QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 163 15 



years. There are at present eight or ten roughly built houses, with 

 few and poorly carved posts. The people who formerly lived at the 

 entrance to Virago Sound are abandoning that place for this, because, 

 as was explained to me by their chief, Edensaw, they can get more 

 trade here, as many Indians come across from the north. The traverse 

 from Cape Kygane or Muzon to Klas-kwun is about forty miles, and 

 there is a rather prominent hill behind the point by which the canoe- 

 men doubtless direct their course. At the time of our visit, in 

 August 18*78, a great part of the population of the northern portion of 

 the Queen Charlotte Islands was collected here preparatory to the 

 erection of carved posts and giving away of property, for which the 

 arrival of the Kai-ga-ni Haidas was waited, these people being unable 

 to cross owing to the prevalent fog and rough weather. 



The village just within the narrow entrance to Yirago Sound, from Kun = village, 

 which these people are removing, is called Kung, it has been a substan- 

 tial and well-constructed one, but is now rather decayed, though some 

 of the houses are still inhabited. The houses arranged along the edge . 

 of a low bank, facing a fine sandy beach, are eight or ten in number, some 

 of them quite large. The carved posts are not very numerous, though 

 in a few instances elaborate. In J. P. Imray's North Pacific Pilot, a 

 few notes on harbours, &c, in the Queen Charlotte Islands are given, 

 and it is stated, in mentioning Virago Sound that the Indian village 

 " is to be built " inside a point on the western side of the narrowest 

 part of the entrance. This is where the Kung village now stands. 

 The date of the note is not given, but it is probably 1860 when the 

 sketch map of the Sound was made. 



About the entrance to Masset Inlet there are three villages, two on Villages of 

 the east side and one on the west. The latter is called Ydn, and shows 

 about twenty houses new and old, with thirty carved posts. The outer 

 of these, on the east side, at which the Hudson Bay Post is situated, 

 is named Ut-te-was, the inner Ka-yung. The Ut-te-was village is now 

 the most populous, and there are in it about twenty houses, counting- 

 bo th large and small, with some from which the split cedar planks 

 have been carried away, leaving only the massive frames standing. 

 Of carved posts there are over forty in all, and these, with those of the 

 northern part of the islands generally, show a considerable difference 

 as compared with those of Skidegate, and other southern villages. 



The styles of the northern posts are somewhat more varied, and the 

 short, stout form, with a sign -board-like square formed of split planks 

 at the top, is comparatively rare. Some of the Masset posts are merelv 

 stout poles, with very little carving, and at this place a thick, short 

 post with a conical roof was observed, none like which were elsewhere 

 *seen. At the south end of the Ut-te-was Tillage is a little hill, the 



