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Tous las autres exemplalres originaux sont f llmAs en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'iliustration et en terminant par la dernlAre paga qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la darniire image de cheque microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE ". le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film«s A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seui clich*, ii est film« A partir de I'angie supArieur gauche, de gauche A drolte, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^1 XIV.— Description of Vancouver Island. By its first Colonist, ^ W. CoLQUHouN Grant, Esq., f.r.g.s., of the 2nd Dragoon Guards, and late Lieut.-Col. of the Cavalry of the Turkish Contingent. Bead, June 22, 1857. 1. Position, General Aspect, and Geological Structure. The position and natural advantages of Vancouver Island would appear emniently to adapt it for being the emporium of an ex- tended commerce. It contains valuable coal fields, and is covered with fine timber. The soil, where there is any, is rich and pro- ductive ; the climate good ; and the singular system of inland seas by which it is environed teems with fish of every description Capable of producing those very articles which are most in demand in neighbouring countries, and offering, in its numerous safe and Guant'.s Description of Vancouver Island. 269 . !■« ill ii* !! ' I i '3 b hb^ for iht JcLTihii >ifih Syyal Geographiad Sih--^ hv .' iliuruy. Alhenui.lf Sxr!. London.. 1861 . ni BRITISH iNORt'h -"^tr^-t"^- ^' / Jfootka ^ Hootktt P A C I F 1 OCEAN -\ 48 ! _J Map of VANCOliVER ISLAND , witli the adjaceut Coast , to illustrate a description of the Island. byL*. Col.W.( .Graut. 1856 . i(> :ti .w to .^(1 lio -1 1 1 k 1 1 '^ »3 w -U Fuh-f f,T Ow Joura^i of ii itmnni'Ji Guant's Description of Vancoiivci' Islaud. 269 commodious harbours, almost unrivalled facilities for import and export, it would seem to require but a little well-directed exer- tion of energy and enterprise to make it the seat of a flourishing colony. The island is situated between the parallels 48° 20' and 51° north latitude, and in west longitude between 123° and 128° 20' ; its coast trends in a north-west and south-east direction ; its extreme length from Cape Scott to Point Gonzalez being 270 miles, with a general breadth of from 40 to 50 miles ; its greatest breadth is 70 miles, being from Point Estevan, at the south en- trance of Clayoquot Sound, to Point Chatham, at the northern extremity of Discovery Passage ; its least breadth, namely from about 20 miles south of Woody Point to Port Bauza, is 28 miles. There are, however, several places in which the arms of the sea, running inland from opposite sides of the island, approach very closely to each other. In the north, for instance, from Beaver harbour to Koskiemo, the extremity of an inland loch, running in immediately opposite, the distance is only 8 miles. From the AlbeiUi canal on the west, to Valdez inlet, called by the natives Saatlam, on the east, the distance is only 22 miles ; again, in the extreme south, a rough journey of about 7 miles brings the pedes- trian from Sanetch, on the Canal de Haro, to the end of Esquimalt harbour on the Straits of Fuca ; and from Nitinat, between Barclay Sound and Port St. Juan on the south-west, in a day and a half the savages pass over to the valley of the Cowichin in the south-east. The general aspect of the country throughout the island from the seaward is peculiarly uninviting. Dark frowning cliffs sternly repel the foaming sea, as it rushes impetuously against them, and beyond these, with scarcely any interval of level land, rounded hills, densely covered with fir, rise one above the other in dull uninteresting monotony ; over these again appear bare moun- tains of trap rock, with peaks jagged like the edge of a saw, a veritable Monserrat, forming a culminating ridge, which may be said to run with little intermission, like a back bone, all down the centre of the island, from the northern to the southern extremity ; nor does a nearer approach present one with many more favourable features in the aspect of the country. The whole centre of the island — as far as it has been at present explored — may be said to be a mass of rock and mountain, and of the little available land which is found in patches along the sea- coast, by far the greater part is densely covered with timber, the removal of which would be so laborious as to make the bringing of the said land under cultivation scarcely a profitable undertaking. The little open land which there is, however, is in general rich, and had the British Government thrown the island open to the exer- tions of individual enterprise, the gi'eater portion of such open land m m •Ml * 1 i 270 GuANv's Description of Vancouver Island, would doubtless, ore tlii?, liavo boon settled. It is not, linwtnor always tliat the wooded liuid is capable of cultivation aloii.s('a- cojist ; on the contrary, the reverse is the rule ; the greater portion of the land on the southern, and nearly all on the western coast, as far as it has yet been examined, consisting of barren rock, barely artbrding sufficient holding ground to the stunted tind)er witli which it is covered. The geological structure of the island corresponds with its nhysical aspect. The jjrevailing formation is that generally Known as tlie gneiss and mica-schist system : these rocks ))ro- ducc a broken and rugged siu'face, without being attended with any ])icturesque effect. Along the sea-coast on the eastward, from Nanainio to Sanetch, the jjrincipal surface rock is sandstone of the coal formation. From Sanetch to Escjuimalt gneiss prevails, diversified with beds of dark-c(doured limestone. Westwards of Esquimalt mica slate occurs, whilst from Rocky Point to Port St. Juan the principal rocks on the sea-coast belong to the clay slate and greywacke systems, interspersed however at intervals, few and far between, with cliffs of a white coloured close-grained sand- stone. These strata of sandstone lie generally tolerably level, with a dip of about 7° to the south ; they are covered with beds of lightish yellow finely laminated clay, of from 100 to 20 feet in thickness, over which is generally to be found a layer of from 2 to 4 feet in thickness of rich black vegetable mould ; the sandstone beds do not occur often on the south coast, seldom extend at a time for more than 2 miles along it, and in no case that I know extend beyond that distance into the interior. At Soke harbour the rocks on the east side are a coarse-grained highly-indurated greywacke, interspersed with crystals of hornblende and iron ])yrites ; on the west side a tolerably level bed of sandstone reaches to a distiiiice of about 1 mile inland ; at the back of this rises an amorphous mass of hornblende schist, which reaches an elevation of 700 feet. Ascending the bed of Soke river, we pass for a mile and a half through the sandstone strata, these aga n give place to greywacke. About 4^ miles up, a dyke of greenstone runs across our course, over the irregular traps or steps in which the river j)recij)itates itself in a series of foaming cataracts : this irruptive mass runs in a north-west south-east direction, and is about 2 miles in thickness. After passing it, the slaty formation again presents itself, the qua- lity being a close-grained chlorite slate of a bright green colour. The stratification is not clearly defined in this rock, but the general dip may be about 30°, the direction being to the south-west. At 10 miles up the river we come to a beautiful blue fine-grained argillaceous slate, with the cleavage very clearly and regularly expressed. The surface of these rock,3 has been so broken and (» rant's Description of Vancouver Tshtiul, 271 distorted by sonio groat subtorranean convulsion, tbat tb(; apparent plane of stratification is souietinies liorizontal, at otiior.s (juit(^ per- pendicular to tlie liori/on. Some JJ miles b(!yond tlie connnencc!- niont of tliis formation, we come to a trough of grey\va(;ke >liite, containing a lake of about G niibss in length, and with a general breadth of a cjuarter of a mile. On either side of this, with little or no level land intervening, rise steej) mountains to a considerable (ilevation — one of those on the eastern side reaching an elevation of 2015 feet. TIkj sides of this mountain are so entirely covered with detached blocks or fragments of granite, that it is impossible to see below them any solid foundation ; on the toj) a level plat- form extends for some 300 feet in an oval shape. Although the rock contains aggregated crystals of qiiartz, felspnr, mica, and hornblende, and no lamiimted structure is ajiparent, I am in- duced to call it a granitic variety of gneiss, partly because (conti- guous mountains decidedly exhibit the structure of the gneiss formation, and partly owing to the almost total absence of soil or any earthy substance — gneiss being a rock of nmch slower decom- position than granite proper : 1 have not indeed seen any pure granite on the island, except in detached blocks lying on other rocks along the sea-coast. These erratic blocks, sometimes of granite proper, but more frequently of syenite, are to be met with all along the sea-coast, in cubical masses of from 6 to 20 feet in thickness ; tliey generally lie close to the sea shore, within a few yards of high-water mark ; smaller blocks of similar quality are also found in the interior, frequently on the tops of the lower hills. From the above particular account may be deduced a tolerably accurate idea of the general geological formation, on the south coast of Vancouver Island. It is, however, difficult to convey upon paper a correct impression of the interior, the sight of which, seen from the first eminence that he ascends, causes to the explorer a hopeless elongation of visage. The prevailing rocks in the higher parts of the island are gneiss and mica schist, in the lower grey- v/acke and clay slate, the whole being interspersed and intersected in every direction by dykes of greenstone and hornblendic trap, the upheaving of which has produced such a distortion and dislo- cation to the surrounding strata as to give to the whole the ap- pearance of a vast boiling mass, which had been suddenly cooled and solidified in its bubbling position. Tin hills are steep and rugged ; the valleys narrow and shallow ; the rocks are sometimes bare, sometimes covered with a scant growth of timber : but in no case, that I have seen, does the surface of the interior of the island, either in its nature or its position, admit of being applied to any more useful purpose than to furnish matter for the explorations of a geologist. 1 '4k i *1 I* 272 Gu.vnt'.v Description of Vancouver Island. t.,- From tliost) region.^, wliiuli aio wild without being roniaiitic, mul wliicli, from tlio fihsonco oFany bold oiitliiu^ never approicli totlio sublime or the beautiful, the traveller loves to descend to the smiling tracts which are occasionally to ho met with on the sea- coast. In one of these Victoria is situated, and it is from ji visit to it, and its neighbourhood, that tourists deduce their favoural)lc ideas of the general nature of the island. 2. History of Settlement and Population. In 1843, early in the spring of the year, the Hudson Bay Com- pany first effected a settlement in Vancouver Island. They landed about forty men, under charge of Mr. Finlayson, and in a very s^hort time coustructed a picketed enclosure, containing tiie hnilil- ings usually appropriated by the Company to the storing of goods and to the accommodation of their servants. They landed at Vic- toria, called then by the natives Tsomus, from the name of the tribe which lives there : here they met with no opposition from the Indians, and, as soon as tiiey had finished their buildings, they commenced bringing sufficient land under cultivation for the sup- port of the establishment. As in settling there no idea was entertained by the Hudson Bay Company beyond starting a fresh trading post with tlie Indians, the establishment remained in statu quo until the year 18'19, when the granting of the whole island to the Company opened out a fresh field for their exertions ; and about this time, viz., in the conunencenient of the year 1849, there were some 80 acres in cultivation round Victoria. The draft of the charter for the granting of the island to the Company was laid before Parlia- ment in August, 1848, but the grant, however, was not confirmed until the commencement of the year 1849 ; and it was then given to the Hudson Bay Company imder condition that, within five years, they should have established satisfactory settlements on it for the purpose of colonization. The conditions under which the Company proposed establishing a colony were as follow : — They were to sell land at the price of 1/. per acre to all intending settlers, who were moreover to be obliged to bring out five men at their own expense, from England, or other British possession, for every 100 acres which they pur- chased, being at the rate of one man for every 20 acres; no single individual coming out was to be allowed to purchase more than 20 acres. Of the money arising from the proceeds of the sales of that land, 18*. 6rf. in every pound sterling was to be applied to the benefit of the colony, only I*. GJ. in the pound being reserved to the Com- pany to i-emunerate them, as it were, for their undertaking the agency of the disposal of the land. Colonists were to be allowed to w^ duty I on af multl nut ll pendl the il luiviii Cjhant'.v Desert jit ion of Vaucoitrer Island. 27 :i to work any coal tliey niiglit find on paying to tlio Conipjiny a (Inty of '2s. Gr/. por ton, and a duty of l(W. per load was to ho paid on all timbor exported. In .June, 184i), the first hatch of colonists inuler this system arrived, and they consisted of eight men brought out by myself; and from that day to this not a single other ind«'- pendent colonist has come out from the old country to settle in the island — all the other individuals, who have taken up land, having been in the employ of the Cmnpany, and brought out to the country at its expense. In the Ilarpooncr, in June, 1849, there were brought out by the Hudson Bay (Company eight miners to work their coal iuinea at Fort Rupert, at the northern end of the island, who were to bo paid a certain salary, from 50/. to GO/, per annun), and, in addi- tion, were to get an extra allowance for every extra quantity of coal they got. There also came out in the same vessel two addi- tional labourers to the Hudson Bay Company's establishment. On my arrival in the island all the land in the neighbourhood of Victoria and Esquinuilt, which comprised some 40 square mihis, and contained nearly all the available land tlien known, was re- served by the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound Companies. Match- ousin, distant 11 miles from Victoria, was pointed out to me as the nearest unclaimed spot on which I could settle ; not approving of which, as there was neither a harbour nor mill-power there, I was recommended to proceed to Soke, distant 26 miles. The ship Norman Morrison, in 1850, brought out about eighty souls, who were entered as immigrants. In 1851 the Tory arrived with about 100 hired labourers. Of these parties, shipped as emigi'ants, the majority find their way to the opposite American side ; and of the 400 men who have been imported in all during the past five years, about two-thirds may be said to have deserted, one-fifth to have been sent elsewhere, and the renifiinder to be at present employed on the island. By the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound Companies there are at present employed 45 at and in the neighbourhood of Victoria, 37 at Nanaimo, and 20 oflScers and men at Fort Rupert. The population of the Island in the end of the year 1853 was about 450 souls, men, women, and children ; of these, 300 are at Victoria, and between it and Soke ; about 125 at Nanaimo ; and the remainder at Fort Rupert. 3. Distribution of Land^ Nature of Soil, Crops, Climate. The gross quantity of land applied for in the island up to the end of the year 1853 was 19,807 acres and 16 perches, of which 10,172 had been claimed by the Hudson Bay Company, 2374 by the Puget Sound Company, and the remainder by private indi- duals. These lands may be classed as follows : — VOL. XXVII. T \y I Hi Mi . '1 I* ■hi 274 Grant's Description of Vancouver Island. I. 1. Land registered without any payment being made thereon 0,829 or this 7120 acres have 1h?cu registered hy the Iludiion Hay Comiiany, the remainder by private individuals. 2. Land rc!;istcrcd and deposit pairesided over by Mr. Baillie. There is good anchorage all over the harbour, which is commodious, and sheltered from all winds ; there is a rise and fall of 15 feet at spring tides, and of about 12 feet at ordinary times ; it is an excellent place to lay up and repair vessels ; the bottom is in general a soft mud. About 24 houses have already been put up by the Hudson Bay Company, and several more are in process of erection. For food they are prin- cipally dependant on the Indians, who bring sometimes as many as 63 deer in a day from Schesatl or Jarvis-Inlet, situated a little to the north of Nanaimo, and opposite to it on the main land. The land in the immediate neighbourhood is poor and sandy, but there is a prairie about 2 miles off of some 3 or 4 miles in extent, on which the soil is rich and the surface tolerably level. The Company have claimed 6000 acres, which may be said to include most of the available land in the neighbourhood ; all the remainder is covered with timber, and although there is no open land, there may be some 2 or 3 miles of |and which is level, between the sea coast and the mountains. At the south west extremity of the harbour, a river flows in ; it is about 50 yards wide at the mouth, with an average depth of about 5 feet, and a current of 4* knots per liour. About 7 miles north-west of Nanaimo along the coast, is another excellent harbour, called ' Tutuis,' where also the carboniferous strata prevail, and there is a seam of coal, reported by the Indians to be some 4 feet thick. South of Nanaimo there are 3 ranges of islands, running parallel with each other, between the mainland of Vancouver Island, and what is generally laid down as such on all charts hitherto published. The channels between these islands are too in- tricate for a sailing vessel of large size to attempt with j.ny certainty or security. The outer one, between 2 ranges of islands, is probably the best ; it expands occasionally into open bays, some 4 miles wide, but is twice contracted into narrow channels, through which the tide runs with frightful velocity. It is quite a mistaken (though general) idea that there is good anchorage throughout these iiilaud passages. I can only say from experience that I found no bottom at 20 fathoms in any \yAVt between Nanaimo and 280 Chant's Description of Vancouver Island. Sanctch. As a general rule, wherever the navigator can see a clay hank on the shore, he may there he certain of finding ancl)oi- age ; where the shore is rocky, anchorage is uncertain. The hottom throughout these passages is rocky and uneven, and in tlie narrows the current sets a vessel towards the rocks, without her helm having any power to guide her away from them. There is no avaiiahle land between Nanaimo and Sanetch, a distance of 40 miles ; all the sea-board consists of rocky woodland, and the mountains come down close to the coast ; there are some spots on the opposite islands which might be brought under culti- vation, the whole, however, is at present densely covered with timber. Sanetch is a long arm of the sea running inland some 10 or 12 miles ; there is not good anchorage, the water being deep, the arm, however, is perfectly land-locked, sheltered from all winds, and by going close to the shore vessels may anchor in tolerably shallow water. Within 400 yards of the shore in many places there is no bottom at 20 fathoms ; the country all around is densely wooded ; there are 3 or 4 small prairies ; perhaps, taken altogether, some 3 squar" miles in extent. The savages are nume- rous, but quiet and peaceable, and any one settling among them would find them very useful. Within an average distance of a mile all round the arm the mountains rise in a perpendicular manner, which quite forbids all hope of a settlement in the interior. At the north of the arm, however, on its northern shore, the Cowitchin River discharges itself. Tliis is the largest river yet known on the island, and flows through a long narrow valley con- taining a good deal of open land, and a considerable portion of available woodland. About 3 miles up the river there is an extent of some 10 or 12 miles, by perhaps half a mile broad, on either side, of rich open alluvial land ; this tract, next to the land at Point Holmes, is the most extensive uninterrupted tract of avail- able open land yet seen on the island. About 20 miles up, the Cowitchin River, in the month of May, is 160 feet wide, and from 3 to 4 feet deep, with current at rate of 3 knots per hour ; there is a little level and some open land occasionally appearing on its banks here ; the soil, however, is poor and useless and overflowed by the water in winter. The river te(pu!nt date to he without ('«nuidation. One thing is clear not an iota of conlldenco is to he |)laced in Indian reports, whether pro or con. Barclay Sound is a hroad hay open to the south-west ; its hreadth at the entrance is ahout 15 miles and it runs inland with nearly the same hreadth to a distance of 17 miles. A nuniher of rocky islets stretch across the entrance ; leaving, however, two hroad open chamiels, hoth towards the south-east side : one of these channels is ahout Iji miles hroad, it is close to the eastern shore of the sound ; the other Is ahout 3.1 miles hroad, and is a little farther to the north-west ; it cannot he mistaken, heing clearly visihle from the outside, and also distinctly marked hy a very singular rock, with only three fir trees on it, appearing precisely like the three masts of a vessel. The channel is innnediately to the north of this rock, and the sound is more open after entering within it. There are, however, a few islands interspersed all over it, most of thcni in- hahited hy small fishing families of the savages. There is anchor- ago near all these islets, with pood holding-ground, hut the water deepens suddenly, and vessels in search of anchorage have to stand very close in-shore. The Honolulu anchored in ten fathoms water within 60 yards of the heach, under the lee of an island called Satchakol, about two miles within the Ship-Rock above mentioned. On the eastern shore, ahout 4 miles from the outside, there is a small inlet, called by the natives "Tsuchetsa," with a small tribe living on it; the chief of whom is called " Klayshin." The i'lot is about 300 yards broad at its entrance, and brandies out into two arms from 70 to 80 yards wide each. The first of these arms extends in an easterly direction for about one mile and a half, sometimes narrowing to a breadth of 40 yards, sometimes expand- ing to 200, it ends in an open bay 500 yards broad. The land on either side is broken and rocky, though not high ; there appears little soil, and the timber is stunted and scrubby. There is no open land either on this or on the other arm, which runs in for about a mile to the south, parallel with tiie shores of the sound. The land on either side of that arm is level woodland, but the soil is not rich, and the wood worthless, being principally stunted Canadensis. The Indians declared that there was no other arm of the sea, running inland from Barclay Sound, and the author approached close to the supposed position of the Alberni Canal, without seeing any signs of such an opening ; he was prevented I (•uant'.v Dcucn'/ition of Vduconver hhiml, '' i'1 making a niiiiuto examination l)y darkness connng (tn, i)nt from wliat lie saw, he believes tlie allocation of the Alherni Canal to he an error, (ienerally speaking the conntry all ronnd Harelay Sonnd is broken and roeky, thickly eoveied with us<'le9s wood, aixl unlit for cultivation or 8ettlem(Mit. In the country of the Schissa- tu(!h, there are some clay dills on the coast, similar to those on I'uget Sound, but the hills come close down to the water side, and there cannot be a great extent of level eoimtry, i( there be any at all. There is no truth in reports which have been circulated of there being coal on Barclay Sound ; the Indians, however, describe some coal as existing at Munahtah in the country of the Cojiickle- satuch, some three days' journey into the interior, at the hack of Barclay Sound. The coal ia described as a seam four feet thick, cropping out from the top of a high hill : its ))osition, from the ap- pearance of the country, can scarcely be a place from which it would be possible to cxj)ort the mineral. The inhabitants of Bar- clay Sound may be about 700 in all. They are a |)oor miserable race, are very much divided both into trilx^s and small families. They are a harmless race, and live altogether by tishing, having few bows and arrows among them, and scarcity any muskets. Even the young men liave a singularly old and worn appearance, and they are generally speaking of smaller stature than their neigh- bours the " Nilteenats. ' At the back of Barclay Sound, on a small river, about two days' journey into the interior, live the only inland tribe whose existence is known of in Vancouver Island. They are called the " Upatse Satuch," and consist o'dy of four families, the remainder having been killed by the Nanaimo Indians. The inhabitants of Barclay Sound have nothing among them worth trading for, except during the fishing season. About 7 miles to the south-east of Barclay Sound, and between it and Cape Flattery, is a bay which has never yet been mentioned, called by the natives "Chadukutl." This bay is about Smiles broad, and runs back a considerable distance. A rocky barrier runs across the entrance, leaving a channel only about 100 yards broad, which no vessel should attempt to enter for the first time without having an Indian pilot. At the upper end of the bay runs in a tine river, about 200 yards broad at the mouth, and there is a frontage of about 3 miles of line level woodland, running apparently a considerable distance inland. The bay is about 8 miles deep, ^.nd its shores are inhabited by one tribe about 400 in number. The natives of Vancouver Island, on the south coast particularly, have a name for every point and promontory ; these being the parts which present themselves most prominently to them as they coast along in their canoes. In Soke Harbour every little point to which a white man would not dream of giving a name has its separate appellation, and the names, as in Gaelic, i i1 288 Ghant'.v Dcscn))tio7i of Vancouver Island. generally signify something either eonnected with the face of the country or with the trihe who inhabit it. In this habit of giving names to points, and leaving the indentures of the coast, or bays, witiiout names, the-*' savage aborigines present a reniarkablo contrast to the Arabs ; who travelling on horseback, and by land, take notice jjrincipally of the valleys and ])laces where they ni;iy procure water, passing the points of land unnoticed. Of this a striking instance may be seen in the nomenclatiu'e of the shores of the Dead Sea, where every " Wadi," or valley debouching into tl:o indentations of the shore, has its name ; whereas the neighbouriiig " lias," or point projecting out into the sea, is often left without a name. The next harbour north of Barclay Sound is Clayoquot, where there are established 3000 Indians, who are anxious to trade with the whites, but as yet none but Americans have been anK..ig them. A bar with from 4 to 6 fathoms on it runs across the entrance to the harbour. There is good anchorage inside, and shelter from all winds ; the arm runs a con:-iderable distance into the interior, but there is no open land that I am aware of, and the surface of the woodland is rocky and broken. Clayoquot is distant about 65 miles from Port St. Juan. From this northward to Nootka, thi>re is no land along the sea-board that has the appearance of being available for any useful purpose. Nootka Sound is a large arm of the sea, containing several small sheltered harbours ; there is IK) open land near it, and but little available woodland. TIk; Indians are numerous and sometimes hostile ; they seized an American vessel in the summer of 1852, but did not molest the crew. At Nespod, a little north of Nootka, coal is reported by the Indians. Nespod is called Port Brooks on the charts. At Koskeemo, north of Nespod, and opposite to Beaver Harbour, a seam of coal, 2 feet in thickness, has also been discovered, but neitlicr from its situation or nature can it be worked to any advantage. " There are three arms in Koskeemo, in either of which there is good shelter and anchorage for vessels. Immense quantities of fi^li are caught here by the Indians. Between Clayoquot and Nootka I omitted to mention Port San Raphael or Achosat, which is a bight of the sea, running inland 3 or 4 miles. There is no available land nea.r it, the water is deep, but close into the inner end there is anchorage near the shore and good shelter. From Koskeemo round the north to Beaver Harbour there is no land that we are aware of fit for purposes of colonization n settlement, the coast is rocky, though not high, and a vessel would do well to keep clear of it in winter. A very heavy sea is con- stantly running there, and there is no known harbour to which vessels can put in for shelter. I II mcr coaa and! scnl 1 H\ the Grant's Description of Vancouver Island. 289 It will be thus seen that the most favourable places for settle- ment are to be met with only on the east and south coast ; the west coast, north of Barclay Sound, has all a most unfavourable aspect, and even within Barclay Sound we have only Indian reports at pre- sent to trust to, for there being land of a nature fit for settlement. The Indian population of the whole island is stated at 17,000 ; tliey are in general favourably dis^posed towards the whites, and with proper superintendencr; are cfipable of being made very useful ; they all live by fishing, but take kindly to any kind of rough agricultural employment, though their laljour is not gene- rally to be depended on for any continued period, 'J'he lands, at present surveyed by the Hudson Bay Company, are included in a line, which may be taken from Sanetch to Soke Harbours ; the quantity of laud surveyed in detail is 200 square miles, of which one-third is rock or unavailable, the remainder is principally woodland. The proportion of open land will be seen from the above remarks, where all that is known is mentioned, and bears a very small proj)ortion to the woodland ; but where it exists at all it is almost invariably rich ; and the woodland, where it is at all level, is richer than the prairie ground, from the increased quantity of vegetable deposit. 5. Vegetable Productions and Natural History. The Flora of Vancouver Island is poor, and no new varieties of plants have been discovered in the country. The open prairie- ground, as well as the patches of soil which are met with in the clefts of the hills, are principally covered with the camass, a small esculent root about the size of an onion, with a light-blue flower, the Camassia esculenta of botanists. The camass constitutes a favourite article of food with the savages, and they lay up large quantities of it for winter consumption, burying it in pits in the ground in the same way as they keep potatoes. This root has strong astringent qtialities ; the savages prepare it for food by digging large holes in the ground, throwing in hot stones, on top of the stones ])lacing quantities of camass, and covering the whole up with sticks and mats until the root is sufficiently baked. The camass digging is a great season of " reunion " for the women of the various tribes, and answers with them to onr hay-making or liar vest home. The Gualtheria shallon, called by the Canadians "salal," is, next to the camass, the most common plant in Vancouver's Island ; it is a small shrub bearing a dark-blue berry, a little larger than the cranberry. The berry is very sweet and wholesome, and the savages are very fond of it ; it is called by them kungcholls, and it generally grows on dry and poor soil. The Arbutus uva ursi is another plant which abounds on the VOL. XXVII. U 290 Grant'^ Description of Vancouver Island. low liills, and, as its narao implies, together with the salal con- stitutes a favourite food of tlie bear ; tlio leaves of it are dried hy the natives and smoked in their pipes, mixed with tobacco, wIilmi they can get it ; the mixture is not unpleasant to smoke, and acts slightly as an opiate. In the marshy grounds in particular districts is found the Equisetum hyemale, or as the Canadians call it, " la Prele." This, in the scarcity of natural grasses, and in the absence of artiticial substitutes, forms excellent food for the cattle in winter. Tliey arc very fond of it, and will desert their pastures and make patl)s of several miles through the woods to places where it is to be nu't with. Several varieties of Campanula and Lupinus arc found in the woods and low grounds, and most fruits generally cultivated in Great Britain abound, both in the low lands and hill sides, wherever they can find any soil to support them. Among tlie^e may be mentioned the strawberry, black currant, gooseberry, and raspberry, n small variety of crab apple, and a small black wild cherry. It must not be omitted to mention that the potato is almost universally cultivated by all the savage tribes on the south of Vancouver Island, as well as on the opposite mainlaiul. They have had this valuable root for a long time among them, hut as it is never found except among tribes who have been at some time in the habit of trading with the whites, it is most probable tiiat it has been introduced among them by early traders, and that it is not indigenous to the country ; the qualities vary according to the nature of the soil ; they are, however, generally speaking, of the kinds ordinarily cultivated in Europe, and of these are eight or nine varieties ; the root generally is of a larger size than that attained by any potatoes cultivated in Europe. Potatoes and dried salmon form the staple food of all the natives who can procure them, the camass being by them considered more as a delicacy. They consume little animal food, being too lazy to hunt for it, except during winter, when they capture in nets and slioot great quantities of wild-fowl. Two species of bear are found in the island, the black and brown ; such of the natives as have muskets occasionally kill thcni, and bring their skins for barter to the Hudson's Bay Company ; they are numerous in most parts of Vancouver's Island ; the lie!>li of the bear is very coarse, and the foot is the only part of the animal, which, if well cooked, can be eaten with satisfaction by a white man, unless he be very hungry. Of deer three species are to be met with, the Cervus elaphus, or elk, the Lencurus, or large white-tailed deer, and a smaller species of black-tailed deer. The flesh of the elk is good nourish- ing food, that of the other kinds of deer is tasteless and insipid, and contains but little nourishment. Grant'.v Description of Vancouver Inland. 291 l^lack mid white wolves infest the thick woods, as also a small species of ])anther, Imt none of these are very numerous. Squirrels fiiid minxes are found everywhere in great numbers, and both liiiid and sea otters arc; occasionally to ho met with ; the latter is I oidy found on the north coast of the island; the animal isgenerall from 4 to 8 feet long, reaching, however, sometimes to a length of 1 2 feet, and its fur is very soft and delicate, being by far the most valuable of that of any animal fomid on the north-west coast ; it is g(Mierally of a j(>t black colour, though sometimes it has a slightly lirownish tint. Signs of the beaver have occasionally been SI en by old trajipers on Vancouver Island, but the animal has niiver actually been met with. Altogether there are very few animals producing valuable furs on Vancouver Island, and I shoidd conceive the value of the furs actually trapped and traded on the island cannot exceed 40/. per anniun. Of birds, they have the Tetrao obscurus ; the male a beautiful bird of bluish colour, rather larger than the Scottish grouse ; he has a loose outer throat like that of a turkey, of yellow colour, which he inflates whtm he utters his peculiar cry. This cry, some- thing like that of an owl, is heard at a lotig distance ; in uttering it while perched on one of the lofty fir-trees of the country, he fre- quently sounds his death knoll, as the creeping savage, lured by the weil-known sound, is guided by it, in his approach to his beau- tiful victim, whom, however, he never attempts to bag unless ho sits quietly to receive him : the savage, although he has a very quick eye, never dreams of taking a flying shot at either bird, beast, or man. Here is also another species of grouse, the Tetrao Richardsonii, and the drum partridge completes the varieties of feathered game. The Obscurus is found in the highest grounds like the ptarmigan of Scotland; the other two varieties freciuent the low woods; none of them are found in numbers and it takes a very good shot, and a still better walker, to make up a game bag of three brace in a day. Of small birds, there is the Mexican woodpecker, and a large misshapen species of bulfinch— note it has none; and indeed aves vocales may generally speaking be said never to be met with on the west coast of America. The settler in these parts misses equally the lively carol of the lark, the sweet choerful note of the thrush, and the melancholy melody of the nightingale ; still more will lie of gentle mind, as he wends his solitary way through these distant wilds, feel impelled to hanker after the pleasures of society, and to long for the charm of conversation with the fair daughters of his country. Of aquatic birds there is a vast variety. They have the Scaup duck, the Anser Canadensis, the golden eye, the common mallard, the teal, tlie crested grebe and numerous ot* ors. They completely II 2 I - <] ^J 292 Grant's Description of Vancouver Island. cover the lakes and inland salt-water lochs in winter, hut alto- gether leave the country in summer. There is also a large species of crane which frequents the marshes and open ground, and fiirnishos " material " for capital soup if you can hag him ; they are, however, very shy. A sportsman will also occasionally kick up a solitary snipe ; these latter are, however, extremely rare and migratory ; they are never met with except during a few days in the hegin- ning of February. There are several varieties of fir in the woods. There are the Douglasii (breve braccata) and the Grandis, which are the most common ; the former furnishes material for excellent spars ; the latter is a soft wood, very white, and open in the grain, it is diffi- cult to season it, and, from the irregularity of its growth, is cross- grained, and does not make good timber. The Canadensis, the Mitis, and the Alba, which flourish well wherever there is any depth of soil, all make excellent timber, but are none of them adapted for finishing work. There is also the large red cedar or America, which grows into a noble tree ; the Abies nobilis, and tlie Cupressus thyoides. The largest and most picturesque tree of the fir tribe in Vancouver Island is the Nobilis ; it is not, however, often met with ; growing only in rich alluvial bottoms, and in no place that I have seen conveniently situated for export. This tree sometimes reaches a height of 250 feet, with a circumference of 42 feet at the butt; the bark is from 8 to 14 inches thick. The white maple grows in all the low woodlands, and is abundant, but never reaches any great size, ^^'herever there is any open prairie land two kinds of oak, the Qucrcus suber clavigata and another similar species, somewhat darker in the bark and harder in tiie quality of the wood, are found ; the quality of the wood of both these kinds of oak is hard and tough, and they are excellently adapted to form the knees and timbers for vessels ; the trees, however, are small and scrubby, and hide their abashed heads before the towering Coniferae by which they are surrounded. A large species of Arbutus grows on the sea-coast anu on the banks of rivers ; it grows to a height of from 30 to 40 feet, the hark is smooth and of a bright-red colour, the wood is hard and white and takes an excellent polish. Only one kind of pine has as yet been found on the island ; the Monticola. I have only met with it near the source of the iioke River, and there in a position where it never could be made available for either use or export. The abo . e-mentioned kinds of fir all grow to a great height, from 150 to 200 feet and upwards, wherever the land is at all level, and where there is any depth of soil ; generally speaking, however, the quality of the timber of Vancouver Island may be said to be of an inferior description, and, with the exception of the cedar, much more adapted for spars or piles, than for lumber or for any finishing work. To the spectator from the sea-board, the 1 1 '■« le begin- Guant's Description of Vancouver Island. 293 island appears one mass of wood ; by far the greater portion, however, of that wood which so pleases the distant eye is utterly worthless, as well from its nature as from its position. The trees, chiefly Abies Douglasii'and Grandis, which form so impressing an appearance "en masse," when examined in detail prove to be mere crocked stunted scrubs full of knotty excrescences, and, except in the few lowlands previously mentioned, they grow on the sides and tops of rocky hills, where it is surprising that they can maintain their own footing, and from whence, owing to the singu- larly broken face of the country, they may wave defiance to the attempts of any engineer to dislodge them. Among the natural productions of Vancouver Island the native hemp must not be omitted. Specimens have been sent to England, and on its quality being tested it was found to be superior to Russian hemp. There is no great quantity of it growing on the island, it being more properly speaking a natural production of the banks of Frazer River, on the opposite (British) mainland. There is, however, no doubt that it might be very extensively cul- tivated in Vancouver Island, and in its cultivation is probably the way in which, next to salmon fishing, the labour of the native population might be most profitably employed. G. Ethnology. The native population of Vancouver Island, which has been roughly estimated at 17,000, is chiefly composed of the following tribes : — North and East Coasts. ] (In order in which they stand from North to JSouth.) QuackoUs .. I 1500 Newittees .. 500 Comuxes . . . . i 400 Yukletas .. .. ' 500 Suanaimuchs I 600 Cowitchins .. ! 3000 Sanetchs .. .. : 800 Other sinallerV ^„q tribes .. ../ Sonth Coast. (In order in which they stand from K;wt to West.) i Tsomass Tsclallums Sokes Patcheeiia 1 Senatuch ;:} 7500 700 75 60 100 West Coast. (In order in which they stand from Soiitii to North.) Nitteetiats Chadukutl Oiatuch Toquatux Sehissatuch Upatsesatuch Cojukk'satuch Uqluxlatiich 100\ 100 200 25 150 125 1000 500 700« Clayoquots .. ..• .. 3000 Nootkas 2000 Nespods 100 Koskeemos , 800 Other small tribes . . 465 935 i 8565 Total 17,000 III the names of these tribes the " ch " is invariably pronounced as by the Scotch. •>;■■ * Inhabitants of Upatseca, or Barclay Sound. 294 GiiANT'.f Description of Vancouver Island. From the above list it will be seen that by far the most powerful tribes live on the west coast or on the outward sea-board of the island. Of these the Clayoquots are the most numerous and powerful ; their sole intercourse with the \fhites hitherto has been carried on through the mediuuj of Brother Jonathan, who for tlio last three or four years has been poaching on our preserves, and trading oil ai 1 salmon from the natives situated at a distance from British establishments. They (the Clayoquots) are, however, friendly disposed, and profess thems-elves extremely anxious to traffic with King George instead of with Boston, " which latter," say they, " cheat us amazingly." On a late occasion, when a British vessel, the Lord Western, was shipwrecked at Achosat, a little to the north of Clayoquot, the crew were treated in the kindest possible manner by the Clayoquots, who fed and took care of them, until a vessel was sent to their rescue. Of the above- mentioned tribes, the Comux and Yukletah fellows, being savage uncivilized dogs, are the only tribes on the north and east coast, amongst whom a boat's crew of half a dozen white men, if well armed, might not trust themselves alone. On the south coast the tribes are all perfectly friendly, and with tiic exception of the Patcheena Scnatuch accustomed to daily intercourse with the whites. A single armed man may safely go alone among them. On th(; west coast, a small vessel on a trading expedition has nothing to fear from any tribe but the Nootkas, who are awkward customers and not to be trusted. Not long ago they took possession of a small Yankee vessel, which had gone in there to trade, seized the goods, and made prisoners of the crew, until they were ransomed by the crew of another vessel (also a Yankee) then trading with the Clayoquots. 'I'lie tribes who have establish- ments of white men fixed among them are as follows : the Quackolls (Hudson Bay Company coal establishment, at Fort Rupert ; which, however, will shortly be abandoned) ; Suanaimuch (Hudson Bay Company's Nanaimo coal mines); the Tsonui.-s (Hudson Bay Company's factory of Victoria); and the Sokes (small settlement founded by author of this sketch). The lands of the Sanetch, Tsomass, Tsclallum, and Soke tribes have been purchased from them by the Hudson Bay Company in the name of the British Government, leaving to the natives only a few yards of ground reserved around the sites of their villages. The tribes were paid in blankets for their land ; generally at the rate of a blanket to each head of a family, and two or three in addition to petty chiefs, according to then* authority and import- ance. The quantities of blankets given to the various tribes were nearly as follows : — to the Tsomass or Sougass 500, to the Sanetch 300, to the Tsclallum or Clellum and Soke Indians together about 150— total 950. The value of the blanket may be about os. in ;i Guant's Description of Vancouver Island, 2y5 England, to which if we add 100 per cent, profit, we have a value of iOs., or two dollars and a half nearly, as tlie price at which they were sold in the coiuitry in 184t)-50, when the distribution was made : — 1000 blankets at this rate does not seem a large price to pay to the aborigines for some 200 square miles of land, but it was fully an equivalent for what the land was or ever would have been worth to them. Four distinct languages may be said to prevail among the natives of Vancouver Island, and iham four principal languages are divided into a variety of dialects, so that each j)etty tribe tpeaks a patois of its own, almost, if not quite unintelligible to its nearest neighbours. From Cape Scott to Johnston Straits the northern or what may be called the QuackoU language prevails ; from Johnston Straits to the Sanetcli arm the eariteru language is sj)oken, the base of which is the Cowitchin ; from Sanetch to Soke, the Tsclallum or Clellum language is used with very slight variations, the root of that language being that s|)oken by the Tsclallums or (ylellums, whose principal abode is on the American shore opposite to the southern coast of Van- couver Island, from which they probably originally invaded and peopled it ; from Fatcheena or Port St. Juan again we find another and totally different language, which extends thence with several varieties of dialect all along the western or outward sea-board, as far as Clayoquot ; from whence to Cape Scott, a language similar to the Quackoll prevails. These four principal languages, the Quackoll or northern, Cowitchin or eastern, Tsclallum or southern, and Macaw or western, are totally distinct from each other, both in sound, formation, and modes of expression. The Cowitchins and Tsclallums can, however, understand each other occasionally, though with difficulty ; the Macaws and Quackolls can neither understand each other, nor can they make themselves understood by any of the other tribes; the Macaw language is not unlike that spoken by the natives of the Columbia River. A few of the numerals of the Macaws and Tsclallums arc sub- joined with a view of showing how totally distinct the languages are from each other. Mixcaw or Nittecnat 'J'sclalluni or 1 at J Nitteeuat Tsclallum 1. . 2. 3. 4. 5. G. tsawak akklo cliec bo kukkits clicclipatl iiitsa clii.ssa dik'ucli enoss tlkatchis tdiuii 8. 0. 10. 100. atlasem tsawasem cliluch umbakkiittl oijpeii atlpo tsokwas nazowitch 0. tsawasem tats tiikwh The other numerals are formed from these in the Tsclallum language ; in the Nitteenat, they merely say so many tens, &c., as Xleuchileha, 30 ; tatsilsha, 80, &c. No affinity has hitherto I 206 GnANT\ndly state by annual meetings, and interchange of presents ; this circle of amity however seldom extends beyond the twi) tribes nearest to each other, and some- times the two nearest tribes are tiiose which are in most deadly hostility to each other. Slavery is common among all these savages, the ])risnners of war being invariably either enslaved or deea])itatod. Wars how- ever have become much less freipuMit among them since the arrival of the white man in these parts. Decapitation used ])revionsly to be a favourite amusement ; they cut off the heads of the ])risoners, and placed them on ])oles as ornaments in front of their villages, where they remained as long as wind and weather permitted, (leuerally speaking the natives of Vancouver Island, ])articularly of the southern portion, are by no means courageous: their cha- racter may be described as cruel, bloodthirsty, treacherous, and cowardly. They are ready to receive instruction, but are incapable of retaining any tixed idea. Religion they have none ; they believe in no future state, neither had they, luitil some Jesuit missionaries came among them, any idea of a Supremo Being. They are, however, superstitions: they believe in the existence of spirits, and are nuich addicted to omens. Ivieh tribe has its Toniannoas, or juggler, whose business it is to perform certain incantations when any one of the tribe is taken ill ; these principally consist in j)er- forming various ridicuU)us antics, accompanied by singing and howling, not unlike the dancing dervishes of the Ivnst ; the cere- mony is accomjiauied with nuich noise, as the beating of boards, the knocking of sticks together. &c. Some of their ceremonies arc of a disgusting nature ; 1 think there is no design in any of them, nor anything worthy the inquiry of an ethnologist. As will beaten from the foregoing list, by far the most numerous tribes are, with the exception of the Cowitchins, those which are situated on the western coast : the western tribes are also the finest 3 is! (iUANt'.v /h'sm'/ition of Vancoriver Island. 297 fonncd (111(1 tjillcst. nice of" iiicii, and jihh fijciuTJiI nilf on hotli sidcH of the island, the f'artlii'r iiorfli we ^o, flic liner nicii we iiuict witli, as well ill loriii as in Htatuni iiiid in intelligence?. The stature of tlio trihes on the .south coast is diininutivcs varyini» from b teet 'J inches to 5 t'e(>t (i iiu^hes. Towards the north of tla? island aiiioii'^ the ('layo(|Uots and Qu.ickolis, men are lre(|U(Mitly to he in(?t with of 5 feet 10 iiKihes and over ; and still fju'ther north, in Qiiec'ii Ch.'irlotte Island, it is not unusual to see men upwards (»f (i iwX in height, and stout in |H'oj)ortion. Then; filso savajrcs an; to he met with with lip;htish hidr, and wIumi well washed of almost a florid complexion. 'I'he colour of the hair of the natives of Vancou- ver Island is invariidily either hiack or ihirk hrown ; it is coarse and strai<;ht, and allowed to grow to its full length, falling oviT tho neck, and forining not iiiifre(iuently the sole covering to tli(! head of tii(! savage in all weathers. Soiik; few wear a hat shaped like a mushroom, or laiiipet .shell-fish ; it is made of twi.sted (X'dar hark, or sometimes of hemp, 'i'heir featur'scrij)tion of Vancuuvcr Island. 209 soon as tlioy arrive at the ago of puberty, tliey take unto tlieni- selves a wife, if tliey can afford it, i.e., if tiieir father can buy one for thetn ; and subsequently tiiey add to tliis one, an unlimited number, aecording to the number of their blankets. Polygamy is jU'evalent ; generally speaking, however, it is only the ehiefs of tribes, or heads of families, who have more than one fair one in their harems, and they sometimes have as many as eight or ten. The coiiunon men of a tribe, generally sj)caking, cannot afford to purchase more than one wife, and to her they not unfrequeutly become attached, from living constantly together, and paddling about in the same canoe, &c. The ordinary price of a wife is ten bliinkets and a musket ; chief's daughters, however, sell somewhat higher. Fretiuently little girls of 5 and 6 yearsold are bought up by intending fathers-in-law for a few beads, and brought uj) witli the tribe into which they are bought, until fit for marriage, and consequently for sale by the old rascal who has bought them, to some of its members, at advanced j)rices. All the savages of the north-west coast are great gamblers, and will stake their blankets, their canoes, and even their wives on the hazard of the turning up of one side or other of a piece of cut wood, which is their die. They have several games of chance, and in their natural state gambling may be said to be their prevailing vice. They arc not Nomads, but have fixed habitations. Each tribe lives together, within a large palisaded enclosure, formed generally of stakes or young fir-trees, some 12 or 13 feet high, driven into the ground close together. These palisaded enclosures are sometimes 100 feet long by 'dO broad, or larger or smaller according to the size of the tribe ; they are gcmerally roofed-in with large slal»s of fir or cedar, and in the inside, each family arrange their own mats, whereon to sleep ; these mats are made of cedar bark or of rushes plaited, and when they move on visits, or from one fishing station to another, they pack them in their canoes, and thus carry a complete house, in their own way, about with them ; some of the mats they fix u]) above them for shelter from the rain, and the remainder they place on the ground under them ; for a short time, these mats form a very good shelter from the weather. Nearly every savage possesses a bow of yew, and arrows tipj)ed with jagged fish-bone ; the use of them, however, has been very fenerally supplanted among all the tribes by the muskets of the ludson Bay Comj)any, of which a great number are annually traded, and given as payment for labour. The bows they have are short ; when they fire they hold them horizontally, and they are not generally very expert in the use of this, their natural weapon. Fishing is their principal pastime, as well as their principal means of livelihood, and the salmon season, in the months of August and September, is their great annual jubilee: they catch the Siilmon W 300 Ghant'a- Description of Vancouver Island, witli nets, spears, und hook ; the nets are sfiuaro in sliapc, and made of the liomp grown on Frazor River ; tliey sink tlieia lu-- tween two buoys on one side, and tiieir eanoe on the other, and phicing them in tiie run of the fish, haul tliem up suchlenly when they se(! a shoal piis>ing over them. Their spears are of various kinds, the most common is a long stick, split into a fork at the bottom ; others they have tipped either with barbed iron, or with jagged fish-bone : which tip being loosely bound on, but fastened otherwise to the shaft by a long string, comes off when a fish is struck, and allows it to play. Their hooks they get from the white man, and their line is made of a long coil of the root of sea-weed, or floating wrack. In October and November the herrings frequent the bays in great numbers, and are cfiught by the natives with a long stick with crooked nails on it, with which they literally rake them into their can(te3. The herring is ya'ccisely similar in quality to that caught on the west coast ot Scotland, though somewhat smaller in size. There are seven different kinds of sahnon ; the general run of their size is about thirty to the barrel ; some fish are, however, much larger, and indeed are as fine both in size and in quality as any salmon in the world; they are sometimes caught of a weight of 50 or GO lbs. AV^liales frequent the coasts during the ordinary seasons of bay- whalii.^ in these seas. A few right whales are captured by the natives of the west coast, who attack them in several canoes at once, and tire them out, and so slaughter them, by driving into their bodies, whenever they appear above water, a number of darts with air-bladders attached ; they tow the carcases to the shore, and try out the oil into wooden tubs by means of heated stones. Whales, however, are not found in sufficient numbers on these coasts to induce a regular w haling vessel to come there in quest of them. Whatever difference there may be in the languages of the various tribes of Vancouver Island, and however great their hostility one lowards another, in one cbaractt!ristic they almost universally agree, and that is, in the general filthiness of their habits. No vigstye could present a more filthy aspect than that afforded by the exterior of an Indian village; they are always situ- ated close to the water-side, either on a harbour, or some sheltered nook of the sea-coast, or, as in the case of the Cowitchins, on the banks of a river ; they are generally placed on a high bank so as to be difficult of access to an attacking party, and their position is not unfrequently chosen, whether by chance or from taste, in the most picturesque sites. A few round holes, or sometimes low oblong holes or apertures in the palisades, generally not above three feet high, constitute their means of egress and ingress : tliey seldom move about much on terra firma, but after creeping out of Chant's Description of Vancouver Island. 301 their liolos lit oiici; launch their cmiiocs and cmhark therein. A pile ot'eoekle-shells, oyster-shells, ti.>h-l)ones, pieces of ])ntri(l meat, old mats, pioces of rag, and dirt and tilth of every description, the accunudation of generation;?, is seen in the front of every village; half-starved eurji, cowardly and sna])|)ish, prowl ahoiit, occasionally howling; and the savage himself, notwithstanding his constant ex- j)osnre to the weather, is hut a moving mass covered with vermin of every description. (Generally sjjeaking, when not engaged in fishing, they ])ass the greater portion of their time in a sort of torpid slate, lying inside heside the'r (ires ; the only people to ho •seen outside are a few old women cleaning their wool ')r making baskets. Sometimes a group of determined gand)lers are visible rattling their sticks, and occasionally some industrious old fellow mending his canoe — all the canoes being invariably liauled up on the beach in front of the village. The iiriug ot a shot, or any luuisual sound, will bring the whole crew out to gaze at you ; they first wrap their blankets roinid tlu!m, and then sit down (m their lnuik(M's in a position ])eculiar to tlumiselves ; they are doubled up into the smallest possible compass, with their chin resting on tlieir knees, and they look precisely like so numy frogs crouched on the dunghill aforesaid. Most tribes, besides the main village, which is placed in some sheltered spot, have a fi.shing village, in a more exposed situation, to which they resort during suTnmer, and the fishing grounds of some trihes extend to a distance of several miles from their fi\(Ml habit;'tion. 1 he Tsomass, for instance, have fish- eries on Belle- Vue l-!,uid, some 15 miles distant from their winter village. And the Cowitchins and Sanetch both have fishing grounds at the mouth of Frazer River, on the o))posite side of the Gulf of Georgia. To these fishing stations they emigrate in the salmon season, with their wives and families and all their goods and chattels, leaving their villages tenanted by merely a few old dogs, who fill the air with their doleful ululatious, and either live by hunting during their masters' absence, or, as is more frequently the case, die of hunger. Each tribe has a burying-ground chosen generally on some bare rock vis-a-vis to their villages ; thither they carry their dead, and bury them in some square wooden boxes, on the top of which they place large heavy stones ; they bury them in the crouehed- up sitting posture which they generally occupy during life. A blanket is wra})ped round them, and with them are buried all the valuables, bows, arrows, pots, kettles, knives, &c., which they possess while in this world ; the boxes which contain the bodies are not imbedded in the ground, but are merely placed on the top of it, or on the rock, as may be, and covered with stones ; there is generally some grotesque figure painted on the outside of the box, or roughly sculptured out of wood and placed by the side of it. For 302 CiHANt'.v Dcsrrijifi'oii of Vauvourcr Tslaml. somii (lays aftor divitli tlu> n'lations hum siilinou or venison Ix^forc tlu' tonil) : tills, say thov, is food for tiu>ir |)art(>(l hrotlicr, who would otluM'wiso foci huuijcr. 'I'his, and the custom of huryiujr the arms and goods of the dcccasi-d with him, would imply ,i belief in some species of future state: one thiuu; is certain, their ideas of a future state are very vague, and they stand in no awe of it. I have stated somcnvliere al)ovi> that they helieve in no future state, because, notwithstanding sonu' signs to the contrary, several natives of various tribes have expressly told me, us far as their own belief was concerned, that they did not helieve in anv such state, and that when a man was once killed the sum total of his race was numbered, or, as they expressed it, be was " hoy," i. e. finished. Others again, though c(inparatively few in ninnher, will tell you, that all the men that a man kills go before him to he bis slaves in the next world. 'I'he fact is they have no fixed idea on the subject, and each savage starts whatever tluM)ry harmonizes best with your manner of (juestioning him, 'I'he analogy whicli the rudely carved figures by the sides of their sepulchral boxes bear to our sculptured tond)stones and moiuunental brasses, shows liow great a similitude exists everywhere in the njstural customs of the various races of the great family of man. Almost the only interesting custom which jtrevails among the sivage races of Vancouver Island is the fasting cenMiiony which precedes the reception of a youth among the " f(pn/3o/', ' or warriors of his tribe. For some days previous to this important event, he retires alone among the low hills near the sea-coast, and carri(>s small stones up these hills, which stones he arranges in small circles on the top of tl.cm. If this cereuu)ny has any meaning, which I much doubt, no white man has Intherto been able to fathoni it. After having remained among the hills as long as Inuiger will allow him, generally from three to four days, the youth remrns to his village, provides himself with a knife, and rushes up and down the village, brandishing the said knife, and wounding with it some of those who come in his way ; he works himself up to a state of phrenzy, foams at the mouth, and after a time sinks exhausted. The Tomancus, or medicine-man of the tribe, then tak"s him in liand, and, after a short series of choral howling and raj)pieg of sticks and paddles together, the youukcr is duly declared to be a man and a warrior, and to be fit to take his phK'e at the council fire of his tribe. His father then takes measures to provide hiiu with a wife, and presents him with a toga or blanket, in which he struts about with all the pride of newly aoiuired dignity. Hitherto bis garments have been sulFiciently easily supplied ; generally, for the first four or five years, no adtlition is n)ade to the provisions made by nature iu that department, 'except such as smoke and dirt accumulate ; by-and-bye a little shred is added from tlio I C(| a riiiANT'.-J Description of Vaiwoumr Tslund. 303 I skirt i)r()l)iil)ly of the piirciitiil f^iiriiicnt. ; |)('r]i)i|):J af'tor tins ji sliirt limy 1)0 (;()vott'les, together with his bow ami fish-spi^ar. Rum and the rifle nave so well done their work in eradicating tlie juorigines of ()regon, that these lofty jjine trees, wiili their ill-omened fruit, are now the sole evidence to bo met with of the existence of upwards of 100 villages which formerly lined the banks of the ('olumbir.. Two miserable tribes are now the sole occupants of the banks of the river for a di:-tance of 250 miles from its mouth, and these two are now rapidly disappearing from the- face of the earth, and making room for its occupation by their white brethren. It appears decreed that the white and red man are never to live in amity together ; the history of the coloniza- tion and settU ment of every portion of North America is but a continued chroi.iele of forcible occupations ; it matters little whether the means em[(l()yed be arms or negctialioii, the jioor savage is invariably in tlie end driv^en out of his patrimony, and the negotia- tion merely consists in the dictation of certain conditions by the more powerful, which the weaker has no choice but to accept; and which conditions are violated by the invader whenever it suits his convenience, or whenever he wishes a more extended boundary. Hitherto, in Vancouver Island, the tribes who have principally been in intercourse with the white man, have found it for their interest to keep up that intercourse in a nity for the purposes of trade, and the white adventurers have bocii so few in number, that they have not at all interfered with the ordinary pursuits of the natives. As the Colonial population increases, which, however, it is no', likely to do very rapidly under the auspices of the 304 Guant's Description of Vancouver Island. Hudson Bay Company, the red man will find his fisheries occupied, and his game, on which he depended for subsistence, killed by others : the fisheries will probably cause the first difficulty, as all the tribes are singularly jealous of their fishing privileges, and guard their rights with the strictness of a n)anorial preserve. Collision; will then doubtless take ])l;u'e, and the Tsclallum and the (^'owitchin will be numbered with the bygone braves of the Oneida and the Delaware. The natural duration of life among the savages is not loii"', seldom exceeding fifty years ; nideed a grey-haired man is very rarely seen ; this may be partly accounted for by the horrible custom, universally prevalent, of the sons and relatives killing thiir parent when he is lo longer able to support himself. Sometimes tlu; wretches commit this parricide of their own accord unquestioned, but generally a council is held on the subject, at which the Tomanous or medicine-man presides. Should t'- "' decide that the further existence of the old man is not i» ' ti\ • iofit of the tribe, the judges at once carry their own sentciice into execution, and death is produced by strangulation by means of a cord of hemp or sea-weed. Not less horrible is the custom, very prevalent among the women, of endeavouring to extinguish life in the womb ; from this and other causes premature births oeciu" with great frequency. The object of the creatures would seem to be partly to save themselves from the ])aius of child-birth, and partly to avoid the trouble of bringing up a large family ; from whatever reason it may be, the native Indian woman seldom becomes the mother cl' more than tw'> and very rarely indeed of more than three, little savages or savagesses, whilst, on the other hand, the half-bred woman is almost invariably extremely prolific. The union of the white man with the North American sfr sge has seldom if ever been attended with good results; the oF '.:i ' ; invariably possess all the faults of the savage, rendered en. li? more acute by the admixture of some slight additional intelilgvii' from the white parent ; the men are paosionate and vicious, the women stupid and ill-tempered, and instances are rare of either sex doing justice to the seeds of instruction which are j)lentifully scattered among them by missionaries of various persuasions. The savages have a name for every flower, for every tree, and for every herb of the field ; even the male and female ot various plants are frequently distinguished by them by diiibrent denomina- tions : to this knowledge of the names they hold an equally creneral knowledge of the uses +0 vbich the plants may be app! . ' and this knowledge they make use of not only in healing disc .-"^^ but in pre|)aring and administering the most subtle poison&. An obnoxious member of a tribe is frequently carried away by means Grant'* Description of Vancouver Island. 305 lOlinf of poison, and the employment of such means accords well with tlie cowardly, but at the same time cruel nature of the savage. Their code of justice is like that current " among them of old time — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." If blood is shed retribution is quickly called for, but the avenger's arm is speedily stayed by a gift of blankets ; indeed, I have known instances where the head of a tribe summoned his band to demand vengeance for a murder committed by a neighbour on one of his humble dependants. The neighbouring chief, intimidated, ofteved to surrender the murderer to be dealt with as the avenger pleased : but no — that was not what he wanted — he had come expecting to receive blankets as compensation, and blankets he would have. Where, however, one of the chiefs own family has been killed it is another affair, and blood must flow to quench the feud : some- times base blood is accepted, and if so, an additional peace ofli*ering nmst be made. Not long ago the son of the Soke chief stabbed in anger a relative of the chief of the Tsclallums of Chuchwaetsin ; the man died of the injury, his compatriots made a great clamour, and swore that nothing but the life of the Soke chief and that of his son would satisfy them. Instead of the chief's son, a poor Ukletah slave was accepted as the propitiatory victim, and some canoes and blankets were thrown into the bargain. The miscreants carried their poor victim in triumph to Chuchwaetsin, among "shouts and yells and the firing of guns and pistols ; arrived at their village, they carried him from their canoe into their pallisaded enclosure, and there they kept him for two days bound on the ground, cramming just sufficient food down his throat to keep him alive. Having sufficiently enjoyed the poor creature's mental torture (for he knew he was to die, and the suspense must have been dread" ful), they proceeded to the last act. Two men held him, while another cut his throat over a pail or tub, in which they caught and preserved the blood ; the head was then severed from the body, and placed on a pole as an ornament in front of the village ; the tragedy thus over, the savage brutes besmeared themselves with the blood of their victim, and conceived that they had done a great action; for some weeks afterwards they were in a great state of excitement, and daily painted themselves with the blood as long as it lasted. In such transactions as these the real nature of the savage shows itself — experience has proved their nature to be indelible — can it ''\en be wondered at that the civilised nations with whom they have been brought into contact have preferred their extirpation to any amalgamation with such truculent villains ? Amongst the peculiarities of the native tribes of Vancouver Island, it may not be amiss to allude to their national dances, which are of two kinds — on"} in which the whole tribe join, singing VOL. XXVII. X 306 Grant's Description of Vancouver Island. as they dance, the other in which the performance is confined to two or three chosen individuals : in the former the pcrforiiK'rs arrange themselves in a circle, in the centre of which one or tun foremen stalk by themselves; their business it is to lead the step and the chaunt ; thoir dance is simply { jumping up and down, with both legs from the ground at the faije time, which movcmont they accompany with an incontinent brandhhing of arms (for when they dance, like the modern Highlanders, they are generally armed, though sometimes for the arms bunches of feathers are substituted). Sometimes the jumping is dispensed with, and the dance resolves itself into a mere waving of the body to and fro, keeping time to the monotonous chaunt, with which they accompany thcmecive?. There are several various chaunts, but the dancing is in all cases much the same ; these chaunts generally consist of five or six bar?, varying but slightly from each other, they beat time in the middle of the bar. The chaunts are so arranged as to be made use of iis paddle songs. When in their canoes they sing them frequently, keeping time to then by beating their paddles at each stroke against the sides of their canoes. Melody they have none, there is nothing soft, pleading, or touching in their airs ; they are not, however, without some degree of rude harmony, though it must be confessed that neither the music nor the dancing of these savages hath any charms whatever for the senses of civilized men. The dance and the chaunts are both somewhat similar to those in use among the modern Greeks, When these savages dance they are always painted either with black or vermilion ; they do not pair.t their bodies, but only their faces ; the women, besides painting their faces, draw a line of red down the 'centre of their head, where their hair is parted. Generally both men and women have the centre cartilage of the nose bored thrtrngh, and a piece of the inside shell of the muscle fixed to it, with a piece of wire or string ; the use of ear-rings of the same material is also common among them. Sometimes the women join in the dances, as mentioned above, but more generally they form a separate circle, and chaunt and jump by themselves. The second description of dance referred to is much more interesting. A small screen is hung up across the corner of a mat hut or palisaded enclosure ; two fellows get behind it, and emerge on a signal being given by the master of the cere- monies ; they are generally youths, they are not armed, but have bunches of feathers in their hands, their hair also being plentifully stuck with feathers, and their faces painted all over. Sometimes they wear a black mask. They first move round each other with a slow movement, something between a step and a crawl, chaunting the meanwhile, and accompanying their chaunt with occasional liowls or whoops ; the pace then quickens and is diversified by an occasional jump ; one party acts the conqueror whilst the other Grant'* Description of Vancouver Island. 307 personates the vanquished, one pursues and the other retreats, the former waving liis hands over the latter ; hoth move round in a circle, and as they occasionally turn and foce each other, their movements are not destitute of a certain pantomimic grace. When they h;' e nearly exhausted tiiemselves, the master of the cere- monies, who has also been chaunting all tlie time, shouts out " Waklay," and the dancers then retire behind their screen to take breath for a fresh performance. Although blankets now form the current coin among most of the tribes, previous to the advent of the white man tliey had a certain currency of their own, which currency still exists, and among the remote tribes forms the prevalent mode of exchange. The coins they made use of were the little oblong shells, about an inch long and two lines thick, found in the harbour of Clayoquot, and also in other bays along the north-west coast of the island ; these shells are sometimes made up into belts, sometimes into broad necklaces for the women ; they set a great value on them, and I conceive they are synonymous with the belts of wampum, made use of by the north eastern and prairie nations. These customs of presenting belts of wampum in token of friend- ship, and of electing a certain man in the tribe to the office of Tomanous or juggler, are the only two points of similarity which have occuiTcd to me as existing between the savage of the nortli- west, and his red brother in the east. The habit of tatooing the legs and arms is common to all the women of Vancouver Island ; the men do not adopt it. All attempts to introduce the truths of the Christian religion among these savages have hitherto proved abortive. " Celui qui va planter les semences d'instruction dans le ccBur sarvage, a choisi un terrain vraiment stcril," such was the remark made to me by Pere Cheroux, a Jesuit priest, and he grounded his remark on reason and experience. The Ciiketats, amongst whom his labours were wasted, are one of the most intelligent tribes of Oregon, living on a small tributary of the Columbia ; they have several traditions among them, none, however, of any value to the ethnologist, and they are in the habit of reciting fables, somewhat after the manner of Asop's fables, of which the following may be taken as a specimen. " A fox, once upon a time, saw a kingfisher skimming over the water, and, ever and anon, barely touching the surface with its wings, and then rising again. I am a stronger animal than that bird, says the fox, and 1 think I am equally active ; I will, therefore, try whether I cannot perform the same feat. He accordingly takes a run, to give the greater impetus to his spring, and jumps upon the water ; but instead of skimming over the surface, he sinks to the bottom and is drowned." This, say they, is a sign that no one should attempt x2 308 Grant's Description of Vancouver Island. an action which he is not qualified to perform. The moral, in short, answers with them to our " ne sutor ultra crepidam." But to return : all efforts to convert these savages have been in the end unsuccessful. What Elliot and Brainherd could not per- manently accomplish, other more recent and equally zealous mis- sionaries have failed to effect ; the savage breast seems incapable of entertaining any fixed idea ; they lend a ready attention in the first instance to the exhortations of the missionary, but, like tlie seed which fell upon stony ground, it bears no fruit, and all that is learnt is never practised and is very soon forgotten. The efforts of Pere Lamfrett, a priest of the order " Des Oblats de Marie," were unceasing ; — at first he was all enthusiasm, " plus que je vois ces sauvages, plus je les aime," said lie. The savages were amused with the pictures which he showed them illustrative of Holy Writ, and were somewhat pleased with the sacred songs which he taught them. Some of the l^somass women learned without much diflH- culty to cliaunt portions of the service of the Catholic Church, and he instituted among them the ceremonies of baptism and of mar- riage, without at all, however, making them comprehend the true nature of these institutions. When they found there was nothing to be made by their attention to his harangues, their attendance gradually flagged ; and when the fishing season came, all his converts, male and female, evaporated, and preferred the pursuit of salmon to that of religion. On their return, they were more obdurate than ever; the charm of novelty had disappeared ; dis- gusted, he declared that they were " gates par la compagnie," and determined to try his success among a tribe who had bad less intercourse with the white man, and whose souls he fancied would not be so much absorbed in ideas of filthy lucre ; he accordingly shifted his tent from among the Tsomass to the Cowitchins, a powerful nation who had the reputation of being great warriors, and who had very little commerce with the whites. They received him gladly, indeed he went among them at their own invitation, ■^nd they came with an escort of 20 canoes to fetch him. At first hv, progressed wonderfully ; in two days he baptized upwards of 2000 of the tribe, and in a subsequent day he married 700 of them. At the close of the day the worthy Padre's hands were actually tired with the action of sprinkling the holy water. He thought he had discovered a taste for sculpture among them, and, with his religious instructions, he intended to teach tliem the fine arts, and to have schools which should rival those of Italy ; he also intended to teach them to make bricks, and to cultivate the ground in the European u>anner. The poor Padre's hopes were, however, raised only to suffer a proportionate downfall ; they listened with avidity only so long as he had a blanket or a fish-hook to give Ghant'a- Desa-iption of Vancouver Is/and. 309 them ; when his supplies were exhausted, so also was the patience of his hearers ; or, as he himself expressed it in the jargon, " haelo iketa, haelo tilekum," " no goods, no men." As had been the case with the Tsomass, so his Cowitchin converts could not with- stand the temptations of the fishing season, and the month of August left him preceptor to only a few old women. Subsequently the Cowitchins, finding that he received no fresh supplies of goods to distribute among them, sent to the neighbouring chief factor of the Hudson Bay Company, to beg that lie might be removed or otherwise they would kill him. Tims terminated Pere Lamfrett's missionary campaign. He was a man full of zeal for the church, but during the whole time he was among the savages he never succeeded in eradicating any evil custom, or in introducing any new good one. It is true, for a time, he persuaded some of the chiefs who had a plurality of wives, to put away all except one ; he did not succeed, however, in many instances in eftecting this at all, and when he did the benefit was questionable. E. g. : Freezy, a chief of the Tsomass, had two wives ; one old and a little fiassee, to whom he had been married several years, and by whom le had a family ; the other young and pretty, and to whom he bad only been married a few weeks. On being told by the worthy Padre to put away one of his wives, which does he discard ? The latter one, to whom he could not be married, according to the law of the white man, having already been married (by the Padre) to the other? Not a bit of it. He retains his fresh mistress ; and discards his old wife, the partner of his youth and the mother of his family. This is one of the many instances of the want of success of any attempt to cram religion red hot down the throats of the savages. Some of the wretches will, from the hope of gain, affect an atten- tion to the religion of the Chiistian, which they do not actually feel ; but I am convinced that no permanent impression has as yet been made on the savages of Vancouver Island, although a bishop of the Catholic Church, and three or four priests, some of them Jesuits, are constantly labouring in the good cause. One of these priests is of opinion that the Cowitchins worship the sun ; I think it however improbable that so grovelling a race should have chosen so noble an object of worship. The contemplation of almost any religious belief tends to expand the mind, and to elevate our nature by fixing a portion of our ideas upon more glorious objects than any contained in this world. Nothing can be more low, grovelling, and brutish than the ordinary ideas of a savage, as far as he gives them expression, they appear to act more from instinct than from reason ; there exists among them no traditional traces of any par- ticular religious belief which has been held by their forefathers ; neither, beyond a few miserable superstitions, and a childish belief ■ i: 310 ( J rant's DencHption of Vancouver hIaiuL in omens, have I been able to discover any signs of a belief in the interposition or supervision of a higher than mortal power. It will, I think, be conceded as matter of history, that the fruits, if any, of missionary labours in North America have perished with the labourers. If therefore the raj)id spread of a doctrine be taken as evidence of the favourable interposition of the Deity in support of that doctrine, it perhaps is not illogical to conclude from the fact, that the blessing of success has not attended the labours of God-fearing, zealous, and intelligent men, in their constant en- deavours, during a period of two centuries, to introduce the pure streams of Christian doctrine, amidst the muddy waters of savage unbelief; that, therefore, it may be the will of God, that these savages should remain in their unconverted state. A nation of men without a religion appears to be an anomaly ; still the experience of some years, among the north-western savages, has impressed me with the opinion that these beings have no reli- gion ; and that, for some inscrutably wise purpose, the Almighty Ruler of the Universe has decreed that they shall fulfil the daily course of their lives, with the laws of nature for their moral code, and with no higher motive of action than that which is furnished by the impulses of instinct.* 7. Trade. Annexed is a statement of the trade of Vancouver Island during the year 1853. The number and tonnage of vessels is exact; the nature of the cargoes is also minutely specified ; the values are a close approximation, if not quite exact. Vessels merely bought up generally sufficient to pay for their cargoes, either in goods or specie. All the trade bona fide with the l?land has been between it and San Francisco, the cargoes of salmon exported in the Hudson Bay vessels to the Sandwich Islands having been from Frazer River. The fisheries all along the outer coast of the Island are no doubt excessively valuable ; salmon abound in every inlet that I have mentioned , to an extent almost unknown in any other part of the world ; herrings, also, are so numerous as to be caught by the natives with a sort of rake or long stick with crooked nails fastened on it. Cod has also been caught at the mouth of the straits and within them ; also mackerel on the north of the Island. There is a cod bank also in the Gulf of Georgia, near Nanaimo ; and at Frazer River, in the short space of a fortnight, during August, the Hudson Bay Company put up about '2000 barrels of salt salmon. Hallibut and sturgeon are caught in large quanti- * See also, ' Incidents of Travel in Vancouver Island ; ' by Paul Kaue, Esq., of Toronto; in the Canadian Journal, July, 1855. — Ei). Ghant'« Description of Vancouver Island. 311 tics by the nati/es, both off Cape Flattery and at Port St. Juan. The Sandwich Ishinds supply markets for fish to a limited extent, but San Francisco and the Spanish Main would consume any quantity that could be sent down to them, and fish in barrels might also profitably be exported to Australia. The fisheries, coal, and timber undoubtedly form the principal resources of Vancouver Island, as its nature is not at all adapted to pastoral, and not to any extent for agricultural purposes ; still a farmer, who thoroughly understood his business, and who possessed within his own family the means of labour, would undoubtedly do well there. Wheat was selling at three dollars per bushel, butter one dollar per pound, and other produce in proportion. Piles are s(»ld to the shipping at six cents per foot, squared timber at twelve cents ; spars also fetch 12 cents without being squared, as they are diffi- cult to get out uf the woods. In the annexed list of imports and exports (pages 312, 313), the cargoes of two vessels of the Hudson Bay Company, arrived from England, the Norman Morritson and the Otter, are omitted, their value being unknown to me ; as alco the cargoes which the Nortnan Morrisson and Mary Dare took home to England. What they brought out, however, was principally supplies for their own servants, V'^ictoria being a depot for all their posts in the interior; and what they exported may be said to have been altogether the produce of these posts, and of the coasting voyages of the steamer Beaver along the maiidand ; they therefore can scarcely be in- cluded in the commerce of the Island. 8. Opposite coast of North America. T\\Q mainland opposite Vancouver Island is much similar to it in appearance : the general aspect, if anything, is more forbidding. On I'razer River there is a considerable tract of low pasture land on either side, which might be made available for the breeding of cattle. There are some four square miles of open land in the neighbourhood of Fort Langley, which is situated some sixty miles up Frazer River, and there is also a tract of land, a few miles sc^uare, in the neighbourhood of Point Roberts, close to the boundary line. Along Thompson River, at a distance of about iiOO miles from the sea coast, there is a magnificent extent of pasture land reaching along Thompson River ; it may be said to extend from Frazer River to Lake Okanagan, at one of the sources of the Columbia River ; this is the only fine tract of land as yet known on the British mainland in these regions. It may comprise some 300 miles, all of it nearly excellent open pasture ; there are, how- ever, no means yet known of getting to it, except up Frazer River, and from, that up Thompson River. Thompson River 312 Guant's Description of Vancouver Island. c Cl3 ID C o 1 -e B t/i I E o .a g S o 2 cQgflQgg.sgg «|Q o SQ t- 00 <5 ■ _____ ^M GS| »M p-l f-4 ^^ ^ op OS ^ ^ I ^ O 00 00 O to ep m lo (N •* ■^ _ ^ ■»*' o in •* •* r.osaoooSt-in'^Of" — — M (N M So-. w ^ •* mioinvob- 00 00 oo to •I ' C4 0\ 9> o>eo«o»»r~t-ff>«ot^^''5 '2^ . s ►^ Grant'* Description of Vancouver Inland. 313 u ?.^ o£ iJi g a 01 El B ■ s s ■ -o c CD ' .S • ■ ^-8 . 5 .IS ^ : -S o ^ "3 Qi a !^ n ..„ 3 2 a .2 a g a ■* O in Tf •* 1^ O Tji o «^ G»l CO I-- tJ« ic W (N (N •* n •« • o o ■ I o 5 ' •OS! a a • B ^ o u B r - all t go S s-a-Srs S s Si S-i 8 J •-I ©3 §i?-^*3^ 3 ncki % ^ :§ ; ^ 9 w EC .a >,'h l"^ fe 9 5 B,P g 3 2 $ » ? S^ eg I .1 M •a p a a 9 c2 B go bo B •3 1.1 a ■=? ns . . . B «a o _ o .a loo-le^g o o ■ • o 6 '^S '^ O ^ Q^ J eg fl o a o "3 B g [X. 00 _ S 'f f~ • - -^ Tt ■* •* in 91 91 i-i '-1 OO 91 M CO (O o f-i m tn tft — 91 91 GO >n r- i-i O 94 !0 9) .-4 94 n rH 94 o - 'S = 1 a •So o -CI B C4 . it J. w-a 1 4-* B V ki ? a a S o o o in 9f o" — ' n 91 -H a o a V •3 2i !| a if I a a ^ cA a a 'a *5 a V "" n *' ".3 O ^ S 9 91 o o o o> in o o ■* I— 00 in U •-! 00 ;o .a 91 — 9 -a a> : a a 814 Ghant'* Description of Vancouver Island. !i runs Into Frazer River, at u tlistanco of about 200 miles from the soa coa?t. Along tliu Gulf of Georgia, opposite Vuncouvor Is-land, and within the lUJineroua inlets whieh exift there, no avail- able land is known. The native?, it is true, report large extents of open mountain pat'ture in the neighbourhood of Tehesatl or Jarvis Inlet, on which browse numbers of a species of large white guAi with short straight horns. The extent of this open country, if it exist at all, must however be very limited, from what we can see of the configuration of the neighbouring country. Jarvis Inlet is situated nearly in latitude 49° 50' and 50'^ north. Between Biu'rard Canal and IIo^' Sound, /. e. on the southern bhore of Home Sound close to the entrance, a small seam of coal iias been found, lying in sandstone ; the sandstone strata are of considerable thickness, the quality of the stone is similar to the sandstone of Bellingham Bay, being hard, white, and close grained. No workable seam has as yet been discovered here, that which was seen having been only a few inches in thickness ; it is very probable that further examination may lead to a discovery of the same seam of coal, underlying the superficial strata, as that which is found in Bellingham Bay. The coal-field of Bellingham Bay, which is within the American possessions, being about 20 miles south of the boundary line, is by far the most 'uable deposit of coal which has as yet been discovered on t' rth-west coast ; several seams have been seen cropping out ... ...o surface, of a thickness varying from G inches to IG feet : the largest, IG feet in thickness, is a magnificent seam, the whole of it is sound workable coal even at the surface, and doubtless, as tiiey follow the seam deeper, it will be found to improve in quality. A portion which had been taken from the surface (about GO tons) had been carried to San Francisco, where it was found to burn well, and to be a strong coal fur steam purposes, its power in evaporating water being considerable. Tliis large seam lies between layers of very close grained light coloured sandstone ; it crops out on the sea beach, and there is a good anchorage in 3^ and 4 fathoms water close to it. The greatest objection to the working of the seam is the large angle of inclination at which it lies, it being inclined in a south-ea*t direction with a dip of at least 45°. It was first dis- covered by two workmen who were felling logs for a neighbouring saw-mill. In passing a tree on the side of a bank which had been torn up by the roots, they noticed portions of coal adhering to the roots, and on further examination, under the roots which had been torn uj), they found exposed the outcrop of this fine seam several feet in thickness. Being resolved to make the most of their dis- covery they lost no time in making the particulars public, and sent such glowing descriptions to San Francisco, accompanied by speci- mens of the coal, that a competition was immediately raised, and a CiuANT'i Deacriptioa of Vancouver Islainl. 315 race ensued between two or three parties, who were anxious to arrive the first in the tiehl. Tlie claim was sold for s-onie 10,000 dollar.-', but the pnrties who had bought it, Vaukeedikc, were merely speculators, and had neither money enoujj;h to pay for their [)urcliase, nor to work the mine. Two or three bubble eompanies lave since been formed, none of whom have as yet been able to bring the mine into practical operation. Another Mining Company, called the Puget Sound Mining Association, was formed to work coal on an adjoining claim : tln'y commenced two or three scams, the largest of which was about 4 feet in thickness ; this however also was a bubble company, and from want of funds and of management were unable to carry on their business. They were upwards of four months loading a small brig. Altogetiier about 140 tons of coal had been exported from Ikdlingham Bay up to 1st January, lb54. Rellingham Uay is one of the finest harbours within the Straits of Fuca ; it is perfectly sheltered from all winds ; there is good anchorage all over it in from 3 to 10 fathoms, and there is ample space to beat in and out. A small river, called the Summy River, runs into it, up the banks of which there is some little rich alluvial soil thickly wooded. It is probable that the Suuuny is identical with the Samalkaman River, which takes its source near Lake Okauagan, and passes through a fine prairie country near its source. The land all round Bellingham Bay is poor and sandy ; there are two small prairies, about a square mile each in extent, the remainder is thickly wooded with iir and cer'-v ever, never be an important station for shipping, as whore there is shelter the water is very shallow, and vessels with a heavy draught of water cannot approach within li miles of the beach. Between Dungeness and Cape Classet, the white man h;is not hitherto intruded on his red brother. There are no good harbours along this extent of coast, although there are two or three places, as the False Ness and Clallum Bay, where a vessel might find shelter from the west and south. Neeah Bay close to Cape Classet is the only anchorage worthy the name of a harbour : here a vessel may lie in safety sheltered from almost any winds. The whole northern coast of Oregon, as far as it abuts on the Straits of Fuca, has an extremely inhospitable look. Snowy moun- tains, one of which rejoices in the name of Mount Olympus, rear their jagged peaks to a height of some 13,000 feet, and form a sufficiently picturesque coup-d'ceil to the spectator as he views them from Vancouver Island. Between these and the sea, low rugged broken hills interpose a barrier to cultivation or settlement ; no prairie land is to be met with. On the banks of the Elwha, however (opposite Bentinck Island), a considerable extent of rich alluvial soil thickly covered with woodland gratifies the eye of the explorer, and on some little clear patches there, where the sub- stratum is a rich bluish clay, the natives cultivate the finest potatoes perhaps to be met with in any portion of the north-west coast. It is said that a pass exists up the Val de los Angelos to the Chiliaelas River and Shoal watii- Bay, thus communicating with the Columbia Valley. The existence of such a pass is, how- ever, very problematical md tiie unbroken contour of the moun- tains gives no external i -ition of it. Explorers in the Elwlia (.ountry are recommended to be very careful of the natives, and on no aocount to go alone, or, if in company, unarmed. The author iiunself once got into serious difficulty with the Elwha tribe, having rossed ovi from Soke to obtain some of the Equisetuni hyemale, which grow.-; on the banks of their river, as fodder for his cattle during winter. T ley are a wild savage race, who are at war with all th( r neiglibours, and not always unsuccessfully, as sundry ghastly ' opines in front of their village indicate witli horrible distinctness. The P^hvhas are probably a branch of the Tsclallums or Clellums. indeed they speak the same language. \Vith the exception of the Elwha country, t> whole of the south coast of the Straits of Fuca is inhabited liy Clellums, until we come to Neeah Bay, wliere the country is owned and inhabited by Macaws, who speak a totally diflerent language. It is a singular fact, that in each diffi^M-ent tribe a different 320 Grant'^ Description of Vancouver Island. I!i i . ! ii \t r ft physiognomy is clearly traceable ; the difference is slight among neighbouring tribes, and amounts to little more than the various shades in a family likeness ; a stranger might pass it over, but it is readily detected by the habitue of the country. The above hastily written sketch will be found to contain a tolerably exact account of Vancouver Island, &c., as far as it is at present known ; the particulars giver are all the results of personal observation, and the statistics may be depended on as tolerably accurate, if not precisely correct. It will be seen that Vancouver Island possesses in itself several resources, which, if developed by a free people, under free institutions, would tend to make it a very flourishing colony. The high price of land, when equally good land can be got for one-^fth of the sum in Oregon, has prevented numbers of people from settling there, who were otherwise favourably inclined to do so. In the spring of 1851, Mr. Blanchard came out as governor of the island ; he remained little more than a year, when he resigned, being in very bad health. His loss was very much to he regretted, as he wai a gentleman in every way qualified to fulfil the dvties of his position, with credit to himself and with proppcrcus resulio to the couitry over which he 'vas ''ppninted t<» preside. The present governor has been very successful in his management of the native tribes, whom it is his policy generally to conciliate ; on one occasion particularly, when one of the Cowitchin Indians had shot a white man, he thoroughly effected the object in view, that of punishing the guilty for the outrage committed, without causing any unnecessary bloodshed. A prison also has been built of wood. The examples of Oregon and of California furnish us with proofs that the rapid growth of new countries is best fostered by giving scope and encouragement to the exertions of individual enterprise, and tho progress of a country will be founded on the surest basis when that country shall have been settled by bodies of independent freeholders accustomed to rely on themselves for support, and when the benefit of free institutions shall have given to each individual an interest in the general prosperity.