CHAPTER IV.
GENERAL CONDITIONS OF ENVIRONMENT.

‘The influence on a people’s culture of proximity to sea, rivers, mountains,
plains, or forests is so marked that brief reference is necessary to the diverse
conditions of environment under which these various tribes carried on their lives.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS ON THE COAST.

The people of this North-west Coast were surrounded by dangerous seas,
beset with hidden reefs, swift tide-rips, and treacherous currents. Innumerable
islands of widely varying dimensions trebled the coast-line, though they also
provided shelter from the ocean surges. Nevertheless, bays and arms of the sea
penetrating far inland compensated in some degree for other hazardous condi-
tions, as great hauls of fish could be secured from these large sheltered areas
without excessive expenditure of labour; though, in consequence of the wide
range of tidal rise and fall (in many parts from 12 to 20 feet), navigation in
dug-out canoes was never free from risk.

This strip of Coast country lying between the Cascade Mountains (which
run parallel to the coast-line) and the Pacific Ocean is about 150 miles wide and,
if measured from the Puget Sound, in Washington State, U.S.A., to the most
northern point of British Columbia, about 1,000 miles long. Its surface is very
broken, densely wooded from the water’s edge to the snow-line of the highest
mountains, and subdivided by deep sloughs and far-reaching intricate waterways.

The physical character of this region is similar throughout, but the northern
area, which includes Queen Charlotte Islands, the Portland Canal, and the
outlets of the Nass and Skeena Rivers, is climatically somewhat peculiar. A
branch of the warm Japanese current sweeping along the coast comes in contact
with the colder air and water of the north, thus giving rise to excessive humidity,
which produces rains and fogs in summer and in winter sleet and snow. Rainy
days so predominate in summer that the temperature never exceeds 90° F., with
an annual average rainfall of about 80 inches; the mean winter temperature is
about 33° F., and very rarely falls to zero.

Farther south the climate is essentially temperate, being moderated by sea
winds. ‘The average rainfall at Victoria, on Vancouver Island, is 27 inches and
the sunshine record is high; but on the west and north coasts of this island and
around Prince Rupert the rainfall may reach 170 inches, or even more. The
snowfall is usually light, but winters are often damp and somewhat sunless.

TYPE OF VEGETATION.

Dense forests covered foot-hills and mountains to the water edge, confining
tribal activities to the sea and a narrow strip of beach or river frontage. Almost
impenetrable, these forests till recent times were awesome to a superstitious
people and contributed to their isolation. The forests consisted chiefly of the
red and yellow cedar, white pine, spruce, alder, hemlock, fir, yew, maple, dog-
wood, and balsam poplar, and a large variety of wild berries and roots were
valuable contributions to daily diet.

Among these trees the cedar and spruce played predominant parts in the
lives of the people. Indeed, it has been well said that the culture of the North-
west Coast rested upon salmon and cedar. (How many people know that the
word “sockeye” applied to salmon is a corruption of the word ‘suka,’ te,

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