CRUISING THE FJORDS OF 
NORTH PACIFIC 
With Inland Trips for Variety 
BY D. W. AND A. S. IDDINGS 
Fellows of the Ameri¢an Geographic Society and of the Royal Geographical Society 
II—FRoOM THE ROADSTEAD OF Fort RUPERT TO KNIGHT’S INLET 
N THE low, sandy 
beach of Beaver Harbor, 
on the lee side of Van- 
couver’s Island, ‘and 
its northern ex- 
tremity, stands a group 
of barnlike houses, the 
Indian village of Fort 
Rupert. Bleached white 
by the sun and weather 
~Jthese rude dwellings 
stand out in striking contrast against a deep 
green background formed by the impene- 


‘SAM HUNT, THE HALFBREED SKIPPER OF 
THE ‘‘JOSEPHINE”’ 
trable semitropical forest which every- 
where covers the island’s rugged face, a 
virgin forest indeed, such as the schoolgirl 
defined as ‘‘one in which the hand of man 
has never dared to put his foot into it.’’ 
Once a mightier village, the population of 
Fort Rupert at present consists of some 
twenty or more families of the tribe of 
Indians known as the Fort Ruperts. They 
are a short, squat, stockily built people, of 
an olive color and features indicating their 
supposed Mongolian origin. Dressed in 
Japanese clothing the disguise would be 
complete. Asitis, they mostly affect the white 
man’s clothes, though in many cases in an 
abbreviated form; for instance, a gaudy pair 
of drawers quite often suffices a man for the 
trousers which seem so essential to us, 
while some of the older people still cling to 
the blanket as their sole apparel. They are 
mainly a fishing folk, and through unknown 
centuries of such life have become most 
proficient canoeists and sailors, even daring 
the voyage to distant Japan in their home- 
made barques in quest of seal and whales. 
Salmon, fresh as taken in the spawning 
season, when they run up the creeks and 
streams from the salt of the sea, and cured 
during the remainder of the vear, form the 
basis of their sustenance. Halibut, cod, 
herring, oolakan and other sea fishes are 
likewise taken and domestically consumed. 
This fish diet is varied by venison in the 
families of the more energetic, who care to 
hunt for the countless deer that abound in 
the wilderness of woods on all hands. And 
yet more fortunate is the occasional family 
which possesses a hunter of sufficient 
prowess and ambition to fetch home a fat 
wapiti (elk) from the mountain fastnesses 
of the interior. 
