REPORT ON THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 141 



Forbes ; Thuya gigantea^ Nutt ; Cnprcssus Nutlatensis, Lamb; Fritillaria 

 lanceolata, Hook; Fragaria Chi1cnsiSjT>uchesne; Mahonia, Bcrheris Aqui- 

 folivm, &c. All of tlie foregoiug- I observed in tlie vicinity of Masset, 

 and along' the nortli shore of Graham Island. All of them are identical 

 with the plants at Cape Flattery, Wash., except the Cuprcssus Nutlca- 

 tensis, and the Gastilleia pallida., which latter at Cape Flattery is bright 

 red, while at Masset and elsewhere on Queen Charlotte Islands it is 

 pale yellow. 



Collections. — 1 was fortunate while at Masset in obtaining articles of 

 great interest, such as models of ancient war canoes, salmon and trout 

 nets, stone mortars, hammers, mauls, carved boxes, carved dishes of 

 wood and horn. But the objects of the greatest interest to me were five 

 images, three inches long, made of pure native copper by swedging 

 and cutting. These images re])resent naked men and women dancing. 

 They were worn at the belt in front of the person dancing, and made a 

 tinkling sound. 



I procured them of an old woman, who told me that they had been in 

 her family before her great grandmother could remember. The legend 

 respecting them is that an ancestor of hers while on a trading excursion 

 to Sitka procured them of an Atna or Copper Eiver Indian from the 

 tribe of that name to the northwest of Sitka. These images were con- 

 sidered of such value that I was offered a large sum if I would i)art with 

 them, which I declined, as I considered them the best proof I have seen 

 of the ancient intercourse between the Aztecs of Mexico and the tribes 

 of the Northwest coast. On my subsequent return to Victoria, Mr. 

 Alexander McKenzie, who had come from Masset, mentioned about 

 these copper images on board Her Majesty's ship Swiftsure, then lying 

 in Esquiuault Harbor. The surgeon of the ship, Dr. Moore, produced 

 a silver image, 1^ inches long, which he had procured at Guatemala 

 during the summer of 1883. This was made of pure nugget silver, and 

 had been worn by a lady as a charm and susi)ended to the neck by a 

 ribbon through a ring on the top of the head of the image. Mr. Mc- 

 Kenzie was so struck with the similarity of design with the copper 

 images that he borrowed it of Surgeon Moore, and had it photographed 

 in four different positions. By comi>aring the two photographs the 

 Aztec style seems to be seen in both alike. 



I also found in the grave of an old doctor, or sJiaga, who had been 

 dead fifty years or more, a coui)le of carved tusks, which I at first 

 thought were those of a peccary or Mexican wild hog, but subsequent 

 examination in Washington proved them to be the babyroussa or Asi- 

 atic wild hog, and the question is how they reached Queen Charlotte 

 Island. A gentleman, long a resident in Japan, informs me that the 

 Siamese junks are accustomed to trade on the African coast, running 

 down with the northeast monsoons and returning with the southwest 

 monsoon. These Siamese junks bring everything they can get, and 

 trade with the Japanese and Chinese. These Japanese or Siamese junks 



