312 
numerous lives were lost. The water was four days in gaining 
its accustomed level.” 
It is the opinion of the Hon. J. G. Swan that this was simply 
a rising of the tides, and has no reference to the Deluge of 
Noah. I suggest, however, that if they had preserved any 
tradition of the flood in their migrations, when they settied at 
Neah Bay, where nearly all of their floods, though smaller, 
were caused by the rising of the tide, they would naturally, 
in a few generations, refer it to the same cause. ‘The natives 
of the Sandwich Islands, where floods are caused in the same 
way, have a tradition of a great flood, but refer it to the rising 
of the tide. 
The Indians of the Warm Spring Reservation in Oregon, 
and of the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, as far as I can 
learn, have no such tradition. It is possible, however, that 
they may have concealed it from their questioners, if they have 
one, as Indians do many of their traditions.* 
The Creeks place the event before the Creation of Man. 
Two pigeons were sent forth in search of land, while the earth 
was still covered with water. At first they were unsuccessful, 
but a second time they returned with a blade of grass, and 
soon after the waters subsided. ‘The Cherokees do not place 
the event until after the Creation, and say that it was revealed 
by a dog.t 
The Iroquois,t Mandans,$ and the Hidatsas || and the 
Thlinkeets 4 also have traditions of the Flood, but want of 
space prevents my giving them here. 
Some have objected to these traditions, that perhaps they 
were not handed down from former ancestors, but were : 
received from early traders and teachers; but for four reasons 
I cannot accept the objection: (1) Because the first travellers 
have often learned this tradition; (2) they will even now 
often distinguish between the traditions of their ancestors 
and the teachings of the first whites who came here; (3) they 
have names of their Ararat, the great monument of the Flood, 
as “Fastener”? and ‘Old Land;” (4) the Mexicans, when 
discovered, although they had no system of writing, yet had 
a way of representing events by pictures, and this event was 
recorded among others. 
* The writer, in the American Antiquarian, vol. i. p. 70. 
+ Schooleraft’s Notes on the Ir oguots. 
t Hdinburgh Review, art. “ Deluge.” 
§ Transactions of the Victoria Institute, 1869, p. 298. 
|| Mathew’s Hidatsa Indians, p. 9. 
“] Bancroft’s Native Races of the Pacific. 
