DEPARTURE FROM FORT RUPERT. 173 
plished, I was lifted into the canoe in the same 
fashion as I had been previously lifted out, and 
rapidly reached the steamer. 
The chief came on board the steamer whilst 
the anchor was being weighed. Imagine what 
I felt when he seated himself deliberately upon 
the cask wherein I had hid his property. The 
wished-for moment came, the wheels splashed 
slowly round, my plundered friend was bowed 
over the side, and not until the smoke of the 
lodge-fires, and the fading outline of the village, 
grew dim in the distance, did I feel my scalp 
safe. The head is now in the Osteological 
Room of the British Museum, and well worth 
investigation by any who may be curious to 
compare the effect of circular pressure with 
that of the flat-head.* Skulls similarly flattened 
were also brought by me from Vancouver Island. 
We again called at Nanaimo on our return, 
and, whilst ‘coaling,’ delivered the ransomed 
lady safely into the hands of her owner. At 
the same time three hundred Indians from Queen 
Charlotte’s Island landed, en route to Victoria, 
arriving in large canoes, each holding about 
twenty Indians and their baggage. These 
canoes were not at all similar to any I had seen 
* Vide Illustration. 
