[HILL-TouT] PREHISTORIC MAN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 121 
two parallel rows of boulders, capped and united by a third. I am sorry 
to say that the superficial mass of this mound, and another alongside and 
apparently like it, had been too much disturbed before my attention was 
drawn to them to allow me to make a section plan of their structure 
ubove the boulders, or to speak with any certainty of anything beyond 
their ground plan. But judging from the others and from the sandy 
condition of the soil on them, [ should be inclined to say they much re- 
sembled those of the fourth class in this respect. In connection with this 
employment of different sands I may state that a number of mounds have 
recently been opened up on the St. John’s River, Florida, the chief char- 
acteristic of which seems to be the employment of different kinds of sand 
in distinct layers.! 
To give an idea of the labour involved in the construction of 
these mounds it may be stated that it took a man, with the help of 
a hand- barrow and other suitable tools, eight days to remove a few 
yards off the soil only from the underlying boulders of the mound whose 
ground plan is given in plate V. What time it must have taken the 
builders to erect one of these more elaborate sepulchres with their inferior 
tools can easily be imagined. To bring and place the boulders alone must 
have taken a number of men many days ;* and many more must have been 
consumed in bringing such large quantities of sand in their simple recep- 
tacles, and in digging the clay which caps the structure throughout its 
whole area to a depth of several feet. Some of the mounds of the Vancouver 
Island group are pyramidal in form. Whether any of these latter ones 
were of that form originally cannot now be determined.  Exteriorly they 
present the appearance of truncated cones rather than four-sided pyra- 
mids, but this may easily be due to time and the elements. The boulders, 
I may here state, found in these mounds weigh from 25 Ibs. up to 200 Ibs. 
each and were apparently brought from some of the mountain-stream 
beds, no stone of any kind, not even a pebble, being found anywhere on 
the ranch, There are several of these streams a mile or so back from the 
river where they might have come from. 
In concluding my remarks I trust it may be conceded that the notes 
I have been able to gather show that the mounds and middens of British 
Columbia are worthy of the attention of archeologists ; and that we pos- 
sess in them positive and reliable records of the antiquity and culture- 
status of the prehistoric tribes of that province. That any degree of 
civilization higher than that manifested by the Haidas and their neigh- 
bours, the Tsimseans, has ever existed in that region, I think, is extremely 
doubtful ; the evidence from the mounds and middens all tending to 
strengthen and corroborate what has been gathered from other sources, 



1 Vide “ Archeologist” for April, 1895. 
2 The total weight of the boulders in this mound could not be estimated at less 
than 25 to 30 tons. 
