230 KIGHT EEV. S. THORNTON, D.D., ON 



the discussion which followed. I now have in my possession 

 excellent jDhotographs of both. 



The rock sculpture in Vancouver on closer examination does not 

 exhibit at all clearly the " grooves and sevenbrancbed candlestick " 

 of the Australian carving to which I compared it. In a paper read 

 before the Natural History Society of British Columbia at Van- 

 couver, May 17 of this year, by Mr. Joseph W. Mackay, of the 

 Indian Department, the carving is explained as a memorial repre- 

 sentation of a tree-torab (hemlock or cedar), with indications of 

 the platforms and scaffold used for the deposit of coffins thereon, 

 and projections on which "totem" boai-ds, banners, weapons and 

 accoutrements were suspended. The paper also mentions as a 

 practice of the Indians the carving of arrows on rocks where a 

 battle had been fought. Perhaps a combination of this with the 

 custom of tree-burial may supply the key to the grooves with 

 arrows and sevenbrancbed tree-forms, in the Australiaii carving 

 shown in my paper. 



Professor Boas of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, has 

 given his opinion on the Vancouver carving. He thinks it identical 

 in age and character with another in Sproak's Lake, and the work 

 of an extinct race of Indians who inhabited the Great Central Lake 

 more than a century ago. 



The finding of the carving is described in a lecture by Mr. J. 

 W. Laing, M.A. (Oxon.), F.R.A.S., delivered before the Natural 

 History Society of British Columbia and members of the Provincial 

 Legislature in Victoria (B.C.), April 9, 1897. 



The Chinese image — carved in gypsum or "soap-stone" — referred 

 to by a member in the discussion on my paper, was found not 20, 

 but 4, feet below the surface, at the foot of a large Banyan tree, 

 when removing it to form a road from Palmerston into the country, 

 in the Northern Territory of South Australia. It is an image of 

 the God of Longevity. 



I may say that I have been much indebted for the above in- 

 formation to Rev. J. B. Stair, of St. Arnaud, Victoria, Australia 

 who, I may mention, is bringing out a book on the early days of 

 Samoa, throwing great light, from experience gained in residence 

 there long ago, on the history, religion and customs of the Sanioans.* 



* These subjects have also been dealt with in the following papers 

 read before the Victoria Institute : — " The Ethnology of the Pacitic," with 



