THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 87 



ciently high. They caught gulls and fastened threads to their feet, and tried to make 

 them fly over and draw the string across the rock, but all was of no avail. Six 

 days were wasted in the vain attempt to save him, and on the seventh he lay down 

 and died. His spirit, say the Indians, stUl lives upon the rock, and gives them 

 warning when a storm is coming on, which wiU make it unsafe for them to go out 

 to sea in pursuit of their usual avocations of killing whales or seals, or catching 

 fish. Duncan, one of the early explorers, mentions this rock and gives a drawing 

 of it, but he places it between the island and the main land. Vancouver, in allud- 

 ing to Duncan's statement, says he saw no such rock. It does not exist where 

 Duncan states he saw it, but it does exist about one mile a little east of south of 

 Tatoosh Island. It is easily seen when sailing up the coast close in land ; but 

 when opposite to it at a short distance off" it is so overtopped by the cliffs of 

 the Cape as not to be particularly noticeable. The passage between the island 

 and the main land is half a mile wide, and is not, as is stated by various authors, 

 obstructed by a reef connecting the island and the cape, but has a depth of four 

 and five fathoms of water through its entire distance; and although there are 

 several rocks which are bare at low water, yet vessels can pass through at any stage 

 of the tide, providing the wind is fau*, for the eb\f and flood tides rush through 

 with great velocity, making tide rips which have been mistaken for shoals. I have 

 passed through .the passage in a schooner twice, and I know of several other vessels 

 that have gone through without the slightest difficulty. 



There is another rock not far from the Pillar Rock, near the top of which is a 

 sort of cavity, across which rests a large spar which has been borne on the crest 

 of some stupendous wave and tossed into its present resting place. It had been 

 there long before the memory of the present generation of Indians, and is believed 

 by them to have been placed there by supernatural agency, and is consequently 

 regarded with superstitious awe. They think that any one who should attempt 

 to climb up and dislodge it would instantly fall off the rock and be drowned. 

 All do^vn the coast from Cape Flattery to Point Grenville, pillar rocks are seen 

 of various heights and sizes, and most fantastic shapes, and for each and all of 

 them the Indians have a name and a traditionary legend. About midway between 

 the cape and Flattery Rocks is one of these pillars, looking in the distance like a 

 sloop with all sail set. The tide sets strongly round it both at flood and ebb. The 

 Indians believe a spirit resides upon it, whose name is Se-ka-jec-ta, and to propi- 

 tiate it, and give them a good wind and smooth sea, they throw overboard a small 

 present of dried fish or any other food they may have whenever they pass by. 



The aurora borealis they think is the light caused by the fires of a mannikin 

 tribe of Indians who live near the north pole, and boil out blubber on the ice. On 

 one occasion while in a canoe on the Strait of Fuca at night, there was a magnifi- 

 cent display of the aurora, and I asked the chief who had charge of the canoe, if 

 he knew what it was. He said, far beyond north, many moons' journey, live a race 

 of little Indians not taller than half the length of this paddle. They live on the 

 ice and eat seals and whales. They are so strong that they dive into the water and 

 catch whales with their hands, and the light we saw was from the fires of those 

 little people boiling blubber. They were skookooms, and he did not dare speak 



