IN THE PACIFIC. 191 



old musket skulk about the woods, shooting 

 grouse on the trees, and disposing of them in 

 the market at Victoria. 



These Indians are a very degraded race, 

 more especially near the towns, where civiliza- 

 tion in the form of whisky and disease have 

 been brought to bear on them ; the women are 

 repulsively ugly, and heighten their loathsome 

 appearance by painting their faces vermilion. 

 The Indians of the interior are said to be very 

 superior to those near the coast : they are 

 wonderfully clever at carving in wood ; their 

 canoes are the most beautiful models, and it is 

 supposed that the lines of the first American 

 clipper ship were taken from one of them. They 

 are also expert in the manufacture of gold and 

 silver ornaments, and are capital miners, and 

 among some of the tribes cannibalism may be 

 added to their other accomplishments. 



Two kinds of grouse are to be found in the 

 woods of Vancouver's Island, the blue and the 

 willow grouse; the former are fine birds of a dark 

 slate colour ; they are generally to be met with 



