144 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



year; and iiosirly all these were bronglit in by their own co-operative 

 store, and sold afterwards in Victoria. The hi^liest price they j^ot at 

 Victoria was 1(! dollars. The Indians here volnnrarily exi>rcss('d tlu^ir 

 williii<iiiess to contorni to any laws made as to tlie killin;^' of tnr-seals, 

 but re(iuest(Hl that they niight be informed in time. 



554. Kirahiool. — Nawitti, on Iloi)e Island, at the northern end of Van- 

 couver Island, is the jWace most noted as a centre of fur-seal hunting- 

 anion*;' the Kwakiool tribes. The ])eople here hunt ])riiu'ipally in the 

 winter, and do not resort to special huntiiiii' stations. Tliey start on 

 huntiii.u' trips very often from Nawitti village itself, and brin<;- large 

 quantities of seal meat, which they relish as food, back to this i)lace. 

 They hunt in their own canoes, and few of them have ever been 

 employed on schooners. Nearly all the men engage more or less in 

 hunting at the proper season. Spears were formerly used in hunting, 

 but guns are now always emi)loyed, though the s])ear is still made use 

 of to recover the seal after it has been shot. The seals shot sometimes 

 sink before they can i)ick them up, but this happens chiefly when they 

 are shot in the head and killed at once. Mr. A. W. Huson, who is 

 familiar with this part of the coast, states that in some years he has 

 himself obtained in trade as nuiiiy as 100 skins from the Indians of the 

 Nawitti village alone. 



555. Fur-seals are also hunted by the (^>uatsino, Klaskaino, and other 

 tribes of the Kwakiool family, but the nnnd)ers obtained by them are 

 not known to be considerable, and time did not adnnt of special visits 

 to their villages. 



550. Aht. — The Aht or Nootkan tribes, inhabiting the whole of that 

 part of the west coast of Vancouver Island to the south of Cape Cook, 

 are the most noted of the British Columbian Indians as ex])ert fur-seal 

 hunters. The i\lakah, of Cape Flattery, in the State of Washington 

 are a detached tribe of the same stock. These Aht ])eople furnisli by 

 far the larger part of the Indian hunters emjjloycd on sealing schooners, 

 and have to a gn^it extent abandoned their original method of seal- 

 ing in canoes from the shore in consenuence. The number of skins 

 still obtained by them as independent hunters is, however, not incon- 

 siderable. 



557. They are chosen as hunters for the sealing schooners in prefer- 

 ence to the Indians of the northern part of the coast, i)artly because of 

 their experience aiul dexterity in the use of the sj^ear, but also because 

 they are accustomed to hunt in com])aratively small canoes, retiuiring 

 fewer men, and taking up less room on the schooner's deck. The north- 

 ern Indians reipiire larger canoes, and usually no greater luimber of 

 skins is taken by a large canoe than by a small one. It is true that the 

 spear has, even among these people, now been largely replaced by the 

 gun, but, meanwhile, they have become familiar with the method of 

 hunting from schooners. Still another cause is found in the fact, that 

 the Ahts are by no means so favourably disposed as other coast tribes 

 toward devoting themselves to regular occupation, such as cannery 

 work or logging. 



558. The Ahts are divided into a large nund)er of tribes and village 

 connnnnities, from many of whicih details as to seal-hunting have not 

 been obtained, but the following notes on some of them may be taken 

 as exanii)les of the whole: 



Hunting in canoes from the shore is still practised at Nootka Sound, 

 where the hunting season embraces about three months of the later 

 winter and early s])ring. The hunters go out a long way from shore, 

 and, when the weather Is fine, sometimes stay two days at sea. The 



