346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



evidently been readily adopted by various tribes from whatever 

 source they may have originated. In dexterity and constructive 

 skill, as well as in artistic representation, the Haida people, how- 

 ever, excel all the others. 



The villages consist usually of a single row of houses ranged 

 along the edge of the beach and facing the sea. The houses are 

 generally large, and are used as dwelling-places by two or more 

 families, each occuj^ying a corner, which is closed in by temporary 

 partitions of split cedar planks, six or eight feet in height, or by 

 a screen of cloth on one or two sides. Each family has, as a rule, 

 its own fire, with cedar planks laid down near it to sit and sleep 

 on. When, however, they are gathered in the houses of smaller 

 and ruder construction, at summer fishing-places, etc., a single 

 fire may serve for a whole household. The household effects and 

 property of the inmates are piled up round the walls, or stored 

 away in little cupboard-like partition spaces at the sides or back 

 of the house. Above the fire belonging to each family is gener- 

 ally a frame of poles or slips of cedar, upon which clothes may be 

 hung to dry, and dried fish or dried clams are stored in the smoke. 

 Eating is a perpetually recurring occupation, and smoke appears 

 to ooze out by every chink and cranny of the roofs of the large 

 houses, the whole upper part of which is generally filled with it. 

 The houses of the Kwakiool are not so large or so well constructed 

 as those of the Haida, though, if Vancouver's representations of 

 them are to be accepted as accurate, they are more commodious 

 and better built now than in his time. The introduction of metal 

 tools may have produced a change of that kind. Wood-carving 

 is practiced, but not so extensively as among the Haida, and 

 carved totem-posts are not nearly so numerous nor so large or 

 artistic in design as among that people. Such examples of posts 

 of this kind as occur are also invariably separate from the houses, 

 and no instance of a carved post forming the door of a house was 

 seen in any of the villages. 



The most valuable possession of the Kwakiool and other north- 

 ern tribes is the "copper" or copper plate of which the peculiar 

 form is illustrated in my " Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands." 

 A conventional face is often scraped out upon the surface of the 

 " copper." The most valued coppers are very old and have been 

 handed down for generations. These are known as ild-kwa. 

 Smaller " coppers " of modern manufacture are named fld-Uoh- 

 sum. A copper, to be of value, should be of equal thickness 

 throughout, except at the edges, where it should be thicker than 

 elsewhere. When struck, it should emit a dull sound and not 

 ring. The dentalium shell, named a-tl-a, was formerly used as a 

 currency, but, as with other coast tribes, the blanket is now the 

 unit of value. A somewhat inferior quality, known in the Hud- 



