THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 341

was to prevent these Indians from disposing of their furs in favor of the
free traders on the coast.1°

By 1850 the post was no longer in existence.

A summary appended to the report of Boas to the British As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science on the Indians of the
Northwest Coast is further evidence of the trade relations between
the Bella Coola and the tribes of the interior.

In connection with the Bilqula (Bella Coola) it is important to note
that they, by reason of their position, have held the most important
natural pass and trade route through the coast range from the ocean
to the interior which exists between the Skeena River and the Fraser, a
distance exceeding four hundred miles. This circumstance has rendered
their situation peculiarly favorable in some respects. It has induced them
to engage in intertribal trade, and evidently affords a clue to some of
the peculiarities which Dr. Boas points out. From time immemorial . . .
a route has been beaten out by way of the Bella Coola River, thence
northward to the Salmon River, and then along the north side of the
Blackwater River to the Upper Fraser. This is commonly known to the
Tinneh of the Interior as the “grease trail,’ from the fact that the
chief article of value received from the coast was in early times the oil
of the olachen, or candlefish, though dentalium shells were also brought
in. When trading vessels began to visit the coast, besides the natural
products of the sea, iron and various kinds of manufactured goods found
their way into the interior by the same route; while the fine furs of the
inland region were carried back to the coast and sold to the vessels. It
was by this same route, well known to the natives, that Sir Alexander
McKenzie was enabled to complete the first traverse of the North Amer-
ican continent from sea to sea and reach the shore of the Pacific in 1793.
As a result of this intercommunication between the Bilqula and the
Tinneh it is found that houses essentially similar in construction to those
of the Coast Indians, though smaller and less skilfully built occur far
inland on the upper waters of the Salmon and Blackwater Rivers; while
on the other hand the practical identity of some points in the mythology
of the Bilqula with that of the Tinneh is a clear instance of reciprocal
influence.11

Undoubtedly trade between the Bella Coola and the Carrier
preceded the active development of coast trade relations with the
Whites. But when the White fur trade developed, the Indians

10 A. G. Morice, History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Briggs,
Toronto, 1905, p. 244.

11 F, Boas, Report of the Northwestern Indians of Canada, Reports of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1891, p. 408.