LOCATION AND ENVIRONMENT 5

kenzie, making his memorable overland trip to the Pacific,
records coming upon Indian villages at every few miles of his
course. Boas describes the way in which the inhabitants of
each of these claim to be descended from one group of an-
cestors.

Though it is impossible to estimate the former population
of the Bella Coola valley with any degree of accuracy, it must
have been in the thousands. In 1922 there were surviving rather
more than three hundred individuals, who live in one village on
an Indian reserve near the north bank of the Bella Coola River,
about a quarter of a mile from thesea. Inthelast century the
tribe was stricken with smallpox, and since then consumption,
venereal disease, measles, and other diseases of the white man
have taken their deadly toll. Changed conditions of life and
decay of the rich ceremonial around which centred their inter-
ests in the old days are also contributory factors in their
decline. Within the last few years, however, the population
has begun to increase.

BELLA CooLa VILLAGES

The following list of Bella Coola villages was obtained.
In an effort to learn which had been deserted in recent years,
the writer always asked whether or not a town was occupied
at the time of Mackenzie’s visit, an event of such great interest
to the grandparents of the older people that the memory of it
is still preserved. Villages said to have been occupied at that
time are marked with an asterisk.

Three rivers empty into the head of South Bentinck Arm,
which is about one mile in width (see Plate 7). The Bella
Coola, flowing from the east, enters at the southern edge, and
the Nuixuxtskwan-e winds in from the north to the opposite
angle of the head of the fiord. This stream, “The Nearest
River’ of the Bella Coola, so-called because of its proximity
to the sea, is shown on maps as the Necleetsconnay. Between
the mouths of these two is the Pe-as/a, a small stream rising