The American Antiquarian T THE Twenty-Second Volume of this Magazine will begin with the year 1900. The effort will be made to make it the best volume of all. A new and broader scope will be taken, and one which shall correspond with the increase of our national domain and the extent of American influence. The earlier volumes were confined to the prehistor.c antiquities of the continent, but nearly every year has brought in a new field of archæological research, until at the present time our American explorations reach to the far East and the far West, and seem likely to meet at some distant point. This makes our double title especially appropriate at the present time. We have already secured the assistance of gentlemen who live in various party of the world and are making a study of the ancient history and archæologs of different lands. They, with others scattered over our own continent, will furnish material which can not fail to be useful, not only for present study, but for reference in the future. The progress of anthropology makes it als› necessary that the SUBJECTS treated should be more numerous and varied than ever before. While archæological relics and prehistoric remains are important, yet the material of which our own nationality is already composed, and is likely to be in the future, is so diverse, that we can not neglect the ethnological problems which are sure to arise. Such topics as the influence of environment, the effect of employment, the history of early institutions the character of ancient art and architecture, different forms of religion and mythology, the customs and habits and inventions of different nations will, therefore, be included within the scope of the Journal. We have divided the continent into provinces, each of which will be represented by an associate editor residing in it, who will furnish information as to all discoveries and explorations They will be as follows: The Eastern States, Canada, British Columbia, Northwest Coas', Oregon, New Mexico, and Central America, Peru and the Philippines. The various countries of the East Egypt, Palestine, Assyria, Babylonia and the classic lands will be represented by gentlemen, who are officially connected with Exploration Funds, or who reside in the land about which they write. We may say that the equipment for work is a strong one, and we believe that the next volume will be one worthy of the era which it is designed in a sense, to commemorate. We solicit the patronage of the public, and hope that we shall have the support of all who are interested in the subject of art and archæology, and especially of the institutions which have for their object the increase of intelligence. The Magazine Will Be Well Illustrated. THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN, THE American Antiquaxian VOL. XXII. MAY AND JUNE, 1900. No. 3 SOME RELICS OF THE STONE AGE FROM PUGET SOUND. BY JAMES WICKERSHAM. THE State of Washington is divided into two widely different regions by the Cascade mountains, which extend north and south through the center of the State. West of this range, the country is a vast forest into which the natives penetrated seldom in pursuit of game, and through which they traveled. only along a few trails. They lived along and traveled upon its highways, avoiding its interior forests as much as possible. They were distinctly a maritime people, whose front door opened just above high tide and looked out upon natural oyster or clam beds, or a salmon fishery. The wilderness behind the house was the gloomy home of Seatco, the demon of the dark forest, with whom was associated a host of minor imps. Its impenetrable thickets and gloomy recesses prevented the prospector from finding whatever of stone was there suitable for implement making, and it is certain that this region presented the poorest opportunity of any in the United States for the development of the arts of the Stone Age. It is really doubtful if any quarry of stone suitable for implement making was known in this region. It is too early, however, to announce any conclusions upon the archaeology of western Washington. The shell heaps and other sources of archæologic wealth have not yet been fully examined; the village and grave sites are generally covered with dense thickets of timber. We know, too, that upon the death of the owner, all his implements were formerly destroyed, or placed in his buried canoe, that he might have them for use in Otlaskio, the underground land of the dead. Having no quarries of stone, he made his implements of bone, shell, or wood, and these soon decayed. In short, the conditions which surrounded the Puget Sound tribes gave them the minimum supply of stone relics, and the conditions which yet confront the inquiring student afford him also the smallest return for a vast amount of hard labor in searching for them. When the archæologist of the future examines the miles of shell heaps and kitchen refuse along the Pacific and Puget Sound beach, he will conclude that the tribes that built them were extremely poor in personal property, In this conclusion, however, he will be mistaken, for these people built large, warm wooden houses; carved great canoes out of cedar logs; made trunks, boxes, cedar-root baskets, beds, images, spears, paddles, bows and arrows, war clubs, water buckets, food trays, totem sticks, nets, fish-hooks, traps, bowls, cups, spoons, plates, pipes, drums, blankets, capes, skirts, coats, caps, hats, and masks, out of the cedar tree and its side products, bark and roots. A large Indian village containing a thousand persons might exist for years in peace and plenty on Puget Sound, without an implement of stone among them; the dearth of stone relics in this region is no evidence whatever of a low state of civilization, or the want of aboriginnl wealth. Labor among the Indians of Puget Sound was specialized. While all were carpenters, in a broad sense, yet there were those who were specially skilled in canoe making, and who, from working under masters, in planning and adzing out these great war boats, became highly technical in that line. Others made paddles, while some were devoted to the manufacture of bows and arrows; others were skilled only in the manufacture of images which were used in religious rites or mythological performances, while there was always in each tribe a skilful builder of the ancient barrier fish-trap. No man was more highly respected than one skilled in working metal, of which they seemed always to have had a limited supply. The last of the old Nisqually Indian bow and arrow makers died some ten years ago and I obtained his last old Scythian bow and a hundred fine arrows, and no better workmanship can be found in all Indian-land. The Columbia river region, east of the Cascade mountains, presents a complete contrast to western Washington in soil, climate, and archaeology. It is largely an arid region, without covering for its rolling hills and rich valleys; long ago quenched volcanic fires threw upon its surface vast fields of molten matter, which on cooling left exposed the richest and rarest treasure for an aboriginal workshop. The most precious arrowmaking material is there flung with reckless prodigality to the native artizen, and here it was that arrow making reached its highest perfection. Along the Columbia river are found the most perfect arrows, the rarest forms and most beautiful specimens of the arrow maker's skill known to archeologists-thousands of them but half an inch long, and others a foot in length. If there can be said to have existed a fine art in arrow making, it was here. Not only were the forms varied, unique, and perfect, but the material was chosen with an artist's eye. Silicified wood, agate, crystal and rose quartz, and the rarest and most beautiful stones were sought and worked to the greatest advantage from an artist's standpoint; obsidian and other |