REPORT ON THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. l4B 



number of boxes, carved and painted, each of which contains the 

 mummified remains of former inhabitants of the near villages. The 

 prejudices of the Indians and ray overloaded canoe did not permit me 

 to collect any specimens of those mummies, which I could easily have 

 done if I had been in a steamer. I collected many interesting speci- 

 mens of fish and mollusks, and could have procured more, but unfor- 

 tunately the net which had been made for my dredge before leaving 

 Port Townsend proved useless on trying it, as the man who made it for 

 me had made a mistake in its shape, which made it impossible to use it 

 in deep water. Had my dredge worked i)roperly I could have obtained 

 many interesting mollusks in Parry Passage, which is a rich field for 

 the naturalist. 



While at Kioosta village I made sketches of carved columns and 

 heraldic designs and my Indian assistant, Johnny, drew, in India ink, a 

 number of sketches illustrative of Indian legends, which when com- 

 pleted will furnish an interesting and valuable addition to the general 

 report of my summer's work. 



Near my camp at Kioosta village is the mausoleum or burial house 

 of old Doctor Koontz, a famous skaga or shaman, who died many 

 years ago and was famous in his time as a great medicine man. In his 

 grave I found the tusks of the babyroussa mentioned. 



Directly opposite this point, on the southeast portion of North Island, 

 is Cloak Bay, made interesting by the mention of it by Captain Dixon, 

 who named it in 1787, and Captain Marchand, a French navigator, who 

 visited it in 1791. My notes and observations made during my week's 

 camp at Kioosta are too extensive to be inserted in this brief synopsis. 



On Tuesday, August 14, we broke camp at Kioosta and started for 

 Skidegate at 10.20 A. m., with a fair tide which took us past Cape Knox, 

 the extreme northwest point of Graham Island, where we encountered 

 a tide-rip and rough cross-sea very dangerous to our heavily-laden 

 canoe. The wind now commencing to blow fresh from the south- 

 east with rain, we were forced to make a landing at a rocky point called 

 Klekwakoon, which we did at 1.30 p. m., and with difficulty scrambled 

 over a reef which extends out from the shore a considerable distance 

 and is bare at half tide. I remained at this place till the 17th, being 

 unable to proceed owing to constant head wind and heavy sea. I oc- 

 cupied the time by explorations up and down the coast, collecting 

 curiosities and other fossils, and a few specimens of small cottoid and 

 other fish, and making notes of the appearance of the country, which 

 is thrown into various contorted and fantastic shapes by volcanic action. 

 It presents a most remarkable formation, and 1 regretted that I did not 

 have a photographic apparatus with me to have taken a view of the * 

 scene, which it is imiiossible otherwise to describe. 



I found quantities of drift stuff on the beaches and in the coves, 

 among which were logs, and broken boards of redwood from California, 



