42 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS OF THE PACIFIC COAST OF CANADA 
By Harlan I. Smith 
The kitchen-middens of the Pacific coast of Canada are in general 
very much alike. Typical heaps measure several hundred yards long by 
5 or 6 feet high; a few extend for miles, and several attain a height of more 
than 9 feet; however, some are very small. They were built up of the 
refuse from the aboriginal villages, refuse which consists almost entirely 
of clam, mussel, and other shells, with here and there a human skeleton, 
but very few artifacts. In the middens of Fraser River delta, back from 
the seashore, artifacts and human remains are comparatively common; 
however, conditions in the delta are unusual, and in most places one might 
find only a single artifact in a whole day’s digging. Inland there are no 
shell-heaps, or at least no typical ones; and on the coast they generally 
lie at the mouths of freshwater streams near ocean beaches where shell- 
fish are abundant. 
Kitchen-middens are found all along the Pacific coast, not only of 
Canada, but also of Alaska, the United States, and Mexico. Four lie 
within as many miles of Prince Rupert on the northern part of the Canadian 
coast-line, and on the southern part others are found even within the city 
limits of Vancouver and Victoria. They appear in every linguistic area 
along this coast. In the Haida, or Skittagetan area, there is a notable 
heap near Yakan point on Graham island, Queen Charlotte group; its length 
is at least 1,000 feet, its width 200 feet, and its average thickness, estimated 
from a few test pits, about 5 feet. In the Tsimshian area large middens are 
found near Port Simpson, Prince Rupert, and on the adjacent islands, but 
village sites up Nass and Skeena rivers contain almost no shells, and conse- 
quently their middens are less conspicuous and generally shallower. In 
the Bella Coola section of the Salishan area, on the northern side of the 
eastern arm of Kwatna inlet, there is a midden containing much shell; 
but since most of the Bella Coola villages lie on rivers or on river deltas 
where the fresh water emptying into deep fiords offers conditions unfav- 
ourable to shell-fish beds, the middens of this area contain very little shell. 
In the Wakashan linguistic area shell-heaps appear on the islands near 
Rivers inlet; in the region of less than 100 miles square, on the north end of 
Vancouver island and the opposite mainland, over one hundred and fifty 
are known, which is equivalent to more than one site for every 10-mile 
strip of land 1 mile wide; there are large heaps also along the west coast of 
Vancouver island. Shell-heaps are numerous, too, in the part of Salishan 
area along the southeastern end of Vancouver island and on the adjacent 
mainland of southern British Columbia. 
The writer conducted archaeological explorations on a rather extensive 
scale in the shell-heaps of the southern part of the coast of British Col- 
umbia in 1897-1899, for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition of the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History, New York. The results of these explora- 
tions were published in the memoirs of the expedition, a special series of 
Museum memoirs, edited by Professor Franz Boas, who directed the 
whole work of the expedition. The specimens collected, and many photo- 
graphs, were deposited in the American Museum. Later, when the writer 
