On approaching villages of many tribes on the Northwest Coast, the
traveler sees great numbers of carved wooden posts. The largest, most
striking, and most curious are no doubt those of the Tlingit of Alaska,
and the Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands. Some of these posts stand in
front of the houses, or very near them; others are set near the beach,
beyond the village. When old they are weather-beaten and gray. They are
sometimes compared to a forest of tree trunks left after a fire has swept
through a wooded district.
[Illustration.]