REPORT ON THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 145 



days I had over one hundred fine fish, which I had split like cod and 

 salted. 



I remained at Skidegate making collections of the Indians till Tues- 

 day, September 4, when I started on a visit to the villages of Skedans, 

 Cumshewa, and Laskeek, in the southern portion of the group, and suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining some rare specimens of Indian work used in their 

 masquerade performances and highly prized by them. 



At the village of Laskeek, on Tanoo Island, is the most interesting 

 collection of columns, both heraldic and mortuary, and more monuments 

 for the dead than I had seen in any other village. The Indian bouse in 

 which I stopped is a new one, of large dimensions, built after the ancient 

 style. In this house will be held the most extensive ceremonies that 

 have taken place for many years, consisting of tbe tomanaicas or secret 

 performances, then the public tatooing of persons of all ages and sexes, 

 then the masquerade dances and the distribution of presents, when sev- 

 eral thousand dollars' worth of blankets, calico, clothing, and provisions 

 will be given away, and the whole interspersed with feasts at different 

 houses in the village. The occasion of this is the erection of one or 

 more huge columns, elaborately carved with totemic devices, to show the 

 wealth and importance of the chief in front of whose house the column 

 will be ei-ected. This great ceremony will take place in the fall of this 

 year and will be well worth seeing, as it is probable that it will be the 

 last grand display of the kind that will take place, the influence of mis- 

 sionaries being directed to suppressing these ancient ceremonies, in 

 which they have succeeded, so far as regards the villages at Masset 

 and Skidegate, where the ceremonies of the tomanawas, if performed at 

 present, are greatly shorn of their honors, and I was thereby enabled 

 to obtain many articles of ceremonial usage, which formerly no white 

 man was suffered to look at, much less to purchase and take away. 



The gTand tomanaicas of next fall will last from two to three weeks. 

 I left Laskeek village on my return to Skidegate on Saturday afternoon, 

 September 8th, and ran back with a fair wind to Koona village, the resi- 

 dence of Captain Skidance, the chief of the Klue district, where I re- 

 mained till the lOtb, when I arrived at Skidegate village at 8 p. m., and 

 the following morning returned to the oil works, when I at once packed 

 my Skidegate collection into cases, took passage on the company's little 

 steamer Skidegate, for Victoria, leaving Skidegate on Friday, September 

 21st, and reaching Victoria on the afternoon of the 27th. 



The result of my work may be briefly summed up as follows: I have 

 a most interesting and valuable collection of articles of Indian manu- 

 facture. I have succeeded in introducing the black cod, a new and valu- 

 able food-fish. I have determined the locality of several new inlets 

 and harbors on the west coast of Graham Island. I have succeeded in 

 deciphering the true meaning of the hieroglyphics of the carved col- 

 umns, which are in great profusion in every village, and the meaning of 

 the tattoo m.'.rks on the persons of the jiatives, I liave collected evi' 

 S Mis. 33 10 



