3-047-051 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Salmon-eaters of British Columbia, 1872. Engraving of a sketch by Mr. H. Y. Hind, representing '...the wild tribes of Indians on the coasts of the Gulf of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound, or of the narrow straits and inlets that form a labyrinthine channel between them, with the rivers that descend to that shore. Some of these tribes on the seacoast live entirely upon shell-fish; but others are better provided. The salmon ascend the rivers of British Columbia in such countless multitudes that tens of thousands perish in their attempts to regain the ocean, in consequence of an insufficient supply of water during the autumnal months. The tribes of Indians inhabiting the interior smoke and dry this delicious fish for their winter supply of food; and as the prairie Indians live on buffalo, so do many interior tribes on the west side of the mountain subsist on salmon'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.