1777- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 221 



CHAP. VI11. 



mr. Anderson's remarks on the country near oueen 



charlotte's sound. the soil. climate. weather. 



winds. trees. plants. birds. fish. other 



animals. of the inhabitants. description of 



their persons. their dress. ornaments. habi- 

 tations. boats. food and cookery. arts. 



weapons. cruelty to prisoners. various customs. 



specimen of their language. 



1 he land every where about Queen Charlotte's 

 Sound is uncommonly mountainous, rising imme- 

 diately from the sea into large hills with blunted 

 tops. At considerable distances are valleys, or 

 rather impressions on the sides of the hills, which 

 are not deep; each terminating toward the sea in a 

 small cove, with a pebbly or sandy beach; behind 

 which are small flats, where the natives generally 

 build their huts, at the same time hauling their canoes 

 upon the beaches. This situation is the more con- 

 venient, as in every cove a brook of very fine water 

 (in which are some small trout) empties itself into 

 the sea. 



The bases of these mountains, at least toward the 

 shore, are constituted of a brittle, yellowish sand- 

 stone, which acquires a bluish cast, where the sea 

 washes it. It runs, at some places, in horizontal, 

 and, at other places, in oblique strata; being fre- 

 quently divided, at small distances, by thin veins of 

 coarse quartz, which commonly follow the direction 

 of the other, though they sometimes intersect it. 

 The mould, or soil, which covers this, is also of a 



