66 Mr Scolder's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 



and stunted growth, in others, the durable nature of the gra- 

 nite refused support to the smallest vegetable. The little 

 valley around Salmon Cove has a beautiful verdant appear- 

 ance, and a small brook supplies it with abundance of excel- 

 lent water. The channel of this stream is everywhere covered 

 by aquatic mosses, particularly Fontinalis antipyretica and 

 F. squamosa, and among them I found one of the rarest and 

 most beautiful of the musci of America, which, from the re- 

 markable structure of its capsule and operculum, will doubt- 

 less form a new genus. * 



2d. — Our excursions were very limited in this fine situa- 

 tion, as our Skittegass interpreter, Tom, was at great pains to 

 dissuade us from venturing too far ; and he assured us that 

 we would soon be visited by all the canoes of the Nass In- 

 dians, who were a treacherous people, and had killed many of 

 the Americans who had incautiously ventured ashore on this 

 coast. These circumstances, we afterwards learned from an 

 American trader, were strictly correct, and that the natives of 

 Queen Charlotte's Island and the neighbouring continent uni- 

 formly attacked the ships which visited them whenever it was 

 in their power. Next morning, the assertions of our friend 

 Tom were verified, and about thirty canoes, containing about 

 200 Indians, visited the vessel. Being amply prepared against 

 any attack, we endeavoured to gain their good will by treat- 

 ing them kindly ; we purchased what goods they had to dispose 

 off ; permitted the chiefs to come on board, and gave them 

 presents of tobacco, and feasted them on bread and molasses, 

 of all things the most delicious to an Indian palate. In re- 

 turn for this usage, they behaved with great propriety, and 

 even with some honesty, for some of the tin dishes in which we 

 had given them molasses were returned next day, when we 

 thought they had been stolen. However, with all this seem- 

 ing good will on their part, they gave us a specimen of their 

 dexterity, by stealing a heavy sounding-lead, and a few other 

 articles of little importance. These Indians were remarkably 

 acute traders, and extremely selfish, and never, in one instance, 

 did they give any present in return for those we presented 

 them ; while the natives of the Gulf of Georgia never vi- 



• Scoulcria, Hooker's MSS. 



