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It comprises, therefore, the mining districts on the upper waters of the Fraser and Skeena and Stachine rivers, with their rough white population, and many thousands of Indians of the Tsimshean and Hydah nations on the coast, as well as others in the interior.

His original habitation has long given place to the frame house of sawn timber, and with the exception of the carvings in black slate made by the Hydah Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the stone hammers, spear and arrow points, fashioned in the days before the coming of the white man, the mementos of his sojourn in British Columbia are only relics in wood, bark or reeds.

"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 shore. 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.

The most common type of the adult unmixed Hydah is about five feet, seven inches in height, thick-set, large-boned, with fairly regular broad features, coal-black hair and eyes, and a bronze complexion. They have generally both men and women finely developed breasts and fore-arms, caused by their almost daily use of the canoe paddle from infancy.

Apple and pear trees grow well, but bear an inferior fruit which seldom ripens. Inhabitants Physical Characteristics. These islands are inhabited by about 800 Hydah Indians, a very remarkable race of people.

The leaders of this remarkable band were ten dogs which belonged to a family of Hydah aristocracy, whose habitation was on the shore of a cosy cove about one mile distant, hidden from view by a rocky, wooded point.

I had just taken possession of the quarters kindly assigned 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.

It would require a large volume to contain them all, and years to translate them with accuracy. I can therefore only give a few examples from those most frequently narrated, which I had from the lips of Edensaw, the oldest and ranking Chief of the Hydah nation, and Goo'd-nai-u-uns, wife of Goo-gul, well known as a gifted relator of their legends and traditions.

I have heard Chinese bands, Calliopes, the braying of jackasses, the love songs of Tom cats, operatic screechers, brass band and violin murderers, broken down hand organs and accordeons, Red River carts during the dry season, the maniacal howling of the bulls and bears of Broad Street, and many other noises of like character, but none of them are at all comparable to the voicings of these Hydah dogs, when thoroughly warmed up to their best efforts by a few hours' practice.

The first Hydah to come out distinctly as a Christian was a chief named Cowhoe, concerning whom an interesting incident is related. One day he brought a book to Mr. Collison, saying it had been given him many years before by the captain of an English man-of-war, and asking what it was. It proved to be a Testament, with this inscription on the fly-leaf "From Capt.