By striking this device into the water, they were able to catch ten to twelve fish per try, quickly filling their canoes. The people of Saysetsen would live on Newcastle from January to April in order to catch the spawning herring before moving on to Gabriola Island where they would stay until early August. Then they would traverse the Strait of Georgia to the mouth of the Fraser River. They would stay there until the end of August to catch the sockeye and humpback salmon before continuing back to Vancouver Island for the chum salmon run. They would then be back on Newcastle Island by January. Not much is known about the other village, Clotsun, except that its name means Protector. The burial rites of the Snuneymuxw involved the deceased being placed in trees, contrary to popular belief that there were burial chests in the Newcastle caves from this time period. If there were burials in the caves, they are believed to be from the members of other tribes employed in Nanaimo or on Newcastle Island to mine coal. The island is named after the famous mining town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England when coal was discovered in 1849. Coal was an important commodity in the mid-19th century. The British needed a colony on the west coast of North America to provide good quality coal for their steamships. After a failed mining attempt in Fort Rupert in 1830, Newcastle Island and Nanaimo became honeycombed with mining tunnels. Nanaimo's very existence could not have happened without the Native chief Ki’et’sa’kun. One day in December 1849, while in Fort Victoria getting his gun repaired, Ki’et’sa’kun saw the blacksmith using coal in his fire. He told the blacksmith that he knew of a location where coal was in abundance. This information was quickly passed on to Joseph McKay, a company clerk, who investigated the matter. In exchange for a bottle of rum and to have his gun repaired for free, McKay asked Ki’et’sa’kun to bring proof of his claim. After months without seeing Ki’et’sa’kun again, McKay and Governor James Douglas gave up on him. In April 1850, approximately fifteen months after his initial appearance in this blacksmith's shop, Ki’et’sa’kun returned with a canoe full of coal. This coal proved to be superior to the coal being mined at the current site at Fort Rupert.