104 B GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



surprise and massacre of helpless parties, even including old people 

 and women, than in actual prolonged conflict. 

 Territory. The original territory of the Iiaidas, as far as tradition carries us 



hack, is the well-defined group of islands called by Captain Dixon in 

 1787 the Queen Charlotte Islands, but which the people themselves 

 call Mai-da-kwe-a.* These islands lie between the latitudes of 51° 55' 

 and 54° 15', with an extreme length of about 190 miles. They are 

 separated by waters of considerable width from the mainland to the 

 east and from the southern extremity of the territory of Alaska to the 

 north. At the present day, however, people of the Haida stock, and 

 closely related in every way to the tribes of the northern end of the 

 Queen Charlotte Islands, occupy also a portion of the coast of the 

 southern islands of Alaska, being the south end of the Prince of Wales 

 Archipelago, from Clarence Strait westward, together with Forrester's 

 Island. 

 Islands not It has been supposed that from the large islands adjacent to the 



pled frommain- mainland the Queen Charlotte Islands have been peopled, but this is 

 not the case, for the traditionary account is still found among the 

 natives of internecine wars as a result of which a portion of the 

 Iiaidas of the northern part of the Queen Charlotte Islands were driven 

 to seek new homes on the Prince of "Wales group. Their story is 

 borne out by other circumstances, and the date of the migration can- 

 not be more than 150 years ago. These Iiaidas living beyond the 

 Queen Charlotte group are generally known collectively as Kai-ga-ni, 

 which name is also among the Indians applied to the country they 

 inhabit. 



Frequently, among tribes pretty closely related in language, the 

 process of differentiation has gone so far that neighbouring peoples 

 disclaim any community of race, though on comparing their vocabu- 

 laries their national identity becomes apparent. This is not the case, 

 however, among the Haidas, who speak of all the people of their 

 nationality as Haida, adding when necessary the name of the region 

 inhabited by the tribe. A comparison of the Haida language with 

 those of the other tribes of the coast shows very few points of resem- 

 blance. 



Physical peculiarities and dress. 



Build and ap- Physically, the various tribes of the north-west coast differ to some 



fkySlfj 6 of extent, so that a practised eye may distinguish between them, but the 



differences are slight as compared with those obtaining between the 



coast tribes generally, and those of the interior of British Columbia. 



The Haidas are, however, markedly fairer skinned than most of the 



* On the orthography of Indian words see note in connection with the Haida vocabulary. 



