1890.] [Gatschet. 



Exploits during the summer season of 1886, Mr. J. P. Howley had the 

 opportunity of conversing with some of the oldest settlers, who saw and 

 remembered well the last individuals of the Red Indian race. He also 

 collected a number of relics from an old burial place of theirs, which 

 was known as such to the fishermen for the last thirty-five years, and 

 hence had been ransacked repeatedly and by different parties. Lloyd 

 visited it when there and took away everything he could find. While 

 overhauling this interesting spot, Mr. Howley found a number of curiously 

 fashioned and carved bone_ornaments, with fragments of human skeletons 

 scattered about. The latter appear to be of little scientific value. In an- 

 other part of the Great Bay of Notre Dame, the interesting and valuable 

 find of the mummied body of a boy, about ten years old , was made. 

 Besides this, the following objects were found ihere and afterwards placed 

 on exhibition at St. John's, in 1886 : the skull and leg bones of an adult 

 male, several stone implements, a large number of ingeniously carved 

 bone ornaments, models of jcanoes, cups, dishes, etc., made of birch_bark, 

 beautifully sewn together and all daubed with red ochre ; fragments of 

 deer-skin dresses, models of bows, arrows, paddles, a package of dried 

 fish bound up in a casing of birch bark, and other articles. In the mum- 

 my a few of the neck vertebra are disconnected, and one of the hands is 

 missing, but otherwise the body of the boy is perfectly preserved. It is 

 doubled up with the knees against the stomach, feet slightly crossed, arms 

 folded across the chest, and when found it lay on the left side. The skin 

 is intact, even the finger and toe nails being uninjured. The fleshy por- 

 tions appear to have dried up completely, leaving only the bones encased 

 in the shrunken and wrinkled skin, which latter has the appearance of 

 dressed deer skin or well-tanned chamois. The whole was encased first in 

 a deer-skin robe, then placed into a casket of birch bark neatly and closely 

 sewn together, being apparently almost air-tight. The mummy bore a 

 close resemblance to the Alaskan mummy preserved in the National Mu- 

 seum in Washington, and described by Mr. William H. Dall, in Vol. xxii 

 of "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," 1878, 4to. The reason 

 why this body was interred with so much care, provided with fine and 

 new clothing and accompanied with food, tools and spare garments, must 

 be sought for in the tender years of the deceased child, which needed more 

 care and support on its peregrinations toward the future abode of the 

 soul than an adult would require. 



The same find is referred to in the article on the Beothuk by Mrs. Blake, 

 and in a correspondence of The New York Herald from St. John's, N. F., 

 dated October 23, 1886, where the locality is distinctly specified as being 

 on Pilley's island, Notre Dame Bay. That bay may be described as form- 

 ing the northern part of the Bay of Exploits, one of the old homes of the 

 Red Indian people ; the island is situated about 55 42' Long, west of 

 Greenwich, and 49 35' Lat. The Herald correspondent adheres to the old 

 and mistaken idea that the Beothuks are a branch of the Algonkin. family. 

 His statements, not included in the reports of others, are as follows : 



