 13 in 2012 banks near Richmond
In this September 2017
photo, Ryan Cross, of the spawning grounds, a biolo- said Nicholas Staats, a fish and a high of 129 in 2011. where the females lay the
Vermont Department of Fish gist says. In the last week, no biologist with the U.S. Fish The number of fish carried eggs and the males fertil-
and Wildlife, holds a male salmon have been found and Wildlife Service. above the dam varies by ize them. Staats said he’s
salmon in Winooski, Vt., that in the fish lift at the Winooski The fish lift run by Burling- year. Last year, a total of hopeful that when water
was being moved around a One hydro-electric plant at ton Electric at the Win- 89 were moved. In 2014, and air temperatures re-
dam on the Winooski River the waterfall between the ooski One hydro-electric 158 were moved. Since bi- turn to normal, the fish will
so it can reach its spawning cities of Burlington and Win- plant between the cities ologists began moving the start swimming up the river
grounds upriver.
Associated Press ooski, where they would of Burlington and Winooski salmon in 1993, the most to again.q