ple of Nootka are among the best-lookin

actice of sitting on them, though I have seen instances in which they were very well shaped; this defect is more particularly apparent in the women, who are for the most part of the time within doors, and constantly sitting while employed in their cooking and other occupations.[74] The on

ps being thin and the teeth very white and even; their eyes are black but rather small, and the nose pretty well formed, being neither flat nor very prominent; their hair is black, long, and coarse, but they have no bear

utiful woman in any country. She was uncommonly well formed, tall, and of a majestic appearance; her skin remarkably fair for one of these people, with considerable colour, her features handsome, and her eyes black, soft, and languishing; her hair was very long, thick, and black, as is

r skin around their waists; it has also loose sleeves, which reach to the elbows. Though fond of ornamenting their persons, they are by no means so partial to paint as the men, merely colouring their eyebrows black and drawing a bright red stripe from each corner of the mouth towards the ear. Their ornaments consist chiefly of ear-rings

shell of a dazzling whiteness and as smooth as ivory; it is of a cylindrical form, in a slight degree curved, about the size of a goose quill, hollow, three inches in length and gradually tapering to a point, which is broken off by the natives as it is taken from the water; this they afterwards string upon threads of bark and sell it by the fathom; it forms a kind of circulating

he pole suspended to a long rope; this is let down perpendicularly by the Ife-waw fishers in those places where that substance is found, which are usually from fifty to sixty fathoms deep. On finding the bottom, they raise the pole up a few feet and let it fall; this they repeat

ce their principal pride, and none of our most fashionable beaus when preparing for a grand ball can be more particular; for I have known Maquina, afte

black in form of a half-moon and the face red in small squares, with the arms and legs and part of the body red; sometimes one half of the face is painted red in squares and the o

a quantity of bear's grease of about one-eighth of an inch thick; this they raised up into ridges resembling a small bead in

is they call pelpelth,[78] and value it highly, as, in their opinion, it serves to set off their looks to great advantage, glittering especially in the sun like silver. This article is brought them in bags by

bathe once a day, and sometimes oftener; but as the paint is put on with oil, it is not much discomposed thereby, and

this manner, the king and principal chiefs used to strew all over it the white down obtained from a species of large brown eagle which abounds on this coast, and which they are very particular in arranging so as not to have a single feather out of place, occasionally wetting the hair to make it adhere. This, together

different form, being either small pieces of polished copper or brass, of which I made many for them in the shape of hearts and diamonds, or a twisted conical shell about half an inch in length, of a bluish colour and very bright, which is brought from the south. These are suspended by a small wire or string to t

is made fast or secured in its place by little wedges on each side of it. These "sprit-sail-yard fellows," as my messmate used to call them, when rigged out in this manner, made quite a strange show, and it was his delight, whenever he saw one of them coming towards us with an air of consequence

of them were expert marksmen, and used sometimes to shoot ducks and geese; but the seal

, with the exception of a broad white stripe on the top of the head. Nothing can be more beautiful than one of these animals when seen swimming, especially when on the look-out for any object. At such times it raises its head quite above the surface, and the contrast between the shining black and the white, together with its sharp ears and a long tuft of hair rising

ngth, from a man's chin to his feet. The food of the sea-otter is fish, which he is very dexterous in taking, being an excellent swimmer, with feet webbed like those of a goose. They appear to be wholly confined to the seacoast, at least to the salt water. They have usually three or four young at a time, but I

raight piece of hard wood, in the lower part of which is inserted, and well secured with thread or whale sinew, a bit of bone made very sharp at the point and bearded; but I used to make for them hooks

he handle of the paddle; this, as he plies it in the water, keeps the fish in constant motion, so as to give it the appearance of life, which the salmon seeing, leaps at it and is instantly hooked, and, by a sudden and dexter

ted so as to receive a piece of mussel-shell, which is ground to a very sharp edge, and secured in its place by means of turpentine.[82] To this head or prong is fastened a strong line of whale sinew about nine feet in length, to the end of which is tied a bark rope from fifty to sixty fathoms long, having from twenty to thirty sealskin floats or buoys a

however near he may approach; and it would be considered almost a sacrilege for any of the common people to strike a whale before he is killed, particularly if

as are capable of holding only one person to their largest war canoes, which will carry forty men, and are extremely light. Of these, the largest of any that I ever saw was one belonging to Maquina, which I measured, and found to be forty-two feet

hat metal. Instead of a mallet for striking this chisel, they make use of a smooth round stone, which they hold in the palm of the hand. With this same awkward instrument they not only e

large one; yet so attached were they to their own method, that notwithstanding they saw Thompson frequently, with one of our axes, of which there was

VICTORIA, V.

most as smooth as glass, but forms a better security for it from the weather; this operation of burning and rubbing down the bottoms of their canoes is practised as often as they acquire any considerable degree of roughness from use. The outside by this means becomes quite black, and to complete their work they paint the inside of a br

effect. Their war canoes have no ornament of this kind, but are painted on the outside with figures in white chalk, representing eagles, whales, human heads, etc. They are very dexterous in the use of their paddles, which are very neatly wrought, and are five

TNO

f men, tall, comparatively fair, large-headed, regularly-featured, and endowed with courage and intelligence, though their morals leave much to be desired. All the canoe Indians are very strong-handed, owing to the constant use of the paddle.

nd when they are, they generally disappear, so as not to be a burden on the tribe. As a facetious old savage remarked to me, when discussing that curious immunity from helplessness in hi

t is fastened, becomes in time so large that it will admit almost any kind of moderately-sized ornament. Feathers are frequently inserted, and more than once I have seen an Indian, clad in a blanket alone, denude himself of his single gar

ttery, on the southern side of Juan de Fuca Strait, and from Koskeemo Sound on the north. The "Aitizzarts" (Ayhuttisahts) probably o

It is obtained in various places, from veins ex

s and lakes to Nootka Sound. This is confirmed by Jewitt writing in another place that they lived somewhat in the interior. It is doubtful whether he knew that the country in which h

rapidly decreasing in numbers that it can s

of these valued animals, the reader is referre

land whaling is its use of inflated sealskins to impede the motion of the animal through the water. This is an Eskimo contrivance in use by the Alaskans and other extreme northern tribes, from whom the West Vancouverians seem to have borrowed it. In

a few men in a tribe, and previous to the whaling season the crews have to pract

n 1866, to differ little, if at all, from the Phoc?na communis of the Atlantic; but Dr. (afterwards Sir

Stelleri, once so abundant on Behring Island in Behring Strait, is generally considered to have been exterminated in the interval between 1741-1768. This, however, is hardly in accordance with fact, for, as evidence collected by Nordenskj?ld proves, they were occasionally killed in 1780, while one was seen as late

f cedar (Thuja)