_Burials in Domes of Volcanic Ash._ In this arid region are stretches of country locally known as 'scab land,' on which are occasionally groups of low dome-shaped knolls from about fifty to one hundred feet in diameter, by three to six feet in height.[410] These knolls consist of fine volcanic ash, and apparently have been left by the wind because held in place by roots of sage brush and other vegetation. This ashy material has been swept from the intervening surface leaving the 'scab land' paved with fragments of basalt imbedded in a hard soil. The prehistoric Indians of this region, have used many of these knolls, each as a site for a single grave (Fig. 2, Plate IX).[411] These graves, which are located in the tops of the knolls, are usually marked by large river pebbles, or, in some cases, by fragments of basalt that appear as a circular pavement projecting slightly above the surface of the soil. None of them are known to be recent. On the other hand, there is no positive evidence of their great antiquity. In these we sometimes find a box or cyst. This box (Plate X) was formed of thin slabs of basaltic rock some placed on edge and large flat slabs covering the cyst so formed. Above this, as was usually the case, above the skeletons in this kind of grave, the space was filled with irregular rocks or pebbles. The rocks and cyst were entirely different from those of the cairns of the coast of Washington and British Columbia.[412] The skeletons were found flexed, on the side. In the graves, artifacts such as dentalium shells were deposited at the time of burial. [410] See Museum negative nos. 44442, 1-3, and 44496, 5-9. [411] See Museum negative no. 44497, 5-10, taken from the north of east. See also pp. 17 and 161. First mentioned in Smith, (g), VI. [412] See Smith and Fowke. The Kalapuya of the Willamette Valley to the southwest, buried their dead in the earth. One writer described the process as follows:--"When the grave was dug they placed slabs on the bottom and sides, and when they had lowered the wrapped body down, placed another over, resting on the side ones, and filled in the earth."[413] The account does not seem to indicate whether these slabs were of wood or stone, but in either case there is a certain similarity to the graves with the stone cyst found near Tampico. [413] Lewis, p. 178; Galschet, p. 86; American Antiquarian, IV, 1882, p. 331.