352 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



Vancouver describes a KootzDahoo grave (Tliugit) which they saw 

 on Admiralty Island, near Point Caution, m 1794, as follows : 



They rested for the night in a small cove under a high hill, Avhere a box was found 

 about 4 feet square, placed ou wooden pillars about 6 feet from the ground. This 

 box contained the remains of a human body very carefully wrapped up, and by its 

 side was erected a pole about 20 feet high, painted in horizontal streaks red and 

 white; the colors were fresh and lively.* 



Vancouver also describes as follows Kake Indian graves on Keku 

 Strait, Kupreanofif Island, which he saw in 1794 : 



In the vicinity of these ruins were many sepulchres or tombs, in which dead bodies 

 were deposited. These were made with a degree of neatness seldom exhibited in the 

 building of their habitations. A wooden frame was raised about 10 feet from the 

 ground, the upper half of which was inclosed, and in the open part below iu many, 

 though not in all, of them was placed a canoe. The flooring of the upper part was 

 about 5 feet from the ground, and above that the sides and top were entirely closed 

 in with boards, within which were human bodies in boxes wrapped up iu skins or in 

 matting. These repositories of the dead were of different sizes, and some of them 

 contained more bodies than the others ; iu the largest there were not more than four 

 or five, lying by the side of each other, not one appearing to be placed above the 

 rest ; they were generally found near the water side, and very frequently ou some 

 conspicuous point. Many of these sacred monuments seemed to have been erected a 

 great length of time, and the most ancient of them had evidently been repaired and 

 strengthened by additional supporters of more modern workmanship. Hence it 

 would appear that whatever might be the enmity that existed between the several 

 tribes when living, their remains when dead were respected and suffered to rest 

 quietly and unmolested. t 



An earlier description (1793) by Vancouver of some graves up Behm 

 canal, near Point Nelson, is as follows : 



Near the ruins of a few temporary huts of the natives we found a box about 3 feet 

 square and 1^ feet deep, in which were the remains of a humau skeleton, which 

 appeared from the confused situation of the bones, either to have been cut to pieces, 

 or thrust with great violence into this small space. 



These were not numerous, and from the circumstances they con- 

 cluded that onlj^ "certain persons" were thus eutombed.| 



Another description by the same author (August, 1793) of a grave at 

 cape Northumberland, Graving group. South Alaska, is as follows : 



On a high detached rock were the remains of a large village, much more exposed 

 to the inclemency of the weather than any residence of the natives I have before 

 seen. Here we found a sepulchre of a peculiar character. It was a kind of vault, 

 formed partly by the natural cavity of the rocks and partly by the rude artists of the 

 CO untry. It was lined with boards, and contained some fragments of warlike imple- 

 ments, lying near a square box covered with mats, and very curiously corded down.§ 



This description is similar to one given to the writer by Judge J. G. 

 Swan, of Port Townsend, Washington Territory, as found by him in 

 1883, in a cave on North Island of the Queen Charlotte group. 



From the descriptions that have been given it would appear that the 

 primitive methods of sepulture iu this region were far from uniform iu 

 their character. However, amongst those tribes which practised cre- 



* Vancouver, Voyage, Vol. in, p. 260, t Ihid., Vol. ii, p. 351. 



ilbid,, p. 290, § IMd., p. 370. 



