DEPARTURE FROM FORT RUPERT. 173 



plished, I was lifted into the canoe in the same 

 fashion as I had been previously lifted out, and 

 rapidly reached the steamer. 



The chief came on board the steamer whilst 

 the anchor was being weighed. Imagine what 

 I felt when he seated himself deliberately upon 

 the cask wherein I had hid his property. The 

 wished-for moment came, the wheels splashed 

 slowly round, my plundered friend was bowed 

 over the side, and not until the smoke of the 

 lodge-fires, and the fading outline of the village, 

 grew dim in the distance, did I feel my scalp 

 safe. The head is now in the Osteological 

 Room of the British Museum, and well worth 



r ' 



investigation by any who may be curious to 

 compare the effect of circular pressure with 

 that of the flat-head.* Skulls similarly flattened 

 were also brought by me from Vancouver Island. 

 We again called at Nanaimo on our return, 

 and, whilst ' coaling,' delivered the ransomed 

 lady safely into the hands of her owner. At 

 the same time three hundred Indians from Queen 

 Charlotte's Island landed, en route to Victoria, 

 arriving in large canoes, each holding about 

 twenty Indians and their baggage. These 

 canoes were not at all similar to any I had seen 



* Vide Illustration. 



