SMITH] PICTOGRAPH ON LOWER SKEENA RIVER 613

with seven radiating lines on its upper outline. In the third and
sixth “‘coppers” instead of this ring there is a horizontal line with
five little lines nearly perpendicular to its upper edge. In the
fourth ‘‘copper” only three lines could be discerned. There is a
horizontal line also in the fragment of a ‘‘copper.”’ These “‘copper”’
figures are characteristic of the North Pacific culture and the style
of the painting of the face is found only in the art of this culture
area. In the ears, the shading of the lines and the eccentricity of
the figure are particularly characteristic.

This pictograph was probably made in honor of an individual
or family and certainly has to do with great wealth as the repre-
sentation of even one “‘copper’’ would refer to considerable wealth.

“‘Coppers” were represented in various ways on this coast.
A board or form made of boards fastened together was shaped
like a “copper” and this was sometimes both painted and carved.
Paintings of “coppers” were made on leather and stone as well
as on wood. Pieces of shell were cut to the proper form and carved,
and ‘“‘coppers” are also indicated by pecked figures of the same
unique form made on rock surfaces.

The antiquity of this pictograph is unknown to us. A number
of white people and a few Indians of the vicinity were consulted
in regard to this but those who knew the pictograph said it had
been made long ago and that they had no knowledge of who made
it or what it meant. However, it is quite likely that there may be
some Indian still living who knows when it was made and all
about it. The knowledge of its meaning among Indians of this
region is likely to be a family secret.

Its preservation as a provincial or national monument would
seem well worth while, especially because it can be seen from
the railway. It can also be visited from boats on the river.

There is another group of pictographs in a similar situation,
a mile upstream from this one. It is a short distance below the
site of Aberdeen, which was one of the oldest, if not the oldest,
regular boat landing and the location of perhaps the first salmon
cannery on the northern coast of British Columbia. To be more
exact, these pictographs are on the more or less vertical, jagged,
granitic cliffs, and on the fragments fallen from them, from near