Physvognomy of British Columbia Coastal Indians. 27

pearl and copper. He found it not easy to determine their complexion, but states (p. 238),
that “If I may judge from the few people I saw tolerably clean, these Indians are very little
darker than the Europeans in general.’”’ He also says, “‘ Many of the older people are rather
lean, but I never saw one person.who could be called corpulent amongst them.” On a later
voyage to Nootka Sound various other observations of the natives were made. The house
-of the chief was of huge size, containing as many as 800 people, and their large wooden chests
were also mentioned. Meares says (p. 249), “ The people of the Nootkan nation are, in general,
robust and well proportioned, their faces are large and full, their cheeks high and prominent,
with small black eyes ; their noses are broad and flat, their lips thick ; and they have, generally,
very fine teeth, and of the most brilliant whiteness.” Elsewhere he states, “ their skin, when
-cleansed of filth and ochre, is white, and we have seen some of the women, when in a state
of cleanliness . . . who not only possessed the fair complexion of Europe, but features that
would have attracted notice for their delicacy and beauty, in those parts of the world where
the qualities of the human form are best understood.”

Boas (1895) recognized four types on the British Columbia coast, the Kwakiutl being
shorter, with a face differing from all the rest, slightly broader but enormously high with a
nose high, narrow, and arched (strongly hooked)—a type of nose rarely found among Indians
elsewhere. The Kwakiutl were also found to have the lightest skin colour. Boas (1909, 1921)
has since published a voluminous account of the Kwakiutl, their industries, customs, recipes,
-etc. Franchere (1854), in an early visit, regarded the Pacific coast Indians on the Columbia
River as nearer a state of civilization than any tribes east of the Rocky Mountains. His -
conclusion that they could easily adopt European customs and clothes has proved correct.
The chiefs were distinguished for their good sense and intelligence. They generally possessed
-a ready intellect and a tenacious memory. The combinations ¢hl or tj and It are as common
in the Chinook language as in Mexican words. The facts suggest that the founders of the
-civilization in Mexico began at about the level of the British Columbia coastal tribes.

These coastal peoples now nearly all have very straight and usually coarse black hair,
dark brown rarely intense “ black’ eyes. One child observed among the mixed breeds had
blue eyes.1 The hair remains black until late in life, but most of the old people turn grey,
the hair never becoming really white. They are of medium stature, rather heavy set, with
broad shoulders, inclined to corpulency after 35 or 40 years. The face is usually broad, the
malar bones prominent, noses fairly straight, very few aquiline. Most of the men can grow
a moustache and beard, and many wear a moustache. The Indian type varies somewhat
from village to village, but if any tribal differences in physique formerly existed, they have now
probably been largely eliminated through intermixture. Mackenzie in 1793 noted that the
Bella Coola Indians had high cheek-bones, most marked in the women, a general inclination
to corpulence and grey eyes. From these records it is probable that some of the coastal Indians

1 Ojibway adult mixed breeds have also been observed (Gates, 1928) with medium skin colour, and blue
-eyes with very little brown pigment. The junior author has observed that a number of the Hartley Bay
-children have blue eyes.