182 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes 



to Nootka ; Dr Tolmie has given valuable information respec- 

 ting the fairs held at Naas, where the Koluschians, Haidah, 

 Chimmesyans, and Haeeltzuk, interchange commodities. 



Previous to the arrival of Europeans, when the use of iron 

 was unknown, copper was an article of great value, and the 

 traditions concerning it prove its former importance ; and al- 

 so a commerce in articles constructed from this metal. 

 Wrangell informs us that the Northern Atnas of the Copper 

 River were famous for the fabrication and commerce in knives 

 and daggers of copper. The tradition of the Chippewyans, 

 recorded by M'Kenzie, that their ancestors came from the 

 west, from a country abounding in copper, may probably re- 

 fer to their intercourse, by means of the Carriers with the 

 Atnas of the Copper River. According to Mr Dunn, the 

 Cheelhaats of Lynn's Canal were, like the Atnas, famed for 

 their copper, which they wrought with great dexterity. In 

 this country, he says, great quantities of virgin copper are 

 found, some of it is worked into a kind of shield, two feet and 

 a-lialf long and one broad, with figures of men and animals 

 expressed on it. The labour and ingenuity expended in work- 

 ing these shields gives them a great value. One of them is 

 estimated as worth nine slaves, and is transmitted as a pre- 

 cious heirloom from father to son. The tradition of the Noot- 

 kans, as related by Meares, bears upon the same point. An 

 old man entered the bay in a copper canoe with paddles of 

 copper ; and thus the Nootkans acquired a knowledge of the 

 value of that metal. 



Another article of commerce, or rather the circulating 

 medium of the country, was the hyaqua shell, which was a 

 still better substitute for money than the courie of the east. 

 These hyaquas were sorted according to their sizes, and after- 

 wards strung together always to the number of forty. The 

 mode of estimating their relative values was very ingenious 

 and simple. If the string of forty hyaquas made only a fa- 

 thom they were of small value ; if thirty- five made a fathom, 

 the shells were of greater size and worth, and, of course, five 

 remained over, and when ten remained in excess, such a string 

 of hyaquas was worth many beaver skins. These hyaquas are 

 obtained at Nootka and De Fucas Straits, but so much value 



