THE COAST INDIANS OF SOUTHERN ALASKA AND NORTHERN BRITISH 



COLUMBIA. 



By Ensigu Albert P. Niblack, TJ. S. Navy. 



I. 



GHOBOGBAPHY OF SOUTHERN ALASKA AND NOBTHEBN BBITISH 



COLUMBIA. 



From Puget Sound in Washington Territory to Mount St. Elias in 

 southern Alaska, the coast line is broken into a continuous archipelago. 

 The Cascade Mountains, running throughout this territory parallel to 

 the coast line, leaves, adjacent to the Pacific, a strip of country about 

 150 miles broad and 1,000 miles loug, called generally "The is^orth West 

 Coast." Through the narrow channels of this archipelago winds the 

 steamer route to Sitka, a route unparalleled for its leugth and the wild 

 magnificence of its scenery. Warmed by Asiatic currents and moistened 

 by a phenomenal rain fall, this region is less rigorous in its climate 

 than generally supposed. Thickly wooded with pine, fir, spruce, and 

 hemlock, the vegetation spreads from the water's edge to the snow line 

 limit of the loftiest mountains. The forests are stocked with game and 

 the waters with food fishes. The soil, though not deep, is fertile, and 

 would itself support the native population without the other gifts with 

 which nature has so lavishly endowed them. In every crevice in the 

 rocks, where the soil is scantiest, a stunted tree rears its head. In the 

 spring the forests are gay with ferns, shrubs, and brightly colored wild 

 flowers, and in the summer a large variety of edible roots and berries 

 are'found in profusion. 



Dotted throughout this region are the winter villages of the Coast 

 Indians, whose ethnic variations are somewhat marked as we go north, 

 but who differ as a group quite materially from the hunting Indians of 

 the interior, and more sharply from the Eskimo. In contrast with the 

 fierce, revengeful Tinne, they are generally mild in disposition. In 

 physical characteristics they are shorter, the cheek bones are less prom- 

 inent, the nose is straighter, and the face rounder and fuller. From 



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