No. 3.] G. M, DAWSON — INDIANS OF CANADA. 151 



men take readily to these pursuits, many of the older still prefer 

 to live as they did formerly, chiefly on the products of the 

 fishery and chase ; and in districts where settlement has not yet 

 penetrated, whole bands still trust almost entirely to these, their 

 primitive means of support. 



Along the coast, the natives are, and always have been, almost 

 exclusively fishermen. They hollow from the great cedar trees 

 graceful and sea-worthy canoes, in which they frequently make 

 long voyages, and formerly, in some cases, ventured far from 

 land in pursuit of the whale. Their villages are along the mar- 

 gin of the sea, on a coast generally rocky and rugged, with little 

 arable land. They engage in the chase to a very limited extent, 

 and seldom even venture far into the dense forests, of which 

 they appear often to entertain a superstitious dread, peopling 

 them in imagination with monstrous and fearful inhabitants. 

 Along many of the estuaries and harbours are long lines of shell- 

 heaps, evidencing the indefinite antiquity of their feasting and 

 camping. At the present day, many of the coast Indians are 

 moderately iudustrious, working on farms, in the coal mines at 

 Nanaimo, or as sailors in small coasting schooners. In Mr. Dun- 

 can's charge, at Metlakatla, in the north, is an example of a self- 

 supporting and comfortable community, the result of genuine 

 missionary labour. 



Of all the coast tribes, the Indians of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands are probably the most intelligent and competent. When 

 the earlier navigators visited this region, they were the sea-dogs 

 of the coast, and carried their piratical expeditious far and wide, 

 often engaging in fierce conflicts with the Ucultas, and other 

 tribes who attempted to bar their passage of the narrows at the 

 north end of Vancouver Island. Though, like most of the sea- 

 board tribes, in features remarkably coarse, they are lighter in 

 complexion than the others, often so much so that a rosy colour 

 is discernible in their cheeks. Their superior attractions in this 

 respect have been unfortunate for them, as many of their women 

 resort to Victoria and other towns for the worst purposes, and, 

 owing to disease, they are rapidly diminishing. Their tribal 

 name is Haida, and they are remarkable above all the other 

 Indians of the Coast for the size and excellence of their wooden 

 houses, which are ornamented with huge sculptured posts, rising 

 like obelisks or minarets ; and also for their great skill and taste 

 in carving in grotesque and complicated patterns all their imple- 



