'B4 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



very shallow, the skeletons being interred but one and a half to two 

 feet below the surface. The sides of the excavations were lined with 

 split redwood boards, about four feet in length and a foot in width, 

 placed edgewise, and reaching to the floor of the grave, which was cov- 

 ered with beach-sand to the thickness of about one inch; the width was 

 not over two feet, and both ends of the excavation were open, that is 

 to say, without lining. The corpses were found doubled up in the usual 

 manner, lying on their backs, or sideways, and facing the rancheria in 

 a southeastward direction, although some were found just in an opposite 

 way. Immediately above the body was placed a board resting on the 

 lining, to which it was secured by cobble-stones of various sizes, some 

 weighing as much as fifty pounds. The grave was then filled up with 

 earth, and covered with another wide board to an even level with the 

 surface, and probably, if we trust the remains of a few redwood stakes 

 in close proximity to the grave, was also fenced in. I entertain no 

 doubt that the worldly goods of those buried here, of which we did not 

 find anything in the graves (excepting a few money-shells and glass 

 beads), were placed on the top-board of the grave, a custom made evi- 

 dent by the habits of the present Klamath Indians. I lay before the 

 reader a grave of the last-named tribe ( Sketch K ) [Plate 8], and give also a 

 plan( L) [same plate], with some tools placed on the top-board, as copied in 

 their rancheria at the mouth of the Klamath Eiver, which might be well 

 accepted as the restoration of a Khust-e-nete grave, of which but the sur- 

 face-board remained, while time and elements annihilated a part of the ar- 

 ticles deposited over the grave, and casual visitors destroyed and car- 

 ried away the rest. With babies' skeletons, and a young woman's 

 corpse, we found some much-decayed money-shells {Dentalium entails), 

 which served to ornament the living, and were probably intended as 

 a means for the frail little ones to pay the ferryman of the Indian Styx. 

 A few glass beads were also found with skeletons of grown females. 

 The shape of the skulls is remarkable for the artificial deformity, 

 the forehead receding and the occiput protruding disproportion- 

 ately. 



We moved back to Pistol Eiver in stormy weather, which increased 

 during the following day to one of those heavy Oregon winter storms 

 that define epochs in the chronology of the country people. Pistol 

 Siver swelled rapidly, and overflowed most of the valley near its mouth. 

 Large tracts of the river-bank were washed away, and countless trees, 

 among them gigantic spruces, were seen floating in rapid drifts to sea or 

 ramming in at some bend of the- river, soon forming floating islands. 

 The stream being impassable even with a boat, it took five days before we 

 ventured to cross with the pack-train on our way to Chetko ; which 

 place, 30 miles distant by trail, we reached after two days, as the trails 

 were bad and much obstructed by fallen timber. 



At the mouth of Chetko River we opened eleven graves, and found 

 the dead buried in the same manner as noticed at Kustenete; only tliat 



