Official Report of the Exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands for the government of British Columbia Part 7

DOCTOR MODEETS.

My visit to the chief medicine man south of Ma.s.sett was accidental.

While making a trip of several days alone with my canoe, I sought shelter from a severe storm on a little islet in Skidegate Inlet, where I pa.s.sed a sleepless night in the rain and wind. It was only a short distance to the Indian village of Gold Harbor, where, the following day, I landed and spread out my blankets to dry on the beach. Among the Indians squatting in front of their houses, I noticed one whose hair was tied up in a knot on the back of his head, the size of a large hornets' nest, of which it reminded me. Approaching nearer, his face was seen to be marked with small pox, a piece was missing from his nose, and altogether he presented a more remarkable than attractive appearance. I found him, however, quite talkative, and soon engaged him in conversation to the extent which my limited knowledge of the Chinook would permit.

He told me that he was a medicine Tyhee, and inviting me into his house, showed me the curious medicine dance, dresses, wands, rattles, charms etc., worn and used by him when practising the healing heart. The charms were carved out of bone, and represented whales, bears, ravens, land otters, eagles, thunderbirds, etc., and various other animals and fish, each accredited with special virtues for the cure of certain diseases. Selecting several which I desired to purchase, I placed in his hand the pieces of silver I was willing to pay for them. He counted the money, and then the charms over and over again, dwelling at length upon the wonderful curative powers of the latter, but finally accepting my offer with the addition of a small potlatch. The occupation of the medicine man is now nearly gone, only a few old people having any faith in their practice. Modeets is the only doctor I have seen on the island who has kept the vow taken when entering upon the profession never to cut or comb his hair. His wife observing that it was an object of interest to me, unloosened the great bang, when the thick tangled ringlets spread over the old man's shoulders and reached down below his waist. To further gratify my curiosity, the chief put on a portion of his fantastic regalia, and executed a medicine dance. The doctor then dressed me in his wildest and most barbaric costume, when _by special request_ I imitated his performance, in a manner which "brought down the house."

A GAMBLING SCENE.

The Indians are among the most desperate of gamblers.

They not infrequently play themselves out of everything they possess, leaving the game nearly, or quite, naked.

Chief Edensaw told me of an Indian who, having lost his money, canoe, blankets, and all his clothing, gambling at the sea otter hunters'

camp on the west coast, then plunged naked into the forest, and succeeded in reaching a village on Virago Sound, the only one, so far as known, who ever crossed that portion of the island. A game of this character was in progress at Gold Harbor. There were no police to interfere or missionaries to discourage, and the players sat down in two rows, facing each other, on the beach, with boards in front. No cards or gambling sticks were used, only the tooth of a whale. This was taken by the challenging party and pa.s.sed rapidly from one hand to the other, his movements being accompanied by loud singing, the beating of sticks on the boards, violent gesticulations and contortions, in which all joined, the betting being simply in which hand the tooth remained at the close of the manipulations. I reached this interesting scene just as an Indian was taking off his shoes to wager on the game, which he soon threw on to a pile of clothing in the centre of the group, containing coats, vests, pantaloons, suspenders, shirts, etc. A big, one-eyed fellow was fast stripping the party when I left, and if his luck continued, would soon have reduced the Gold Harbor natives to their original state.

A REMARKABLE VISITATION OF CRABS.

I have seen a good many crabs in other waters, but never one-hundredth part as many as suddenly appeared on the sh.o.r.e of Sterling Bay, in the latter days of July. The lowest estimate by any one who saw them, was tens of thousands. The bottom in places was so thickly covered that nothing but crabs were visible, and Messrs. McGregor and Smith reported having found them two or three feet in depth. They were not the coa.r.s.e, overgrown, worthless sea crab, but a good eating variety, which, for some unknown cause had come there in such great numbers, for the purpose casting their sh.e.l.ls. They remained about ten days, when they left in a body, leaving a winrow of their old sh.e.l.ls on the beach. Mr. Alexader McKenzie reports a similar visitation at Ma.s.sett, the first known during his six years' residence on the island.

RETURN TO Ma.s.sETT--VISIT FROM CHIEF EDENSAW.

Through the kindness of Capt. Meyer, and Purser Williams, of the steamer "Princess Louise," my whole outfit, men, canoe and supplies, were taken to Ma.s.sett, at which point I resumed the examination of Ma.s.sett Inlet, which being concluded, we explored in succession Virago Sound, Naden Harbor, and all the bays, inlets and harbors of the west coast of Graham Island, and the streams flowing into these waters. I had just taken possession of the quarters kindly a.s.signed me by Mr. Alexander McKenzie of the Hudson Bay Company, when we received a visit from Edensaw, oldest and ranking chief of the Hydah nation, who has erected the largest number of carved poles, given the greatest feasts, and made the most frequent and liberal potlatches. Though about seventy-five years of age, he is still quite vigorous, and being well dressed in a suit of broad cloth, would easily pa.s.s for a much younger man. He is the last of a race of powerful chiefs, his ancestors having been bold and aggressive warriors, making many captive slaves from the other coast tribes. He is also a distinguised brave, but never fought with his own people, and has always been friendly to the whites. On one occasion he risked his own life to release the captain and crew of a small vessel, the "Susan Sturgess,"

which had been made captive by the Indians of Ma.s.sett. He has succeeded one after another of the chiefs of various parts of the group by virtue of the erection of carved poles to their memory, bountiful feasts and generous potlatches to their people, until he is now recognized as their greatest chief.

UP THE YAKOUN RIVER.

Early in August we had reached the mouth of the Yakoun river, the largest stream on the island. Hundreds of salmon and salmon trout were jumping out their full length, as we paddled along under the shadows of the tall spruce which cover its banks. Advancing about a mile, we camped with a party of Ma.s.sett Indians, who sold us splendid silver salmon for twenty-five cents, and potatoes at the rate of eight dollars a bushel. The following day, accompanied by a single Ma.s.sett Indian, I ascended the river for several miles, by means of two very small canoes, making several portages around log jambs over rapids and shallow places. About three miles up, two old Indians and two naked boys, tending a salmon trap, were roasting splendid salmon trout, which they shared with us. They were living exclusively upon fish, which they ate without salt, generally cooked upon a stick inclined over the fire. For about 200 miles we coursed along the sh.o.r.es of Ma.s.sett Inlet, whose long south-western arms reach the base of steep, high mountains, the western sides of which, from ten to fifteen miles distant are washed by the waters of the Pacific. Chief Edensaw told me that in former times the Indians to the south with whom the Hydahs were at war, sometimes crossed over these mountains from the end of Kio-kath-li Inlet on the west coast, and taking their people by surprise, carried away captive their fairest young women.

RUNNING RAPIDS IN A ROTTEN CANOE.

Among our trips inland, was one of about ten miles up the Ain River to Coos-Yoouns lake its Sourse. This is a fine body of water, about eight miles in length, surrounded by a thick forest of spruce, red and yellow cedar. The river from fifty to seventy-five feet in width is a succession of rapids--log-jambs and shoals almost its entire length. Following a trail about half way to the borders of a little lake through which it flows, we found a canoe, very small, old, rotten and shattered. The water poured in through a long crack in one end, nearly as fast as we could bail it out. But by battening with our provision sack, we managed to keep it afloat until we had accomplished the round trip to the lake first mentioned, by making several portages over log jambs, shoals and rapids. Returning, I decided to run one of the latter, and just as my men got out to lighten the canoe over a rocky place, pushed out into the middle of the stream.

Down my little bark swept, toward a narrow pa.s.sage between two rocks, around which the water was whirling and foaming. I had under-estimated the strength of the current, and in spite of my best efforts with one serviceable hand, the canoe dashed on to one of the rocks, balanced a moment on its centre, whirled once around, and then shot down stream, quivering like a frightened animal, into safe water again.

VIRAGO SOUND, NADEN HARBOR AND RIVER.

Fifteen miles west of Ma.s.set the ocean indents the land for about thirteen miles from eight miles to one-eighth of a mile in width forming what is known as Virago Sound and Naden Harbor, the latter being the most accessible and safest anchoring ground for vessels on the north sh.o.r.e of the island. Into this harbor flows the Naden River, the second largest stream of the Queen Charlotte group. From Ma.s.sett Inlet touching at the abandoned village of Yan situated at its entrance, we proceeded to those waters and advanced ten miles up the Naden River three miles by canoe and thence on foot through a thick forest of spruce and cedar with a dense undergrowth of intertwined salal, salmon, whortleberry and other bushes. Bear tracks and traps were numerous, but no game was started except grouse, which were very tame and plentiful. Night overtook us several miles from camp, wet to the skin and without blankets! But further progress in the darkness being impossible, we built a roaring fire at the base of a great spruce tree, and lay down until daylight. The following night occupying one of the three habitable houses in the old village of Kung, situated at the entrance of the harbor, we found Chinese pottery, and in the burying ground the largest carved figures of men we had seen, about seven feet in height.

_Around North Island into Cloak and all its other bays, visiting the deserted villages of Kioosta Yakh and Henslung._

Thirty-five miles further, stopping _en route_ to examine the old village of Yatz and the Yalan River, brought us to the extreme northern land of the Queen Charlotte Islands, North Island. Here Capt. Marchand lay with his ships trading with the natives nearly one hundred years ago. The Hydahs were then at least ten times their present numbers, swarming in the waters and on the sh.o.r.es around the villages of Kioosta, Yakh and Tadense, where now only carved poles, houses in ruins, and numerous graves attest their former greatness. Two Indian dogs were the sole occupants of the fishing and hunting village of Tadense, at the time of our arrival. They had been left behind by sea otter hunters, with an abundant supply of whale blubber--but were so lonesome that they followed us for a long distance along the sh.o.r.e, evidently for the purpose of being taken into our canoe.

A beautiful clear, still day, favored the circ.u.mnavigation of North island, and the careful examination of its coast line. A thick forest of spruce of small growth covers its entire area, down to its rocky sh.o.r.es, which are generally low, though rising to bold perpendicular bluffs from 50 to 200 feet in height at North Point and around Cloak Bay, the highest elevation on the island not exceeding 400 feet above the sea. There are four small bays on its north-eastern side, from one to two miles in depth, open to easterly winds, with fine sandy beaches at their heads where the remains of former habitations were visible. Cloak Bay, a much larger indentation on the south-western sh.o.r.e, is exposed to westerly storms. The safest anchorage these waters afford is found in a little cove on the south sh.o.r.e of the island between Cloak Bay and the village of Henslung.

Parry Pa.s.sage, which separates North Island from Graham is about a mile and a half in width, though the ship channel--very rapid except at flood tide--is narrowed by reefs, and Lucy Island, to less than two thousand feet. Camping at the deserted village of Yakh, near Kioosta, we found large beds of strawberry vines of most luxuriant growth, and carvings of male figures complete.

THE WEST COAST.

Rounding Cape Knox for nineteen days, thirteen of which were stormy, we fought our way along about 275 miles of sh.o.r.eline, traversing to their head every inlet, harbor, sound, port and bay, fourteen in all, from three to ten miles in depth, nearly all hitherto unknown, except to a few of the oldest Indians.

A rocky, ragged uninviting sh.o.r.e, from which project far out to sea many rocky points with outlying reefs, white with breakers, except during the calmest weather; precipitous mountains from one to four thousand feet in height, clothed with forests of spruce and cedar down to the sea; beautiful land-locked harbors, with short stretches of fine sandy beach at their heads; long winding inlets, down whose mountain walled sides roaring cataracts are plunging; numerous small streams in which salmon and salmon trout were seen by the hundreds; scores of islands, islets and cozy coves, where seal and wild geese abound, describes the general physical features of the west coast of Graham Island.

A SUBMERGED FOREST.

Tledoo is the name of a summer rendezvous of the sea-otter hunters of Ma.s.sett, situated about fifteen miles south of Cape Knox. We had landed at Klik-a-doo, a short distance above, the only place visible where the sea appeared not to be breaking, and in examining the coast on foot several miles southward, discovered the tall pole which marks the site of the three cabins of Tledoo. At first view, the sea seemed to be breaking along the entire front, but a more careful examination disclosed a narrow entrance between the rocks through which we were able to enter a perfectly sheltered little canoe harbor with a fine sandy beach at the landing place.

A strong south-east wind caused a very low tide the following day, laying bare a sandstone flat about an eighth of a mile from the beach, upon which black objects were visible. I had already found on the sh.o.r.e opposite at high tide, large pieces of lignite coal and petrified wood. Putting on my long boots, I soon discovered the base trunks of hundreds of forest trees from one to six feet in length extending as far out to sea as I could wade--some lying down and formed into lignite coal, but the greater number standing and petrified as hard as rock. The rocks along the north coast for hundreds of miles, show unmistakable evidence of violent volcanic action, and though the ocean has receded within the memory of Indians now living, these islands are probably the mountain tops of a submerged land, separated from the main body of the continent by the sinking of the earth's surface.

AN INTERESTING RIDE.

September with its gales had arrived, the last of the sea-otter hunters, except Captain John and family, we had met beyond North Island, leaving the coast for the winter; our rations were getting short, everything induced me to push forward as rapidly as possible, and after lying for several hours on Frederick Island waiting for the sea to run down, I decided to advance. When we had rounded the first point and were fairly into the midst of the great rollers--"turn back! turn back!" exclaimed one of my men, which refusing to do he added; "My G.o.d! See the distance we must go." We had already on two or three occasions encountered sufficiently rough seas to give me great confidence in the seaworthiness of my canoe, which, though I had ribbed and decked fore and aft, every Indian who saw it thought unfit for the expedition, being, they said, too small, weak and cranky. I wished they could have seen her ride the great seas which come rolling in like mountains, before we reached land again. Ben Melin, a sailor of thirteen years experience on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, says he never saw so small a boat out-live such a sea. "We will all be drowned," said Bill, a young Hydah Indian, at the same time stripping off his clothing as I turned the prow of our little ship towards the sh.o.r.e. And yet we had not taken aboard two buckets full of water, which swept over the covered prow and would have swamped us, but for the decking. But everywhere along the sh.o.r.e we were nearing, and which had been described to me by Chief Edensaw as affording a good camping place, the sea was breaking with a loud roar. Surveying it carefully we discovered a narrow opening between two great rocks, where the interval between the breakers was thought to be sufficiently long to enable us by skillful management to pa.s.s through it. I had steered thus far with my left hand--my right hand being entirely useless--by strapping the paddle to the side of the canoe near the stern, and after directing my men to a.s.sist me with their oars upon a given signal, decided to go through. First, with the a.s.sistance of Bill removing my heavy boots and rubber coat, just after a great sea had broken "Pull both oars, heavy, right oars, now both oars, with all your might!" were the orders as we rode through in splendid style, on the crest of a great wave; but when we supposed we were beyond their reach, a heavy cross breaker rolling in un.o.bserved, struck the canoe broad-sides and dashed it violently against a sharp rock. Bill being nearest the prow, and almost naked, was the first to jump overboard, myself following, and both placing ourselves between the canoe and the rock, clinging to the former, saved it from destruction by the two succeeding breakers, which swept us so near land, that by great effort we were able to lighten the canoe by throwing things ash.o.r.e and then haul her on the rocks. A split about three feet in length, above water line, was the only injury it sustained.

_Camping in a Cave, we are driven out double quick at midnight by a very high tide._

We had sought refuge from a storm in a little rock-bound cove on the south sh.o.r.e of an inlet called by the Indians Athlow, where we built a fire and spread our blankets in a big cave washed out by the sea. As night approached the more prudent suggested that the storm might cause a high tide to rise over us while sleeping; though the opinion prevailed that only the full moon tides in conjunction with severe northwesters ever reached so high, and why take the trouble to pitch a tent, when our ready made house of stone afforded us so much better protection from the rain and wind. And so while we lay unconscious the storm increased, the tide rose higher and higher, until at midnight the sound of the waves dashing against the mouth of the cave awakened me. Arousing my men, who were still sleeping soundly, with all possible despatch, nearly cracking our skulls against the sides of the cave in the darkness, by clambering over the rocks at the base of a high precipice between the breakers we succeeded in removing all our supplies and camp equippage to a place of safety.

A HYDAH MOTHER'S REJOICING OVER THE RETURN OF HER SON, SUPPOSED TO BE LOST.

A hard pull up the swift rapids which extend for about two miles across the divide where tides of Skidegate Channel meet those of Skidegate Inlet, brought us into the waters of the latter, in which we soon pa.s.sed several parties of Indians camping at, and _en route_ to salmon streams for their winter supply of dog salmon. Bill having heard that his mother was with one of these parties, asked permission to land and see her. When the old woman saw her son approaching, she ran down the beach to meet him, and falling on her knees, uttered a wild strain of joyful exclamations over his safe return.

NEWTON H. CHITTENDEN.