The village lies at the edge of a gradual slope on the north bank of the Chilkat, twenty miles from its mouth, where the swift current concentrated in a single channel forms a strong eddy that permits the landing of canoes at any stage of the river. The houses in a single and double row follow the trend of the shore for upwards of three-quarters of a mile, but far enough back to allow for the smoke houses, fish drying frames, and canoe shelters, and in the rear are the grave houses (Fig. 3) and the now disused cremation grounds strewn with charred logs and partly burnt funeral pyres. Just beyond the village at either end, in the cottonwood groves, hidden in the underbrush and covered with moss, are the crumbling remains of the shaman's dead houses, guarded by elaborately carved spirit figures and decayed canoes. The houses of each of the four resident totemic families are grouped about that of the chief for mutual protection, giving the appearance of three separate villages, as the two centrally located families through increase of numbers, have been brought into closer union. In each group the houses of the aristocracy and those of the poorer classes are of like construction, differing however in size, strength of material, interior appointments, and ornamentation. Of the five totemic families that form the Chilkat-kwan, not including a sixth subdivision, four are resident here, while individuals of the others through intermarriage are scattered through the village but without house standing. The traditions of all of these speak of a migration from the southern border northward through the inland channels. The Wolf phratry is represented by three families: the Kagwantan, Tuck-este-nar, and Duck-clar-way-di. The first two are closely related and claim to be offshoots of a parent stock and to have migrated north from the coast between the mouths of the Nass and the Skeena rivers and in earlier times they lived inland on these rivers. The last-named is unquestionably of interior origin and it is possible that all three are of like ancestry.