1S6 EEV. GEO. PATTEESOÎf ON THE BEOTITIKS 



V. — Eemains. 



We must now seek to gather such farther information about thein as can be obtained 

 from their remains, as found in cemeteries or on the sites of their old encampments, with 

 any additions that can be had from tradition. As to the graves we have given Mr. 

 Cormack's description of them as he found them at Red Indian Lake. He obtained there 

 a number of articles of their manufacture which he took with him to Britain. These 

 graves were modern, but recently others have been found on islands off the coast in situ- 

 ations almost inaccessible, and it is believed that in prehistoric times, before they were 

 driven into the interior, they chose such positions as the last resting places of their dead. 

 Perhaps the most interesting yet known w^as discovered in the year 1886 on Pilley's 

 Island, near the entrance of Hall's Bay, an arm of Notre Dame Bay. For the following- 

 account of its contents I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Harvey, of St. John's : — It contained 

 two skeletons. Of the one only the skull and a few bones of the leg remain. It is the 

 skull of an adult Beothik and measures twenty-one inches in circumference and thirteen 

 from ear to ear over the crown. Various stone implements were found alongside the 

 bones, stone arrow heads and hatchets, etc. 



The other skeleton is nearly perfect. It is that of a Red Indian boy, nine or ten 

 years of age. (Plate XII.) There was with it a small wooden image, very rudely carved 

 and having a covering of birch-rind. We might have supposed that this was a doll, 

 but the fact of such being found in Mary March's grave, one for each of the occupants, 

 indicates that it was a practice among them to bury such with their dead. 



The strange peculiarity of the skeleton is the perfect preservation of the skin, which 

 is w^rapped like a shroud around the bony structure. It is dark red in colour and shows 

 the bones underneath. 1 he appearance is not unlike that of a mummy. The nails on 

 toes and fingers are perfectly preserved. It lies on its left side, the arms along the sides, 

 with the legs drawn up. 



The body had been wrapped in deer-skin, which had been made to fit closely and 

 was neatly sewed together. Attached to this was an ornamental fringe of deer-skin, 

 having fastened to it some birds' claws and about thirty-two small pieces of bone of dif- 

 ferent shapes, all carved ingeniously. Several small models of canoes showing accurately 

 the shape of those in use by the tribe, were near the skeleton ; also small drinking-cups 

 and vessels, all of birch-bark, and several pairs of small moccasins of deer-skin, the size of a 

 boy's foot of the age of nine or ten. Beautifully-shaped and w^ell-polished arrowheads of 

 slate, a number of toy arrows of wood and a small bow lay around. Another interesting 

 object was a small birch-rind basket, laced close, and containing a piece of dried salmon, 

 the scales being visible, and several dried trout wrapped in separate parcels. 



The skull is detached from the body, the vertebrœ of the neck having crumbled to 

 dust. How the skin has been preserved is a mystery. Probably this was owing to the 

 dry character of the soil in which it was laid and the free circulation of the air around it, 

 while moisture was excluded by the covering of birch-rind and the deer-skin wrappings. 

 The remains were found in a slight hollow, and a rough wall of stone had been built 

 around it. Over these walls had been placed bent hoops, formed of lir branches to sup- 

 port the outer covering of birch bark, which was sewed together with extreme neatness 

 and would have kept all from the moistvire of the atmosphere. This had not decayed. 



