
ASSISTING THE POLERS WITH THE TRACK-LINE—TSAU-WATI RIVER 
In winter the population of the vil- 
lage moves down the Inlet to an island 
just beyond its mouth, in Queen Char- 
lotte sound, where the rigors of weather 
are mollified by the trade winds. How- 
ever, the fierce cold at the head of the 
Inlet is occasionally braved by some of 
their number, detained by the decrepi- 
tude of old age or for the purpose of en- 
gaging in winter trapping and hunting. 
The location of the Tsau-wati village 
is ideal. The immense flat on which it 
stands is surrounded by snow-capped 
mountains,—the very heart of the 
Coast range. Several arms of the river 
ramify through the flat, affording the 
villagers perfect water communication 
to all its parts. The soil is a stiff clay 
with some sand, and the tract is for the 
most part thickly timbered with small 
bushy aspens and overrun with tall 
marsh grass, with frequent interstices 
of wild rice where the land lies lower 
and is marshy. The aspen copses are 
the home of many grouse, the wild rice 
patches the feeding grounds of honkers 
and ducks in myriads. Huge thickets 
of berry bushes fringe and climb the 
mountains, and here the grizzly comes 
for the ripening fruit from his fishing 
grounds in the near-by river, often 
rudely disturbing the patient Indian 
women gathering the berries. 
They were glad to see us, these simple 
aborigines, and gave us a hearty wel- 
come when we came ashore, after moor- 
ing our sloop a piece up the river. 
The beach held many dug-out canoes, 
large and small, fantastically wrought 
and painted at the prow, whilst many 
other like craft were being paddled 
about as the owners raised their nets 
that labyrinthed the river, and took the 
catch of salmon. The houses were 
built entirely of split slab wood roughly 
fashioned and put together, and were 
not of the large communal proportions 
common to the Indians of the outer 
coast, but mere hut-like affairs. They 
stood on stilts, some steps up, out of 
deference to the flood-time, when water 
covers the entire flat. 
There were two head men or tyees 
in the village. The chief one was 
called “Humsit” (One who gives many 
feasts), the other was “Seawit” ( Every- 
body paddles to his house). When we 
called, Humsit was engaged in boiling 
seal-blubber, and sat stirring a huge 
cauldron of the stinking stuff, now and 
again dropping in a fresh chunk from 
the mass which lay heaped up in 
one side of his house. Outside were 
stretched many bladders of the same 
animal. Humsit was a great hunter 
of the hair-seal which abounds in the 
Inlet waters but is of no commercial 
value, though these oil-loving natives 
prize it highly for its blubber, which 
they boil into oil, as Humsit was doing. 
The bladders are preserved for floats 
for use in whale-hunting. They affix 
