ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 551 



these ages they will have children who are not yet mature, but a portion 

 of these children will be adults. If the population were to remain stable, 

 the number of children would have to be considerably more than twice 

 that of the mothers. The actual distribution is shown by the following 

 iigures : — 



Nass River Indians 3 mothers of 35-45 years of age Lave 5 living 4 dead children. 

 Kwakiutl . . 14 „ „ 8 „ 22 

 Uta'mkt . . 8 „ „ 31 ,, 17 

 Ntlak3'apamuQ'6'e .8 „ „ 14 ., 20 ,, 



Nkamtcl'nEmuQ .3 „ „ 3 ,, 9 „ 



This table shows how exceedingly unfavourable the conditions are 

 among the Kwakiutl, as fourteen mothers have produced considerably less 

 than eight mature children. The figures prove also that a very slight 

 improvement of the sanitary conditions among the Ntlakya'pamuQ would 

 produce an increase of the population. 



The cause of the extremely unfavourable conditions among the Kwa- 

 kiutl becomes particularly clear when the mothers are grouped in decades. 

 When this is done we find the following result: — 



Age of mother . . . 20-30 30-40 40-50 60-60 60 and more. 

 Average number of children . 2-7 2'1 16 5-2 49 



That is to say, the maximum sterility is found among women who are 

 now from forty to fifty years old, that is, who became mature about 

 twenty-five or thirty years ago. This agrees closely with the time when 

 the Kwakiutl sent theii- women most extensively to Victoria for purposes 

 of prostitution. During the last decade a number of influential men 

 among the tribe have set their influence against this practice, and we see 

 at the same time a rapid increase in the number of children. The young 

 women who have now an average number of 2-7 children may hope to 

 regain the number of children which their grandmothers had. But the 

 only hope of preserving the life of the tribe lies in the most rigid suppres- 

 sion of these visits of women to Victoria, which are still continued to a 

 considerable extent, and in an effort to stamp out the diseases which have 

 been caused by these visits. 



II. The Tinneh Tribe of Nicola Valley. 



In his Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia ' Dr. G. M. 

 Dawson first called attention to a Tinneh tribe which used to inhabit the 

 Nicola Valley, but which has become extinct. Some notes on the history 

 of this tribe were given by Dr. Dawson according to information obtained 

 from Mr. J. W. McKay, formerly Indian Agent at Kamloops, who has an 

 extensive knowledge of the Indians of the interior. As parts of this 

 information conflicted with reports which I had received, and as it seemed 

 desirable to gather as much information as possil)le on this tribe, I 

 resolved to visit them in the course of my investigations. Owing to 

 pressure of time I had to give up the intended journey, and requested Mr. 

 James Teit, who is thoroughly familiar with the Ntlakya'pamuQ, to try to 

 collect as much information as possible on the tribe. He visited Nicola 

 Valley early in March 1895, and reports the results of his work as 

 follows : — 



^ Trans. Royal Soc. Canada, vol. ix. 1891, sect. ii. p. 23. 



