TOTEM POLES 



147 



BEAR TOTEM POLE, 

 CAPE FOX. 



mounted by the carved figure of an eagle; this was the 

 tallest pole in the village. Another, which from its ap- 

 pearance seemed to have been standing 

 for very many years — for it was gray 

 with weather, and long strings of lichen 

 hung down from it— consisted of the stout 

 upright twenty feet in height, surmount- 

 ed by an almost equally stout cross pole, 

 on either end of which sat a large carved 

 toad. One much taller than this was sur- 

 mounted by a beaver holding a stick across 

 his jaws. Another, not very tall, had near 

 the top a large hole from which a bear's 

 head and shoulders protruded. Repre- 

 sentations of the tracks of the bear were 

 painted on the pole from the ground up 

 to the hole from which he looked. The 

 topmost figure on most of these totem 

 poles was a bird, presumably an eagle, but in one or two 

 cases this figure was a man wearing a conical hat. The 

 frog, the bear, the 

 eagle, and the killer 

 whale were frequent- 

 ly represented on the 

 posts, and on one 

 very large pole were 

 carved the figures of 

 three enormous hali- 

 but, one above the 

 other. 



In this village the 

 front of the principal 

 house was highly or- 

 namented by paint- TOTEM POLES ' WRA * GELL - 

 The decoration represented a conventionalized bear 



kt^'2 



TOTEM POLE 

 ALERT BAY. 



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