QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLANDS, BE,ITISH COLUMBIA. 15 



Port Townsend is a place peculiarly adapted to the prosecution of these investi- 

 gations. Its near proximity to Victoria, where hundreds, and sometimes thousands 

 of the northern Indians congregate every spring for purposes of trade, will enable 

 the observer to collect rich stores of material, in addition to what may be obtained 

 here by the same Indians when they visit Puget Sound. 



These Indians, heretofore, have disposed of all their curiosities and other pro- 

 ducts in Victoria before coming to the American side. But I am of the opinion 

 that hereafter they will bring their wares to Port ToAvnsend, having found by the 

 experience of the past summer that they can dispose of all their manufactures here. 

 During the past summer we have had Indians in Port Townsend from Kwe-nai-ult, 

 Ivwillehuyte, and Cape Flattery, on the American coast, and from Nittinat, Clyo- 

 quot, Nootka, and other tribes on the west coast of Vancouver's Island, as well as 

 the Haidahs, Chimseans, and other tribes north of Vancouver's Island as far as 

 Sitka. A steamship leaves Puget Sound once every month for Sitka, and the 

 United States Revenue vessels of this district make frequent excursions as far 

 north as Behring's Strait. Arrangements could undoubtedly be made by which an 

 authorized person could have conveyance to any point north that it might be 

 desirable to visit, and could remain as long as required. 



The field of observation on the northwest coast is very extensive, and cannot 

 be exhausted for many years. It is a field that would yield such rich returns to 

 ethnology, as well as to every other branch of natural science, as would amply 

 repay any outlay that the Government might make. The history of the coast tribes 

 is becoming of more importance every year, and a connected description of the 

 Aleuts and other coast tribes of Alaska, the tribes of Western British Columbia, 

 Washington, and Oregon would not only be interesting, but would be valuable 

 in assisting to solve that perplexing question of the origin of the North American 

 Indian. 



