104 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
teen miles, the puzzle became proportionately greater. I found it diffi- 
cult to believe that the enormous mass of shell-fish whose remains enter 
so largely into the composition of these great piles had been laboriously 
brought up against the stream in canoes or “packed” on the backs of 
the patient “klutchmans.” It was too contrary to the genius of the 
people to suppose this. Making a brief survey of the district, a little 
later, the fact was disclosed that the mouth of the river was formerly 
some twenty miles higher up than it is at present, and that the salt 
waters of the Gulf of Georgia had in bygone days laved the base of the 
declivity on which the city of New Westminster now stands, and had 
passed on from thence and met the fresh water of the Fraser in the neigh- 
bourhood of the little wayside village of Port Hammond. And, further, 
that the large islands, now inhabited by ranchers, which bar in mid- 
stream the onrush of the annual freshets, must once have had no exist- 
ence at all, and even after their formation had begun must have existed 
for a very considerable period as tidal flats, such as are seen to-day stretch- 
ing beyond the whole delta for a distance of five or six miles. That these 
islands were once tidal flats is certain from the fact that the water from 
the wells dug on them by the ranchers is so brackish that the water of the 
Fraser is preferred to it. And, further, that when in this condition they 
afforded shelter to shell-fish similar to those whose remains are found in 
the middens near by, is clearly evidenced by the fact that beds of similar 
shells are frequently met with, in situ, as I have been credibly informed, 
when digging for water in the interior parts of the islands. But as this 
discovery seemed to point to a rather remote past for the formation of 
these middens, I was reluctant to admit the obvious inference, until I had 
ascertained that the enormous stumps of cedar and fir which I found pro- 
jecting from the midden—several of which have a diameter of from six 
to eight feet, and indicate by their rings from five to seven centuries’ 
growth—had their roots actually in the midden itself; and had obviously 
grown there since the midden had been formed. Ascertaining this by 
personal excavation, and realizing that nearly three-quarters of a millen- 
nium had passed away, for certain, since the middens had been abandoned, 
I could no longer resist the inference that they had been formed when the 
islands opposite and below them were tidal shell-bearing flats ; and I have 
since found no reason for questioning that conclusion. 
The question now naturally arises, When and for what reasons was 
this ancient camping-ground abandoned? Was it at a period shortly 
before the appearance upon them of those forest giants whose size and 
approximate age I have just mentioned, or was it at a much earlier date ; 
and was it abandoned because the particular community dwelling there 
had been exterminated by their enemies, or was it because the clams and 
mussels gave out in consequence of a sudden or a gradual rise in the level 
of the neighbouring flats? In seeking an answer to these queries, the 
