to decide, but am inclined to think it was probably doubled up in some way — and then to surround and heap over it a large pile of boulders, and over these again to heap up earth to a height of from 6 to 9 feet. The third class differs from these only in having a stratum of charcoal, extending over the whole area of the mounds between the boulders and the outer covering of clay, evidently the remains of a large fire. Whether these fires were kindled for sacrificial or for some simpler ceremonial purpose it is impossible from the evidence now to say. The slaughter and cremation of slaves on the death of their owner or chief is not wholly unknown among the tribes of British Columbia; but whether we see an instance of this practice among these old mound-builders, or whether the fires were lighted in the belief that they comforted the shades of the departed on their journey to the nether world, we may never know.13
The next order of the series differed again from the last in having a large quantity of coarse dark sand in their central parts. It would seem that in constructing these particular graves, after piling up the boulders over the body, the builders had covered them with a deep layer of quicksand — which in that district underlies the clay top-soil — and over this again had strewn a layer of this coarse dark sand. Where they procured this latter sand from I am not able to say. There is none like it in the neighbourhood at present. It is much coarser and darker in colour than that now found in the Fraser near by. But wherever they brought it from they were not sparing in its use. The rancher on whose farm these tumuli are found took out from one side of one of these between twenty and thirty sacks-ful for building purposes; and when I opened it up later there was still a great quantity left in it.
This mound is one of the most interesting of the series inasmuch as it accidentally presents us with some independent, positive evidence of their antiquity. On one side of its crown the stump of a large cedar tree is seen projecting, the whole in the last stages of decay. To anyone who knows anything of the enduring nature of the cedar of British Columbia the evidence which this stump offers will be very convincing. A cedar tree will lie on the ground for a thousand years it is estimated by lumbermen and others, and yet its wood will be firm and good and fit to make up into doors and window-sashes. There is now, not two hundred yards from this mound, a living fir tree growing astraddle over a prostrate cedar log, the age of which, from its dimensions, cannot be much less than five centuries, and yet the wood of the cedar under it is as solid and firm as if it had been cut down yesterday. It is almost impossible to say how long the cedar of this region will endure; and if a claim of one thousand or twelve hundred years be made for the growth and complete decay of this tree, whose roots have crumbled and mouldered away among the bones hidden beneath them for many a long year, most British Columbians will think that a very moderate claim indeed; and it is very probable that a much longer period than that has elapsed since the mound was constructed.
This mound is also interesting from the fact that it is the only one that has yielded any osteological data of importance. Whether from the large quantity of sand in it, which may have acted as a drain, or from the fact that this large tree stood over it for many centuries, or from the combination of circumstances, the human remains in this mound have been better preserved, in part, than in the others. The long bones and several others, as well as the skull, were taken out almost whole, though, unfortunately, all but the skull soon crumbled away. This, happily, I have been able in part to preserve. It is a strangely deformed skull, and in its excessive abnormality is probably without a parallel throughout the region of contorted crania. It does not appear, moreover, to conform to any of the three types known to have been practised in former times on this coast.14 A bit of a second skull was recovered from one of the other mounds curiously enough preserved – when even the teeth had decayed, leaving nothing but an outline of their form in enamel – by being saturated with the verdigris from a copper ring buried with and alongside it. This piece, though small, is fortunately an important bit. It formed the upper part of the left orbit with adjoining portions of the frontal bone which shows the same extraordinary depression as is seen in the other. From this evidence it would seem that these mound builders practised cranial contortion of a very exaggerated kind and of a type unlike any known elsewhere in British Columbia past or present. Whether the custom will throw any light upon their history or help to identify them remains yet to be seen.
To continue the description of the mounds, I may say the fourth class differs in several essential features from the preceding series. The chief characteristic seen here is an outer rectangular boundary of boulders, set side by side in the form of a square, having each of its sides facing towards one of the cardinal points of the compass like the pyramids of Mexico. This square was apparently laid off before the body was interred, which was placed in the centre and covered as before with a pile of boulders similar to those forming the square. Over these again, and between them and the outer square, a layer of quicksand was placed; then followed a thin layer of the dark gritty sand found in the other mound; over this again came more quicksand, followed by a layer of coarse brown sand over the whole extent of the mount extending to and beyond the outer boulders; and on top of this the sepulchral fire was kindled. Over the ashes of this fire more quicksand was heaped, followed by the capping of clay (plate IV). The base or floor of this mound must have been sunk several feet below the level of the general surface of the land. The mound stood about six feet above the surrounding soil, but its height from top to bottom at the centre was nearly eleven feet. The copper bracelet figured on plate VI was taken from this mound. The copper awl or spindle shown in the same plate (#3) was taken from the mound in which the skull and bones were found; and the rectangular object, a pair of which was recovered, from a mound of the fifth order. The ring on this plate (#4) was taken from a mound of the second class and was the one found in conjunction with the bit of skull before spoken of, enclosed in a fold of hide and wrapped up in a wad of cedar bark. These five copper objects, with the addition of some bits of red ochre, a fragment of coarsely woven blanket of the hair of the mountain sheep and a small quantity of human hair of two colours, black and brown, form the entire collection of relics taken from these mounds.
Plate I: Bone Implements
Plate II: Stone Implements
Plate III: Bone and Stone Implements
Plate VI: Copper Instruments
The next and concluding class of the series shows a considerable advance upon the preceding ones. The plan here, as seen in plate V, is much more elaborate and complex. Instead of the one outer square as in the others formed by a single line of boulders, we have three squares, one within the other, in the innermost of which, beneath the pile of boulders, lay the body; and the outer one is composed in this instance of two parallel rows of boulders, capped and united by a third. I am sorry to say that the superficial mass of this mound, and another alongside and apparently like it, had been too much disturbed before my attention was drawn to them to allow me to make a section plan of their structure above the boulders, or to speak with any certainty of anything beyond their ground plan. But judging from the others and from the sandy condition of the soil on them, I should be inclined to say they much resembled those of the fourth class in this respect. In connection with this employment of different sands I may state that a number of mounds have recently been opened up on the St. John’s River, Florida, the chief characteristic of which seems to be the employment of different kinds of sand in distinct layers.15
To give an idea of the labour involved in the construction of these mounds it may be stated that it took a man with the help of a hand barrow and other suitable tools, eight days to remove a few yards off the soil only from the underlying boulders of the mound whose ground plan
