32 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
greatly changed even in the twelve years since my first visit, we could 
still find many purely native manufactures among them. Pictures 
bruised on the rocks by some of the ancient Indians were seen near 
Wrangel. In the vicinity of Old Metlakatla, Port Simpson and along 
the Chileat River, we found ancient village sites, some of them indicated 
by the heaps of shell and other refuse discarded for many generations. 
On the Nass River also was an ancient village site where the Indians 
still go for eulichon or candle fish. In March these fish ascend the river 
in great schools and are taken with nets and rakes. ‘The fish are very 
good food and are so fat that formerly they were used for candles. ‘The 
Indians’ chief interest in eulichon, however, lies in the oil that may be 
extracted from them, which is considered a luxury and is used as we 
use butter. 
Our first stop of any length was at Victoria, a town perhaps more 
typically English than any other in North America. The Indians here 
have been little disturbed, so that even near the city both the southern 
Salish and the Nootka groups may be studied. Among the interesting 
photographs and sketches made here were one of an Indian making a 
dugout canoe from a cedar tree, and one of a Nootka man carving a 
totem pole. 
From Victoria we went by steamer to a small island near the north- 
ern end of Vancouver Island, where at Alert Bay there is a tribe of the 
Kwakiutl. In spite of the influence of several other races living and 
working in their midst the Indians of Alert Bay in many ways keep to 
their old methods of living. For instance, although there has been a 
missionary here for a long time he has not been able to stop burial in 
tree-tops. ‘lhe Indians must have practised this custom very recently, 
as some of the bodies were doubled up in common cheap trunks which 
can be bought only in the white man’s store and are of a sort not 
made till a few years ago. In the older graves the bodies were placed in 
boxes made of three pieces of wood split from red cedar. One of the 
pieces served as the bottom, another as the top and the third was notched 
and bent around to form the ends and sides of the box. Where the 
edges of the boards met they were sewed together with spruce roots. 
Sometimes the boxes were painted and occasionally both painted and 
carved with the characteristic animal pictures of the region. 
Some of the Indians bury their dead in the Christian cemetery, but 
even then show remnants of old customs. Near one of the graves a fine 
