istory of the man who erects them. They are only rected by the wealthy and powerful members of the ribe, and the cost of carving a cedar log fifty feet ong, and the attendant feasts and ceremonies of the aising, bring their value, according to Indian estinates, up to one thousand and two thousand dolurs. The subdivisions of each tribe into distinct amilies that take for their crest the crow, the bear, he eagle, the whale, the wolf, and the fox, give to ach of these sculptured devices its great meaning. The totems show by their successive carvings the iescent and alliances of the great families, and the ,reat facts and incidents of their history. The repesentations of these heraldic beasts and birds are onventionalized after certain fixed rules of their art, nd the grotesque heads of men and animals are ighly colored according to other set laws and limiations. Descent is counted on the female side, and he first emblem at the top of the totem is that of he builder, and next that of the great family from which he is descended through his mother.

In some cases two totem poles are erected before a house, one to show the descent on the female side, nd one to give the generations of the male side, and a air of these poles was explained for us by one of the esidents of Fort Wrangell, who has given some study o these matters. The genealogical column of the nother's side has at the top the eagle, the great totem r crest of the family to which she belonged. Below he eagle is the image of a child, and below that the eaver, the frog, the eagle, the frog, and the frog for third time, show the generations and the subamilies of the female side. By some interpreters

the frog is believed to indicate a pestilence or some great disaster, but others maintain that it is the recognized crest of one of the sub-families. The male totem pole has at the top the image of the chief,

wearing his conical hat, below that his great totem, the crow. Succeeding the crow is the image of a child, then three frogs, and at the base of the column the eagle, the great totem of the builder's mother.

In front of one chief's house a very natural-looking bear is crouched on the top of a pole, gazing down at his black foot-tracks, which are carved on the sides of the column. A crossbeam resting on posts near this same house used to show three frogs sitting in line, and other grotesque fantasies are scattered about the village. With the advance of civilization the Indians are losing their reverence for these heraldic monuments, and some have been destroyed and others sold; for the richest of these natives are so mercenary that they do not scruple to sell anything that belongs to them. The disappearance of the totem poles would rob these villages of their greatest interest for the tourists, and the ethnologist who would solve the mysteries and read the pictures finally aright, should hasten to this rich and neglected field.

In their mythology, which, as now known, is sadly involved through the medium of so many incorrect and perverted explanations, the crow or raven stands supreme as the creator and the first of all created things. He made everything, and all life comes from him. After he had made the world, he created woman and then man, making her supreme as representative of the crow family, while man, created last, is the head of the wolf or warrior's family. From them sprang the sub-families of the whale, the bear, the eagle, the beaver, and the frog. The Stikine Indians have a tradition of the deluge, in which the chosen pair were given the shape of crows until the water had subsided, when they again returned to the earth and peopled it with their descendants. No alliances are ever made within the great families, and a crow never marries a crow, but rather a member of the whale,