if from the other cause suggested, which much of the osteological evidence gathered from these middens seems to support, viz., the invasion of a hostile people. But placing the abandonment at the latest possible date consistent with the presence and condition of the stumps, say 500 years ago, when to this has been added the period covered by the formation of the midden mass, we still find ourselves in the possession, in this extensive pile of refuse, of a monument of the past second to none in the country in antiquity. That the accumulation of such a heap of human refuse as this midden presents, to make no mention of others almost as large, occupied a very considerable period of time there can be no doubt, I think. It possesses many features of the Danish kjoekken-moeddinger, which led such eminent investigators as Worsaae, Steenstrup and Lubbock to regard the period of formation of those well-known piles as extending, in the words of the learned author of the Origin of the Aryans, over “many centuries at least, more probably several millenniums.”5 I am not unjustified, therefore, in claiming a very considerable period of time for the accumulation of these similar and much larger heaps of British Columbia. Viewing it, therefore, from the most conservative standpoint, it may be reasonably conceded, I think, that the first layers of this midden could hardly have been laid down much later than the beginning of our own era.
That this particular midden-pile was slowly formed through the centuries, and was not the rapid accumulations of a large body of people, is more than probable from the fact that there are on its surface, at some distance from each other, four or five crowns or eminences — due, as I have personally ascertained, not to any local elevation of the subsoil, but wholly to an increase in the midden-mass itself —which, from what we know of the mode of more recent accumulations of the kind, we may reasonably infer were old family centres. From these features, as well as from many other minor ones, such as the scarcity of relics, in comparison with other camping-grounds where large communities are known to have dwelt, it may fairly be concluded that this midden was the refuse-heap of a few families only; and when it is remembered what an enormous mass of stuff there is in it, we are bound, on any reasonable hypothesis, to allow a very considerable time for its accumulation. And from the fact that the midden is found to overlie with a sharp line of division the clean, coarse gravel of the drift — which, as far as I have been able to discover, shows little or no trace of vegetable matter, whereas the soil in the immediate vicinity of the midden and all along this bank is rich, dark and loamy to a depth of from a few inches to over a foot — it is pretty certain there was a settlement on this bank before the appearance of post-glacial vegetation in that district.
Then the midden-mass itself bears unmistakable testimony to its extreme age, nearly everything taken from it, except the stones, being in the last stage of decay, an instance of which is the condition of the shell remains. Generally speaking, the shells when taken out whole, which happens rarely, all crumble to pieces at the touch, even when they bear no marks of fire on them. And that the clam shell, at any rate, is exceedingly endurable is clear from the fact that trees of over half a millennium’s growth are repeatedly found along Burrard Inlet growing over refuse-heaps and gripping with their roots whole clam shells as perfect and firm as the day they were thrown out. I have shells in my possession that cannot be less than five centuries old, from the position in which they were found, but yet it would puzzle anybody to pick them out from a number of others of the same kind from which the fish were taken only a few years ago. There are numerous other signs besides this that speak of extreme age. It rarely happens that a skull is taken out whole; it generally falls to pieces in handling. Then again, not a particle of wood has been found in the midden so far, unless it be the rotting rootlets of the trees that penetrate the mass to a depth of several feet. Axe- and tomahawk-heads, which were undoubtedly once fastened into wooden hafts or handles, are quite common; but where they are found there is never any trace of their wooden hafts to be seen. These and sundry other unmistakable evidences all seem to the writer to speak clearly of the antiquity of the accumulation. I am anxious not to exaggerate this antiquity, especially in the face of the conclusion arrived at by Professor Cyrus Thomas after long and careful investigations in the mound and midden districts east of the Rockies. I merely desire to state the facts of the case as they appear to those who have visited and examined this midden; and think it possible that further investigation will make it necessary to extend rather than to curtail the age here indicated.
In the accompanying plates I-III are figured a fair sample of the relics thus far taken from this midden. There is nothing particularly striking either in the utensils or weapons recovered from it. They are mostly simple in make and design, and such as are found among other primitive people elsewhere. No pottery of any kind has been found in these middens; indeed the ceramic art appears to have been wholly unknown to the aborigines of British Columbia. The mortars or bowls and pestles figured in the plates were not, as is often supposed, for corn-grinding purposes. They do not seem to have possessed such; no grain of any kind being known, as far as the writer has been able to discover, among the West Coast Indians north of the Columbia. Nor have the middens thus far supplied the smallest evidence of horticulture of any kind. Some of their tools and utensils, such as the pestle, or, more properly, stone-hammer, figured in plate II, and the instrument resembling a belay ing-pin, figured in plate III, are beautifully made and polished. These are wrought from a kind of granite of a hard- and close-grained quality. Others again are rude and rough in their make. It appears to have been customary to fashion their bowls after the likeness of some animal. The fish-head pattern appears to have been the most common. That shown in plate II is of an unusual type. It has a bird’s head with a quadruped’s body, the back being hollowed out in basin form. There was one taken from the old camping-grounds at Port Hammond which had a human face carved on one of its sides, the top of the head rising several inches above the edge or rim of the receptacle, of a type that in no way resembled or suggested the face of an Indian, and of a character wholly different from any the writer has seen elsewhere in British Columbia.6 Large numbers of barbed-bone spear-points are found. The stone adzes, axes, knives and chisels are generally of jade; and one or two have been found with edges as sharp and keen as if they were made of steel. Bone needles, with the eye sometimes in the centre, at other times in the end, are often found. A favourite weapon among these midden people seems to have been one formed from the young horn of the elk. These horns in their first growth are round and pointed, and at this stage are selected by the warriors for their poqamangans or skull-crackers. The horn was apparently inserted in a stick or otherwise secured to a haft. They were aptly termed skull-crackers, for three adult skulls have already been taken from this midden with circular perforations in their crowns evidently made by these horn tomahawks, and as clean cut as if the piece had been taken out with a mechanic’s punch.7
“It rarely happens that a skull is taken out whole; it generally falls to pieces in handling.” (B.C. Prov. Mm. photo)
Another and significant point about the recovered crania of this midden is that they represent two distinct types: one decidedly brachycephalic, the other no less decidedly dolichocephalic. The former do not differ greatly from the crania of the Indians living round the estuary at the present time, and their presence in this midden may be due to intrusive burials; but the latter are wholly unlike the crania to be found among the tribes today; nor have I seen any so markedly dolichocephalic among the collected crania of the Province accessible to me. They are too decidedly dolichocephalic to be classified among any of the typical groups of this region as given by Dr. Franz Boas,8 and suggest affinity rather with the Eskimo or eastern stocks, or with the southern dolichocephali than with any in this region north of California. The cephalic index of one in the possession of the Art and Science Association of New Westminster, B.C., is 73.85, and that of one in the writer’s possession is practically the same, being 73.84; while the orbital indices of these two are 93.33 and 91.66 respectively. Both these crania are undeformed and normal and those of adults. A brief glance at the tables of the physical characteristics of the Indians of the Northwest Coast compiled by Dr. Franz Boas, and particularly those of the Lower Fraser River Indians will clearly show that these dolichocephali of the middens form a distinct type of their own and find no place among any of the eleven groups there distinguished by him. Other striking features of these midden
