Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 171 



sea tribes by the range of mountains which runs parallel to 

 the coast, and from which they extend eastward to the Rocky 

 Mountains. It would appear, that, to the north and west, 

 the Tacullics or Athabascans rarely approach within 100 

 miles of the coast. Tribes of the Athabascan family occupy 

 the country about the sources of the Salmon River, Frazer's 

 River, and the northern tributaries of the Columbia. The 

 Nagailers or Chin Indians, who speak the same language as 

 the Tacullies, and are consequently Athabascan, come in 

 contact with the Bellichoola on Salmon River, and with the 

 Atnas or Noosdalums on Frazer's River. In the interior, 

 they descend as far as Flat Bow Lake, where their neigh- 

 bours are the Kootanie and Flatheads. 



An inspection of the vocabularies of the languages spoken 

 on the north-west coast, will aid us in defining the limits of 

 the Athabascan family. If we examine the languages spoken 

 from Observatory Inlet to the Columbia, we find they possess 

 very few Athabascan words, the mountain barrier having ob- 

 structed the intercourse between the fish-eaters of the coast 

 and the Athabascans of the interior. On the other hand, on 

 the north and south, where no such defined barrier separates 

 the diflferent races, we find in the vocabularies evidence of a 

 more frequent intercourse. In the dialects of the northern 

 and continental Koluschians, we find a good number of 

 Athabascan words ; and the Kenai may probably be consi- 

 dered as rather Athabascan than Koluschian. In like man- 

 ner, we find Athabascan words in the Kleketat and Shahap- 

 tan, as tribes speaking these languages form the southern 

 frontier of the Athabascan race. 



3. The Koluschians. — The narrow portion of sea coast ex- 

 tending from Mount St Elias to the Columbia River is re- 

 markable from being inhabited by Indians whose manners, 

 physical features, and even intellectual and moral characters, 

 differ considerably from those of the other Indians, whether 

 of North or South America. The northernmost of these fami- 

 lies may be called the Koluschian, and consist of many small 

 tribes, of which we have attempted to give a tolerably com- 

 plete enumeration. 



