PHRENOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. 89 



by rage ; an action which they accompany with 

 spitting it out against the object of their indigna- 

 tion or contempt. They have very overhanging 

 brows, and retreating foreheads, large noses, full 

 lips, and wide mouths : in some cases they want 

 the two fore-teeth in the upper jaw, and while, in 

 anyone tribe in which the custom prevails, it seems 

 to be unanimous, it does not appear to be, by any 

 means, universally diffused along the whole north- 

 western coast. The unfavourable impression pro- 

 duced by the prevailing character of their physiog- 

 nomy, is confirmed, if their phrenological conforma- 

 tion is taken into consideration ; and certainly, if 

 the principles of that science are admitted to be 

 true, these savages are woefullv deficient in all the 

 qualities which contribute to man's moral supre- 

 macy. Let me, in justice, add, that while we found 

 them ignorant and incurious to the last degree, they 

 were generally suspicious rather than treacherous, 

 and not insensible to such acts of kindness as they 

 could comprehend. 



Upon all this extent of coast, we saw no single 

 instance of the use, or even existence, of any proa, 

 or canoe ; and my own opinion, strengthened by 

 personal experience, and enforced by the authority 

 of the most recent navigators, is, that the canoe is 

 not used upon the north-west coast. The negative 

 evidence, at least, is strongly in favour of this pre- 

 sumption ; for, while we saw the canoe in use in 

 Clarence Strait, — the western boundary of the 



