442 REPORT— 1902. 



to a maximum depth of over 15 feet, an area exceeding 4^ acres in extent. 

 It is composed of the decaying remains of marine shells, mostly of the 

 clam and mussel kind, intermingled with enormous quantities of ashes, 

 calcined and fractured stones, and other refuse matter, and throughout 

 its entire mass offers unmistakable testimony of extreme age. It will not 

 be necessary to recapitulate here the evidence which I have set forth in 

 detail in support of this in the publications referred to before. In my 

 own mind there can be no doubt at all that this and the other middens 

 of its class were formed many centuries ago by the predecessors of the 

 present Halish bands. In the lower horizons of this midden several skulls 

 have been taken out of a type wholly different from any to be found 

 among the present tribes of this region. They are markedly dolicho- 

 cephalic, whereas the general type of skull of the present Indian is 

 markedly brachycephalic. The measurement of two of these formerly in 

 my own possession shows the cephalic index to be in both instances under 

 74. According to the tables of physical characteristics of the Indians of 

 the North- West, ^ the minimum cephalic index of the Delta tribes is SO, 

 while the maximum reaches to 93'1, and in a total series of fifty-five cases 

 the average index was 87. It is plain, then, that the difference here is 

 extremely wide. Another striking feature of these crania, which even 

 more strongly differentiates them from the Lower Fraser type, is the 

 remarkable narrowness of the forehead and the lofty sweep of the cranial 

 vault, both features contrasting strikingly with the receding foreheads 

 and broad flattened heads of the historic Delta tribes. I may also add 

 that Dr. F. Boas, to whom I gave one of these skulls, concurs with me in 

 regarding these crania as radically different in type from any now known 

 in this region. 



Of the relics recovered from this midden most are simple in make and 

 design, and such as are, with few exceptions, found among primitive 

 peoples elsewhere. I have figured some typical specimens of these in my 

 ' Notes on Later Prehistoric Man in British Columbia,' and in my ' Pre- 

 historic Races of British Columbia.' No pottery of any kind has been 

 found in any of the middens of either class ; indeed, the ceramic art appears 

 to have been wholly unknown to the aborigines of British Columbia, both 

 ancient and modern. Of stone bowls or basins a great number and variety 

 have been recovered. Some of these are fashioned after the likeness of 

 animals and fish, the bear, frog, and salmon being the favourite patterns. 

 Occasionally the bowl represented a human head with the face on one 

 side of it. Large numbers of barbed and grooved bone spear and arrow 

 points, as well as stone adzes, axes, fish and skinning knifes, chisels, 

 scrapers, <fec., are found. Some of these are of the rough ' palaeolithic ' 

 type, others are finely wrought and polished ' neoliths.' The two are 

 commonly found side by side. The material out of which these stone 

 tools and weapons were made was of various kinds. The fish-knives were 

 invariably of thin slate. The adzes, axes, and chisels were commonly 

 formed fi-om dull green or grey and mottled jade, though specimens 

 wrought from smoky quartz have been recovered. A dark grey or black 

 basaltic rock was also extensively used, principally for spear and arrow 

 heads. The latter were also made from slate, and when so formed were 

 invariably ground into the required shape. These were generally stemmed 



' See Tenth Report on the Physical Characteristics of North-West Tribes of 

 Canada, by Dr. F. Boas (Brit. Assoc. Report, 1895, p. 17). 



