Apbil 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



553 



was dressed and ornamented with dentalium 

 shells. The body is represented as painted 

 and with a fringed apron around the lions. 

 The costume indicated is unlike that of the 

 coast, but resembles those of the plateaus to 

 the south and the plains to the east. 



Besides a tubular form of pipe, one type 

 consisting simply of a bowl was found. This 

 is not seen among archeological remains from 

 other parts of the northwest, although pipes 

 used by the Thompson River Indians seem to 

 resemble it. The fact suggests that the cul- 

 ture of this region is somewhat more closely 

 related to that further east than are the cul- 

 tures of the areas to the north and west. 



Art work was found here as in the other 

 areas. The object made of antler, engraved 

 on one surface to represent a human figure in 

 costume, which was found in the grave of a 

 little child, is of good technique and artistic 

 execution. The circle and dot design was 

 common. Paintings' made with red and white 

 on basaltic cliffs, many of which represent 

 human heads with head-dresses and some the 

 whole figure, were also seen. These were made 

 up of lines and were pictographic in character. 

 Sometimes such pictures were made by peck- 

 ing into the surface of the columns, instead 

 of by painting.* A design, similar to the part 

 of these pictures interpreted as representing 

 the head-dress, was also found pecked into the 

 surface of a grooved net-sinker. Some of the 

 pestles had knobs in the form of animal heads, 

 but in general the art of the region tended to 

 line work of geometric and pictographic pat- 

 terns. The general style of art shows little 

 resemblance to that of the coast but a strong 

 relationship to that of the plains. 



There were three methods of disposing of 

 the dead. In this arid region are stretches 

 of country locally known as ' scab-land,' on 

 which are occasionally groups of low dome- 

 shaped knolls from about fifty to one hundred 

 feet in diameter by three to six feet in height. 

 These knolls consist of fine volcanic ash, and 

 apparently have been left by the wind. This 

 ashy material has been swept from the inter- 



* A few of which are figured and described in 

 loc. cit. 



'hoc. cit. 



vening surface, leaving the ' scab-land ' paved 

 with fragments of basalt imbedded in a hard 

 soil. The prehistoric Indians of this region 

 have used many of these knolls, each as a site 

 for a single grave. These graves, which are 

 located in the tops of the knolls, are usually 

 marked by large river pebbles, or in some cases 

 by fragments of basalt that appear as a cir- 

 cular pavement projecting slightly above the 

 surface of the soil. In one only did we find 

 a box or cyst. This box was formed of thin 

 slabs of basaltic rock, some placed on edge and 

 two large flat slabs covering the cyst so 

 formed. Above this, as was usually the 

 case above the skeletons in this sort of 

 grave, the space was filled with irregular 

 rocks or pebbles. The skeletons were found 

 flexed, on the side. In the graves arti- 

 facts, such as dentalium shells, were deposited 

 at the time of burial. Simple graves in the 

 level ground were not found. The rock slides, 

 as in the region to the north, had frequently 

 been used as burial places. In these the skele- 

 tons were always in a flexed position. Objects 

 were found to have been placed in some of 

 these graves. Rings of stones were also seen 

 and on excavation within them cremated hu- 

 man remains were found usually several in 

 each circle. In such places dentalium shells, 

 flat shell beads and shell ornaments were 

 usually seen. 



The prehistoric culture of the region was 

 apparently similar to that of the present 

 natives. 



Numerous evidences were found of the close 

 communication of the people of this culture 

 with tribes of the southern interior of British 

 Columbia. The preponderance of chipped over 

 ground points, digging stick handles, sites of 

 semi-underground houses, pestles with tops 

 in the form of animal heads, pairs of arrow- 

 shaft smoothers, as well as tubular pipes, an 

 incised decoration consisting of a circle with 

 a dot in it and engi-aved dentalium shells each 

 of a particular kind, besides rock-slide sep- 

 ulchers and the custom of burying artifacts 

 with the dead, were found to be common to 

 both regions. Certain pestles and clubs made 

 of stone differed from those found in British 



