FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 103 



obtained nearer than at the Cascades (previously 

 described in vol. i.), and must have been either 

 traded from the Indians inhabiting that district, 

 or brought from there by themselves. 



I am disposed to think a regular flint trade 

 was carried on by these inland tribes, at some 

 remote period, with the tribes living on the sea- 

 board and lower parts of the Columbia. Not 

 only were flints traded, but dentalia (tooth- 

 shells), mother-o'pearl, and the barnacle parasitic 

 on the back of the whale. I dug ornaments 

 made from the three marine productions from out 

 a gravel-bank, together with the centre skull in an 

 Indian burial-ground (which it will be observed 

 in the illustration* is unaltered by pressure 

 during infancy), and a number of arrow-heads, 

 fragments, and scrapers, made from flint, or 

 other hard material, which must have been 

 brought a very long distance, as it has no re- 

 presentative in any rock found in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood. 



The place from whence I obtained these sin- 

 gular relics was a gravel-bank, near Fort Colville, 

 whilst digging out the nests of sand-martins. 

 From the way in which the various things were 



* Vol. II. 



