SETTLEMENTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 355 



therefore, evident that the layer of sand covering its rocky ground is 

 artificial, and placed there by the aborigines, not a natural deposit 

 accumulated by drifts, etc. The mound begins at the brink of the 

 bluff, some thirty feet above high-water mark, and extends back over 

 a flat of a little more than one hundred yards, toward the ascending 

 hill, diminishing gradually in height, and ceasing' entirely before the 

 rocky outcroppings are reached, whence the ground rises rapidly into 

 a ridge, forming a spur of the backbone of the island {see Fig. 2). In- 

 vestigation revealed the artificial formation to consist of a layer of 

 shells, most of which are still found among the living species on the 

 island, bones of fish, sea-fowl, seal, and sea-lions, and whales, dogs and 

 foxes, and a great mass of cobble-stones of all sizes, especially of the 

 size of a fist as used for fireplaces, and chippings of different varieties 

 of chert, chalcedony, jasper, quartz, etc. rocks suitable for the manu- 

 facture of knives, arrow-heads, spear-points, and other cutting tools, 

 which do not occur in situ on the island and had to be imported. The 

 whole is mixed with a large quantity of sand, reaching to a depth of 

 about five feet at its deepest part, where formerly the dwellings stood. 

 Underneath the layer of animal remains, the kjokken muddings kitch- 

 en-middens or cooking debris of a former people, pure sand is met 

 in which we find but few valves of an edible shell-fish, or beach-rocks 

 showing marks of fire, or such marks as are made by human hands, and 

 were probably introduced while the dwelling-mound was raised pre- 



FlG. 3 



paratory to the erection of the hut. The sand which was either car- 

 ried there overland, or in canoes from some neighboring sand-bank 

 attains a depth of about three to four feet, and is deepest around the 

 circular depressions of the house-sites, indicating the embankments 

 which had been raised around the huts. The section, Fig. 3, repre- 

 sents a site of a former dwelling as now found, and its original depth, 

 as indicated by broken lines, may occasionally be traced by still re- 

 maining upright boards of the former subterranean inclosure. After 

 the erection of the dwellings, the accumulation of the kjokken mod- 

 dings began to spread all over the town-site, but was kept imbedded 

 in sand by fresh supplies, thus raising the level of the village gradu- 

 ally, and increasing the depth of the subterranean part of the hut 

 until the latter was deserted, or built over with a new structure. 



