No. 4. J DAWSON — BRITISH COLUMBIA. 247 



Chaldean account of the deluge lately unearthed, has been 

 found by Mr. J. G. Swan among the Makah Indians of Cape 

 Flattery, the southern point at the entrance to Juan de Fuca's- 

 Strait. This, though no doubt much exaggerated, prob ibly 

 embalms the memory of some real event, either of the nature of 

 an earthquake wave, or depression and reelevation due to the 

 not yet wholly extinct volcanic forces of the coast. 



Mr. Swan writes *: — '' A long time ago," siid my informant, 

 " but not at a very remote period, the water of the Pacific 

 flowed through what is now the swamp an 1 pr drie between 

 Watch Village and Neeah B iy, making an island of C ipe Flat- 

 tery. The water suddenly receded, leaving Neeah B iy perfectly 

 dry. It was four days reaching its lowest ebb, and then rose 

 again without any waves or breakers, till it had submerged the 

 Cape, and in fact the whole country except the tops of the moun- 

 tains at Clyoquot. The water on its rise bee une very warm, 

 and as it came up to the houses, those who had canoes put their 

 effects into them, and floated off with the current, which set very 

 strongly to the north. Some drifted one way some another; 

 and when the waters assumed their accustomed level, a portion 

 of the tribe found themselves beyond Nootka, where their des- 

 cendants now reside, and are known by the same name as the 

 Makahs in Classet (Cape Flattery) or Kwenaitchechat. Many 

 canoes came down in the trees and were destroyed, and 

 numerous lives were lost. The water was four days regaining 

 its accustomed level. 1 ' The same story is preserved by the Kwil- 

 levutes, who say that part of their tribe floated to the region 

 near Port Townsend, where their descendants are known as the 

 Chemakum Indians. The latter again claim to have originally 

 sprung from the Kwilleyutes. Mr Swan adds : — " There is no 

 doubt in my mind of the truth of this tradition. The Waach 

 prairie shows conclusively that the waters of the Pacific once 

 flowed through it ; and on cutting through the turf at any place 

 between Neeah Bay and Waach, the whole substratum is proved 

 to be pure beach sand. In some places the turf is not over a foot 

 thick ; at others the alluvial deposit is two or three feet." 



Leaving, however, the realms of tradition, the conclusions 

 provisionally arrived at, as to the former levels of the coast, may 

 thus be summed up. 



* Indians of Cape Flattery, ]869, p. 57. 



