■400 SOME ETHNOGRAPHIC PHASES OF CONCHOLOGY. 



On the nortliern height, about a quarter of a mile from the road, the 

 Indian relics now referred to were found. Many skeletons were dis- 

 turbed, and along with these were numerous specimens of native art, 

 beads and other ornaments of bone, some curious rings made from 

 the vertebrae of the sturgeon ; and also glass beads and copper kettles, 

 some of the latter with handles and rims of iron. Beside these 

 miscellaneous relics lay two of the large univalve shells of the tropics. 

 In this, as in the former cases, the traces of European art fix the 

 date of the deposit at a period subsequent to the discovery of Ame- 

 rica by the Spaniards, and in all probability to the explorations of the 

 Prench among the Hurons of this district in the early part of the 

 seventeenth century. It is not improbable, however, that some, at 

 least, of the shells, may have been preserved and handed down 

 from one generation to another as great medicines. One ex- 

 ample which I have examined, found lying at the head of a 

 skeleton in an Indian grave on Georgian Bay, has the upper whorles 

 removed, so as to expose the internal canal. Pive lines, or notches, 

 are cut on the inner face of the canal, and it is perforated on the op- 

 posite edge, showing in all probability where the wampum, scalp- 

 lock, or other special decoration of its owner was attached. It also 

 exhibits abundant traces of its long and frequent use. The surface 

 is smooth and polished, as if by constant handling, except where it 

 is worn off, or decayed, so as to expose the rough inner laminae of 

 the shell : and all the natural prominences are worn nearly flat by 

 frequent attrition. The specimen in the collection of the Canadian 

 Institute, brought from the fishing islands on Lake Huron, is also 

 cut and greatly worn, and exhibits abundant traces of long exposure. 

 Other examples of these large tropical shells which have been 

 found in Canada, and also in the State of New York, were probably 

 deposited at an earlier date : but all, or nearly all, appear to have 

 been offered as tributes in honor of the dead. The modes of sepul- 

 ture of the different tribes greatly vary, and some of their rites are 

 peculiarly characteristic, but all of them included the deposition of 

 valued gifts, or the favorite weapons and implements of the deceased, 

 alongside the corpse. One manner of disposing of the dead consists 

 in placing the body on a scaffold, or raised platform, around which 

 the last gifts and offerings are suspended, after they have been ren- 

 dered unserviceable to the living by some process of injury. This 

 constitutes the final sepulchral rite of the Chinooks, KliketatSj Cou- 



