. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . ched rock were the remains of a large village, much more exposedto the inclemency of the weather than any residence of the natives I have beforeseen. Here we found a sepulchre of a peculiar character. It was a kind of vault,formed partly by the natural cavity of the rocks and partly by the rude artists of theCO untry. It was lined with boards, and contained some fragments of warlike imple-ments, lying near a square box covered with mats, and very curiously corded down.§ This description is similar to one given to the writ
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . ched rock were the remains of a large village, much more exposedto the inclemency of the weather than any residence of the natives I have beforeseen. Here we found a sepulchre of a peculiar character. It was a kind of vault,formed partly by the natural cavity of the rocks and partly by the rude artists of theCO untry. It was lined with boards, and contained some fragments of warlike imple-ments, lying near a square box covered with mats, and very curiously corded down.§ This description is similar to one given to the writer by Judge J. , of Port Townsend, Washington Territory, as found by him in1883, in a cave on North Island of the Queen Charlotte group. From the descriptions that have been given it would appear that theprimitive methods of sepulture iu this region were far from uniform iutheir character. However, amongst those tribes which practised cre- * Vancouver, Voyage, Vol. in, p. 260, t Ihid., Vol. ii, p. 351. ilbid,, p. 290, § IMd., p. 370. EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXIV,. Haida Mortuary and Commemorative Columns. From photographs by the author and from sketches in the U. S. National Museum. Fig. 340. Kaigani Mortuary Column, containing a box holding the ashes of thedead, at the ruins of the abandoned Kaigani village of Chasina, at theentrance to Cholmondeley Sound, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Fig. 341. Kaigani Mortuary column, with compartment boarded up. This con-tains the remains of the dead in a box, and represents a departure fromcremation to inhumation, or aerial sepulture, in imitation of the formercustoin of thus depositing the cremated remains. At Kasa-an, Princeof Wales Island. Alaska. Fig. 342. Kaigani Mortuary Columns (aerial sepulture), supporting a box con-taining the body of the dead. At the partially abandoned village ofKaigani, Dall Island, Alaska. Fig. 343. Same as Fig. 340, but sliohtly different in form. Fig. 344. Haida Commemorative Column, with sign-board-
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