EEPOET ON EXPLOEATIONS AND COLLECTIONS IN THE 

 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



By JAiiES G. Swan. 



In 1873 I wrote a memoir on the Haidah Indians, of Queen Charlotte 

 Islands, which was published in the Smithsonian Contributions to 

 Knowledge (No. 267), January, 1874. In the advertisement the late 

 Professor Henry says that, " under the head of ethnology, it raises 

 some questions which seem of great significance, and which it is hoped 

 will lead to further investigations." It was not, however, till 1883 that 

 an arrangement was effected, when, early in that year, I was sent by 

 Profe-'sor Baird to that interesting group of islands lying in the North 

 Pacific Ocean, off the coast of British Columbia, between lat. 51° 30' 

 and 54° 20' north, to make collections and obtain useful information for 

 the United States Fish Commission, the National Museum, and the 

 Bureau of Ethnology. 



On the 29th day of May, 1883, I left Port Towusend, Wash., for Vic- 

 toria, B. C, to make my arrangements for the cruise, by purchasing all 

 necessary stores and outfits, and securing a credit with the Hudson Bay 

 Company to make purchases and draw orders on their traders at Fort 

 Simpson, B.C.,andatMasset, on Graham Island, the largest of the Queen 

 Charlotte group. I also made a similar arrangement with the Skidegate 

 Oil Comi)any to give orders on their store at their oil works, near Skide- 

 gate village, B. C. This was to enable me better to trade with Indians 

 for the procuring of specimens of their manufactures, and to avoid the 

 trouble and risk of carrying coin with me to those islands, and to ena- 

 ble me to keep an account of my expenditures in a more satisfactory 

 manner. Having completed my arrangements,! next secured the serv- 

 ices of an assistant and interpreter, a young Haidah Indian, a native 

 of the Klue or Cumshewa district on the eastern coast of Moresby 

 Island, the second largest of the Queen Charlotte Islands. This Indian, 

 whose name is Johnny Kit Elseva, I had personally known for some 

 time as one of the most intelligent, faithful, and reliable natives I ever 

 have seen. To his qualifications as a cook and general servant he 

 added those of an interpreter; his knowledge of English, which he 

 speaks fluently, enabling him to understand me fully at all times. He 

 is also a working jeweler, skilled in making silver bracelets, ear-rings, 

 and charms, and a good carver in wood and stone. He is also an artist, 

 and iias drawn for me in India ink a series of mythological sketches 

 illustrative of the folk-lore of his tribe, and is still at work in finishing 



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