Mr Scolder's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 6£ 



which appears to be very universally spread through the north- 

 ern regions of Europe and America. Our dream of security 

 was, however, speedily dissipated, and botanical researches 

 were interrupted by the news, that several canoes were making 

 for the ship, and, of course, prudence required that we should 

 return. These people, our interpreter informed us, belonged 

 to a powerful tribe called the Nass Indians, and were governed 

 by five smokets or chiefs. Their language, manners, and 

 dress were the same as those of Queen Charlotte islanders, 

 with this limitation, that they were far from being so cleanly 

 in their dress and persons. We saw here that strange method 

 of deforming the women, long ago noticed by the early navi- 

 gators. All the women above fourteen years had a large 

 oval piece of wood introduced into a transverse incision made 

 in their lower lip. At first the incision appears to be small, and 

 is gradually enlarged, using larger pieces of wood, till, in 

 many of the old people, the lower lip projected beyond the 

 nose, and gave them a most ridiculous appearance when eat- 

 ing. They readily sold us these pieces of wood, and when 

 they saw the interest we took in examining them, they offered 

 to supply us with any quantity we might require. These lip 

 ornaments, as we called them, were of a somewhat oval shape, 

 rounded and smooth at the extremities, and slightly hollow on 

 their upper and lower surfaces. A specimen which I procured 

 was two inches and a quarter in length, and three quar- 

 ters of an inch in breadth, and was not above the average 



size. 



• 



1st July. — We proceeded up Observatory Inlet, with 

 the intention of anchoring in Salmon Cove, which Captain 

 Vancouver formerly occupied, while his boats surveyed the 

 neighbouring coast. Both sides of Observatory Inlet were 

 bounded by mountains of remarkable steepness, and entirely of 

 primitive formation. The valleys, or rather ravines, were often 

 the channel of some mountain-torrent, which, after passing a 

 number of cataracts, descended to the ocean. In most situa- 

 tions, these mountains were covered by fir-trees of small size 



* Some tribes to the north of Queen Charlotte's Island are said to have 

 a more disgusting modification of the custom, by introducing the lip orna- 

 ment into the upper lip. 



VOL. VI. NO. I, JAN. 1887. E 



