64 G, M. DAWSON ON THE KWAKIOOL 



distance south of Cape Mudge. Their southern border meets that of the group of peoples 

 to which Dr. Tolmie and myself have provisionally applied the general name "Kawitshin." 

 Thence, northward, they possess the Vancouver coast to the north-west point of the island, 

 and extend down the west coast as far as Cape Cook or "Woody Point, where they meet the 

 Aht peoples. Their limits are shewn with proximate exactness on the map accompanying 

 the " Comparative Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes of British Columbia," by Dr. Tolmie 

 and the writer, published by the Canadian Geological Survey in 1884. On that map, 

 however, the boundary between the Kwakiool and Aht peoples is, on the west coast of 

 Vancouver Island, placed too far to the north. It is also to be noted, that while on the 

 map it is necessary to divide the whole territory in a general way between the various 

 peoples, large tracts are practically neither traversed nor resided in by any of them. This 

 applies particularly to a large part of the rough mountainous country occupied by the Coast 

 Range, and to a lesser degree to the similar country in the interior of Vancouver Island. 

 The Kwakiool, like other tribes of the coast, go wherever they can travel by water, and 

 live on and by the shore, seldom venturing to any considerable distance inland. Cut off 

 from the Nasse and Skeena Rivers by the Tshimsian, from Dean Inlet and Bentinck North 

 Arm by the Bilhoola, they possess no available or practicable route through the region of 

 the Coast Mountains to the interior of the province. Between Bute Inlet and the Bentinck 

 Arms they travel by lakes and rivers (which for the most part do not appear as yet on 

 the maps) some distance into the mountain country ; but they have nowhere come 

 habitually into contact with the Tinnë people who inhabit the whole northern part of the 

 interior of the province, and they have no trade routes to the interior, such as those in 

 possession of the Bilhoola and Tshimsian. 



II. — Notes on Tribal Subdivisions of the Kwakiool, and Details 



Respecting them. 



In the " Comparative Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes of British Columbia," (1884) 

 two enumerations were given of the tribal subdivisions of the Kwakiool people, one 

 being by the late Dr. Tolmie, and the other by the writer. These did not precisely cor- 

 respond, and neither was considered complete or satisfactory, the number of the 

 constituent tribes or tribal subdivisions and the manner in which they have become 

 mingled of late years, rendering it difficult to formulate the subdivisions. "With the 

 assistance of Mr. Gr. Blenkinsop, who has long resided among this people, I am now able 

 to offer a complete, or proximately comf)lete, list of the tribes, with the names and 

 localities of most of their places of residence, generally the so-called " winter village," 

 where the most substantial houses are found, and in which one or more tribal sub- 

 divisions are generally massed during the cold mi nths, though in summer scattering to 

 various fishing places and other resorts. The winter village is, occasionally, entirely 

 deserted during a portion of the the summer, but is more usually left in charge of a few 

 old people. 



Various circumstances conspire to render it difficult to give satisfactory or definite 

 localities for the several tribes. The combination of two or more recognised tribal 

 divisions in a single village community during the winter months has not been confined 



