APPENDIX. 



Fifth Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. E. B. Tylor, 

 Dr. Gr. M. Dawson, General Sir J. H. Lefroy, Dr. Daniel 

 Wilson, Mr. E. G. Haliburton, and Mr. George W. Bloxam 

 {Seci'etary), appointed for the purpose of investigating and 

 publishing reports on the physical characters, languages, and 

 industrial and social condition of the NoHh-Western Tribes of 

 the Dominion of Canada. 



[PLATES X.— XV.] 



BemarJcs on North American Ethnology : Introductory to the Eepori on the 

 Indians of British Columbia. By Hokatio Hale. 



The Province of Britisli Columbia offers probably the best field of ethno- 

 logical research now to be found in North America. This distinction is 

 due to two circumstances, each of much importance. The one is the fact 

 that the tribes of this Province have thus far suffered less displacement 

 and change from foreign influences than those of any other region. They 

 still for the most part occupy their original seats, and they retain to a 

 large extent their primitive customs and beliefs. The other circumstance, 

 and one of special scientific interest, is the great number of linguistic 

 stocks, or families of languages, which are found in the Province. There 

 are, as will appear from the report and map, no less than eight of these 

 stocks, being twice as many as now exist in the whole of Europe. 



The importance of this fact will be appreciated if we bear in mind 

 that in America the linguistic stock is the universally accepted unit of 

 ethnological classification. It is not that the physical distinctions which 

 have elsewhere been proposed as the basis of classifications are lacking on 

 this continent. On the contrary, they are markedly apparent. In colour 

 the difference is great between the fair-skinned Haidas and Tsimshians 

 of the northern coasts and islands, and the swarthy, almost black, natives 

 of Southern California. Even more notable is the difference between the 

 short, squat, broad-faced, and coarse-featured members of the coast tribes 

 of Oregon and British Columbia, and the tall, slender, oval-visaged 

 Indians of the interior. The striking differences of cranial measurement 

 are shown in Sir Daniel Wilson's work on 'Prehistoric Man.' Hair vary- 

 ing from coarse, straight, and black to fine, brown, and curly ; eyes with 

 horizontal and eyes with oblique openings ; noses in some tribes aquiline, 

 and in others depressed, show varieties as great as those of colour, stature, 

 and cranial outlines. These and other physical distinctions, however, 

 have not been accepted by any scientific inquirer in America of late 

 years as grounds of classification of the native tribes, for the simple 



