[Footnote 8:  These northern Indians are described by Hearne as having very low foreheads, small eyes, high cheekbones, Roman noses, broad cheeks, and long, broad chins.  Their skins were soft, smooth and polished, somewhat copper-coloured, and inclining towards a dingy brown.  The hair of the head was black, strong, and straight.  They were not in general above middle size, though well proportioned.]

West of the Rocky Mountains, in British Columbia and Vancouver Island (besides southern Alaska), the Amerindian tribes form the N[-u]tka-Columbian group, which is markedly distinct from the Amerindians east of the Rocky Mountains, from whom they differ widely in language, type, and culture.  They are divided into quite a large number of small separate groups—­the Wakashan or N[-u]tkas of Vancouver Island and south-western British Columbia, the Shahaptian or “Nez perces” Indians of the Columbia basin, and the Chin[-u]ks of the lower Columbia River, the Salishan or “Flathead” group (including the Atn[-a]s) of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers and central British Columbia; and the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte’s Islands and the north-west coast of British Columbia.  It must be remembered that these different groups are only based on the relationships of their component tribes in language or dialect, and do not always imply that the tribes belonging to them had the same customs and dispositions; but they were generally able to communicate with one another in speech, whereas if they met the Indians of another group the language might be so totally different that they could only communicate by means of signs.

[Illustration:  AN AMERINDIAN TYPE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA]

Sign and gesture language[9] was extraordinarily developed amongst all the Amerindian races from the Arctic Ocean to the Antarctic.  Not only that, but they were quick to understand the purpose of pictures.  They could draw maps in the sand to explain the geography of their country, and Europeans could often make them understand what they required by rough drawings.  They themselves related many events by means of a picture language—­the beginning of hieroglyphics; and in the south-eastern parts of Canada, as in the United States, these signs or pictographs were recorded in bead-shell work—­the celebrated “wampum”.

[Footnote 9:  “It is surprising how dexterous all these natives of the plains are in communicating their ideas by signs.  They hold conferences for several hours, upon different subjects, during the whole of which time not a single word is pronounced upon either side, and still they appear to comprehend each other perfectly well.  This mode of communication is natural to them; their gestures are made with the greatest ease, and they never seem to be at a loss for a sign to express their meaning” (Alex.  Henry the Younger, 1800).  But it should also be noted that during the last hundred years the peoples belonging to the N[-u]tka-Columbian group have developed a trade language which they use in common.  This is a mixture of Chin[-u]k, English, French, Chinese, and Hawaaian.]