168 b 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



New village of 

 Gold Harbour 

 Indians. 



Abandoned 

 villages. 



Cunishewa. 



of the coast tribes. No trace now remains in the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands of the custom of taking heads. It was formerly common on 

 the west coast of Vancouver Island. The oil above mentioned was 

 probably dog-fish oil, and contained in the hollow bulb-shaped heads 

 of the gigantic sea-tangle (Macrocystis) of the coast. 



On the west end of Maude Island, a feAv miles only from the Skide- 

 gate village, is now situated what may be called the New Gold Harbour 

 Village. This has been in existence a few years only, having been built 

 by the Haidas formerly inhabiting Gold Harbour, or Port Kuper, on 

 ground amicably purchased from the Skidegate Haidas for that 

 purpose. The inlet generally known as Gold Harbour, is situated on 

 the west coast, and can be reached from Skidegate by the nari'ow 

 channel separating Graham from Moresby Island. The voyage, how- 

 ever, includes a certain length of exposed coast, often difficult to pass 

 in stormy Aveather, and the Indians, though still preserving their 

 rights over the Gold Harbour region, and living there much of the 

 summer, find it more convenient to have their permanent houses near 

 Skidegate. The population of the place is about equal to that of the 

 Skidegate village, though its appearance is much less imposing, as the 

 houses which have been erected, are comparatively few and of small 

 size, and there are as yet few carved posts. The two villages on the west 

 coast, now almost abandoned by these people, are called Kai-shun and 

 Cha-atl, — the former situated near the entrance to Gold Harbour, or 

 Skai-to, the latter not far from the south-western or narrow entrance 

 to Skidegate Channel. From one or both of these villages five canoes, 

 with thirty-eight or forty people, came off to the Queen Charlotte. A 

 few women were in the canoes, from one of whom Dixon purchased the 

 ornamental labret which he figures in the plate opposite page 208 of 

 his volume. 



The village generally known as Cunishewa, is situated in a small bay 

 facing toward the open sea, but about two miles within the inlet to 

 which the same name has been applied. The outer point of the bay is 

 formed by a little rocky islet, which is connected with the main shore 

 by a beach at low tide. The name Cumshewa or Kumshewa is that of 

 the hereditary chief, the village being properly called Tlkinool, or by 

 Tshimsians Kit-ta-was. There are now standing here twelve or four- 

 teen houses, several of them quite ruinous, with over twenty-five carved 

 posts. The population is quite small, this jjlace having suffered much 

 from the causes to which the decrease in numbers of the natives have 

 already been referred. 



The decayed ruins of a few houses, representing a former village, 

 which does not appear to have been large, stand just outside Cumshewa 

 Inlet, beyond the north entrance point. 



